Jool leads the way to below the structure of the Fort - to beneath the wall itself. There, he takes Balast through several corridors, a few training rooms, some dormitories. He unlocks a fine oak door, and takes Balast into a temple of some variety - a ritual room. Signs of various deities native to the Alkanites line one wall, while several alters, filled with the implements of sorcery, line another. At one end is a fountain, silently trickling fresh water. The ground is rock - perfect for the markings of chalk.

Jool picks up a heavy ceremonial dagger, adorned with jewels and the eyes of a serpent, and gestures towards Balast.

"Are you ready?"

Balast shrugs.

"Of course.  I've been honest with you I expect you to be honest with me."

"Of course," said Jool. "I wish for you to lie down in the center of the grand glyph," he continued, gesturing to the elaborate, spiraling sigil in the center of the room, "and to declare that you give me your life freely. I shall do the rest, including bringing your departed soul back to this place."

Balast does as instructed.

"I give you this life freely and without restriction."

Immediately, Balast felt his wrists and ankles be bound to the stone cold floor as if by invisible shackles. Noticing his immediate discomfort, Jool frowned.

"Forgive me, but the glyph is made for.. less willing prisoners," he said. "It is a rare thing, a binding circle of power enough so that even those not entrapped by the spiritual worlds might be summoned and chained. It can be fickle under such.. currents as found near Alkan, but it suits my purposes nevertheless. Typically more incantations and conjurations are needed to bind, but as you gave permission.."

He wanders over to one of the alters, and reaches behind it, drawing several large, bronze pots inscribed with magical runes. He takes up a similar, enchanted knife, and a small powder-bag.

Balast smiles and closes his eyes.

"Here," said Jool, opening up the powder-bag. A peppery smell immediately filled Balast's nostrils. "You'll have to intake this if your theoelectromagnetic field is to stay."

Balast takes in the powder and grimaces at the Alkanite.

"Can we get this over with, I really would prefer to be able to save the tree before it crumble of old age."

Balast felt his consciousness drop, waver, saw everything around him go fuzzy. It was hard for him to keep a conscious thought, as his mind was light and vacant, the affect of the powder. Neverhtless, one word was repeated within the mind of Balast, even as his lips would not move to whisper it: 'remain'.

The pain was sudden and intense, but Balast did not scream. Perhaps he could not - perhaps he was accustomed to stronger feelings. His arteries were being carved, his vital flows being captured, and the blurred image of Jool, above him, cutting into him and harvesting his blood was a horrifying sight..

Time passed.

Balast woke up. He was not bound by the great sigil. His wrists, ankles, and chest were scarred, but there were no open wounds. His mouth felt dry. Jool was asleep on a tall chair to the side of the room, probably waiting for Balast to awaken. Beside him were several bronze pots, inscribed with various wards of magic, obviously containing his vitae.

Balast lay still and reached out with his mind to the vitae trying to determine if it still possessed his essence or if it had been changed in some way then he waited for Jool to wake.

Balast was still Balast, only one life shorter.

Jool suddenly awoke, tumbling forward from the chair.

"Ah! Ahah! It was a success, yes, I am glad," he said, shaking a little. Exhausted. "Thank you very much, B'lash.. the seals are being reinforced as we speak. An immunization, you see. Destruction destroying destruction. Or some such. In ten - fifteen, maybe - minutes, I can let you out. But you can't have any escorts with you, I'm afraid, for the storm still rages.. it took all of my considerable skill to capture your vitae like that. Magic is warped, see. You may very well die."

"A dangerous way to use destruction certainly.  If I may beg a favour can we talk until you can release me?  I would know what you know of the twelve - the Eternalis as you call them and specifically what you know of the events surrounding their end and of the surviving members of the twelve."

"We have temples established upon the Road to revere them," said Jool, "and myths and stories by which we preserve our knowledge of them. I understand, however, that the Gods of Eternalis influenced the entire universe, and that we are not the only ones who, say, tell tales about B'lash the Destroyer, or of the Vowel.. it's only more recently that I discovered that we'd been keeping one of them prisoner, guarded by one of the fiercest beasts that our magic could conjure."

"A beast?  Strange.  I wonder how Balast's prison was first discovered.  It should have been well sealed as I remember it.  The defenses were designed to keep out all but the council with the exception of Miska and Gzzar who we were still worried about.  Are you aware of their locations?"

"It's still sealed," said Jool. "But we kept records of everything. We were once a very creative people - inquisitive, curious - before we fell into the traps of preservation and management. As for your two contemporaries, I'm afraid that I do not know their location."

He sighed.

"The beast itself is known as a Hydrathapoles," he continued. "It's nature is to multiply and to exist even the harshest conditions. It is neither a Hydra nor a Aharyathapoles, though it contains the nature of both. Our sciences cannot replicate another - we barely understand what the creature is. There is still some mystery as to whether or not the Aharyathapoles actually existed.. though this would seem to point towards it."

"Good.  Miska would be a major issue if released now.  I very much doubt anyone could control him without the council members.  He is incredibly persuasive and would probably be ruling the conclave in a week.  Gzzar is less of a problem.  This Hydrathapoles sounds like a being infused with creation's essence.  Varl was my counterpart and the aspect of creation and his power along with Raelis's and Marduk's was the major essence used in the creation of the prison used to hold Balast.  Destruction can only be held by creation.  If so it may have imbibed some of the controls placed on it which would allow me to get past it."

"I.. see," said Jool. "The cosmology is more detailed than any of us could have realized within our respective mythologies. I wish you well, B'lash the Destroyer. I have received the invisible word - the seals have been redrawn, and the storm is showing signs of end. You may leave when you wish."

Balast smiles tautly.

"Good.  Know this Jool then as I leave.  I have three choices at this time.  I can obey the commands of Lis and end this world either by letting the tree fall or by slaying it myself or I can resummon the Black Council to attempt to overturn Lis's decision.  Lis was betrayed and murdered by the conclave.  The choice ultimately is mine now.  What would you have me do?  Do you stand for good, law, evil or chaos?"

As soon as Jool answers the question Balast leaves.

"I stand for law," said Jool. "Law over the universe. Law imposed. If it is the thing needed, the felling of Yggdrasil, then so let it be."

He then proceeded to take Balast to the inner gates of Fort Seal - those leading into the Road of Temples.

"If you would care but stay a small while longer," said Jool, "I can fit you with protective garments. They need to be attuned, but.. there are still forces at play, wild within the temples. I thank you for your sacrifice, and I accept fully your apology.. it would be a pity if the things that are ruled in part would strike you down."

The gate ahead of them: iron bars, like the entrance to a jail cell, behind a glass door. The glass door is inlaid with hundreds of smaller sigils, forming an ultimate protective glyph, smeared black with the blood of destruction.

Balast bows his head in acceptance.

"I will wait a while.  I know little of what is to come and protection is always valuable.  There will come a time I will need to speak with the lords of your kind I suspect.  Who would you call lord over your people and what do you think of them?"

he sits and stare at the gate with something approaching hunger in his expression.

As He stepped through the portal, Chalybis could feel that something was not going how it should. The further he went towards the new world, the more He felt that His physical form was falling apart around Him, components flying off into nothingness until only His gaze remained. At this point, He realized that He was no longer alone in the limbo that lay between, instead being joined by Himself in various incarnations as more and more of His gazes sprung into existence, illuminating the darkness of the void with a broad spectrum of divine lights.

It was somewhat awkward to see Himself around Him - especially as He saw each version of Himself through all of His other selves, making it hard to determine exactly how many of Him there were in here. Gradually, the components that He - They - had lost over time were returned a hundredfold, an incomprehensible surge of steel and brass that swept over His gazes and drew them together into a single massive entity. Chalybis had never experienced anything like this before, but He approved of His new form. He had only been one when He left Telluratus, but now He was about to arrive in Alkan as many...

Alkan and its inhabitants were still unaware of their impending doom however, at least not until an invisibly small point of the sky collapsed in upon itself, quickly spreading in all directions as if reality itself was being torn asunder - which it was. As the rift spread throughout the sky, it also began to widen, rapidly growing from a thin line to an immeasurable chasm that allowed those on the surface to see the maddening horror that lay beyond.

An infinite void lay beyond the rift, and the entirety of it was filled with a single titanic mechanism. Endless rows of mile-wide gears churned amongst themselves in an infernal cacophony as array upon array of immeasurable pistons appeared to hammer away at reality itself, enlarging the rift with each of their seemingly endless yet rapid strokes. Dozens of orbs of deep black floated randomly through the monstrosity, shedding cones of invisible dark light wherever they went as foul liquids seeped out of the countless openings within the mechanisms, large droplets of brown sludge already raining down upon the city below as the heralds of the corruption to come.

Of course, if this infernal creation had merely been it would have been enough to drive most creatures insane, but this was not enough to satisfy the beast. Many of the black orbs began split themselves into a horde of smaller ones, each of them gathering minor components around itself until it seemed to be content and tore itself free from the main mass. They floated down from the heavens with a disturbing grace, representing some form of distorted flying creatures formed from haphazardly assembled parts and thick globs of sludge which surrounded their unholy gaze.

Deep within this mechanical mass, Chalybis was pleased. It appeared that He had finally been given a form worthy of His power and this world - the realm of the greatest sorcerers in existence and a powerful source of magic on its own - would be the first to tremble before His new-found might. He grinned with a hundred faceless heads at once, and spoke a single world with such force nothing below could possibly fail to heed it.

i+ij: CHALYBIS...

Balast

"Well, let's -"

Suddenly, Fort Warden Jool turned to stare, at horror, at the wall behind Balast. Balast turns to see a large glyph, filled with twists and turns, burst into flame upon the wall, filling the room with an acrid stench and a high-pitched wail that cannot be ignored.

Balast saw that the sigils protecting the Gate to the Road of Kings flared, also, but did not flame; Balast took this to mean that they were fully and actively protecting the Fort to the best of their considerable ability.

"No - oh, Arhamshah - damn, what -?" Jool was wild-eyed, a panicked expression caught on his face. "Emergency - attack - wait here, soldiers will come," he said, and rushed off through the door from which they'd come.

The wails continued, louder now.

Above it, above the screaming of magic, a single muffled word rocked the Fort: Chalybis

Chalybis

Chalybis saw the pathetic structure beneath him. He was the clouds, the sky, a heaven of steel and madness.. He saw himself above a massive white-stoned courtyard, and slightly ahead of him a long, white wall, built of the same materials, warded with glyph and sigil. Extremely magical. It reminded him of the Great Wall of China. There were men, pathetic men, scrabbling about on top of the wall, screaming orders at each other and preparing themselves for the battle - no, the war - that was to come. Chalybis could hear a siren, a wail that pleased him immensely.

So this was the illustrious Alkan, the City of Glimmering Gears Chalybis was promised. It appeared to be failing to meet His standards most seriously, containing a large amount of glimmering, but no gears or other metal to speak of, something which He did not quite appreciate. Even though that small detail had not turned out to be correct, the rest of the rumours seemed quite believable - the city was glowing bright with all hues and shades of magic, another thing which greatly offended Chalybis. He did not approve of magic, and this place was rumoured to be the very source of the stuff. That had to be remedied...

As the dozens of misshapen creatures that hovered below His bulk became aware of the resistance - or whatever had to pass for resistance amongst mortals - was forming beneath Him and sought it out, Chalybis Himself began to take action. Several of the black orbs that had remained within Him migrated across His form until they merged together into a large mass of darkness which surrounded itself with various strange metal components. It was not long before the purpose of this new appendage became clear, and it was one that would bring terror to the magic-loving inhabitants of Alkan.

The circular metal shape detached itself from His form and drifted towards the wall of whiteness, pulling along the black orb until it became a massive cone of darkness that ran all the way from Chalybis to the silvery metal rings. As the rings began to grind and churn past each other, the cone quickly became a swirling vortex of its own, taking on a disturbingly bright appearance as it began to draw in the currents of magical energy that lay before it. Chalybis cared not about the supposed power the glyphs and wards of the Alkanites held, knowing that it would not be long before He had destroyed them all.

Meanwhile, more and more of the lesser mechanical monstrosities spawned from His body, floating down with their peers until they could clearly see the pitiful mortals beneath them. At that point, the small cones of light that shone from their cores began to shine with a deep red, becoming focused beams of searing radiance that sought out their insignificant victims below. The beams scorched the skin and boiled the blood, causing incredible suffering amongst the unprotected beings below them.

Balast begins to laugh.

"Set me free Varlspawn.  You have no idea what you are unleashing."

Balast

Jool did not lie. Almost immediately, a small squadron of six soldiers, bearing esoteric markings on their left shoulder-plates - meaning they were minor sorcerers as well as soldiers, Balast knew - had entered the room. Their leader spoke directly to Balast.

"There is a major emergency above, friend - Alkan is a warzone, under attack by the forces of True Madness, anathema as it is to the Tree Eternal," said the leader, frowning grimly. "I'm afraid we cannot allow even a temporary opening of the Gates at the moment, and your trip will have to be delayed. I am given permission to offer you the prospect of serving Fort Seal in this war, for the honour, medals and Conclave Stones that entails to volunteers, or you may be escorted by one of my men to our Methodes Gate, which will take you directly to the Valley; safely out of harm's way. I have been told to relay the message that Jool sincerely apologizes, and has ordered that if you take the latter option, as soon as this battle is over you will be able to re-enter Alkan via the Chapel and resume your business."

Chalybis

As Chalybis thickened and extended his mass, he examined the creatures on the ramparts below him. Many had blasting cannons, firing them rapidly into Chalybis's bulk, enchanted lead ripping into cold steel as the boomed, boomed, boomed. This slowed down Chalybis's endeavors much more than he would have liked. In addition to the cannons, there were various other soldiers shooting at him with their diamond automatics, adding to the volley and the pain. Yet more technicians behind them, working on unseen contraptions beneath the floor.

There was a long link, spanning the entire wall, of sorcerers grasping hands, facing Chalybis with grim perseverance. They glowed slightly as they faced their enemy, and the chain was created incredibly quickly. Certain magicians had their battle staves and wands of destruction in the courtyard below, shooting a rapid succession of point-blank evocations towards the foe, though much of these were taken by the piercing, withering Gaze of Destruction that came as soon as the conjurations were formed.

The extension-globes of Chalybis were destroyed before they could become real threats against the magical armour of Alkan - they could not get close enough to adequately feed upon the shields and wards. Perhaps Chalybis had underestimated the mortals.