10 hours ago

A crack of a few meters in diameter suddenly appears a little above the ground; like ice slowly splitting in tiny slices, a portal was being forced open. Around it, Feth has been moving around multiple pillars, seeking to drench them in the dark water he’s been building up for a while now. 

Every drop was spent on a single construct, but the librarian didn’t mind it. Not since he had hundreds of resources at his disposal to muster up more: besides the people that have already been trapped in the arena, his mindless drones kept carrying outsiders in rows of piles of bodies.

Feth- “ Those should be enough to feed the second pillar. And with you here, Ashen, you’ll serve up the rest of them.” The foggy librarian took a closer step at the unconscious dragon thinking he was safe, but Ashen’s experienced instincts showed its teeth even on such occasions. A wide swing from one of the dragon's arms ripped the drapes Feth kept on wearing, and the wind it stirred blew away the mist from the arena. 

Instead of fear, Feth felt elation. If the beast was still able to do that, then he shouldn’t be weary of how much power he could sip from his former colleague. He turned away and indulged in another interest: trying to comprehend the masks of his newest drone, the Tuatha. 

Feth- “ I’ve been reading a lot about, but never saw such devices up close till now. So these are remnants of firgs who failed to be born from their primordial source. Cracked eggs perhaps? Well, a shadow memory of their former lives are still imprinted, so I guess they could serve for something.” He then turned to a mindless Ecne and grinned with a weird satisfaction. “ You are really pathetic, you know that? What, can’t your precious Dia power you up, you need to desecrate the dead for that?”

6 hours ago

A small cover of dark water has been sipping through the crack in the air, covering the arena a feet above ground in smudged liquids. Black bubbles rise into the air, with the water inside it whirling in one direction, then randomly switching to others, pressuring the bubbles until they pop in the middle of the air. The following droplets would evaporate into the mist, flourishing it little by little.

Blitz stood idly by, listening to Feth’s rambles while the Head librarian moved his pieces around the crack between dimensions.

-”...and you know, I understand why the Fabricator has such a loyalty to this being, but it feels like he also has pent up a lot of irritations over the millenia, you know?”, he said to a stone-face, white-eyed Blitz, adorned with a crown of fog over his head. After no reply, Feth had a moment of reflection, and just continued to complain to him.

-” And I know that because when he made me, he included parts of his vast experience in my psyche; unfortunate necessary bits for an infiltrator such as myself. Anyway”, he flaunted a hand aside, brushing away his frustrations -” Anyway, it doesn’t even matter if Lian is or is not the being; the Fabricator seems to barely remember them, otherwise I couldn’t explain why a product like Ogda would even be able to “lose his memory”.”

With each word, the librarian would float around, circling the slowly opening door to Dubnos, trying to focus on connecting to something on otherside. He failed multiple times up until now, but it didn’t seem to be an issue with the method itself, but with the receiver simply not responding or noticing his attempts of communication. 

Several issues came to mind, from simple distance problems; maybe multiple stopgaps, caused by weird differences between the two worlds, but after more experiments he found nothing. “ Thank you, Fabricator- you’ve really imparted the most necessary information with me-” but then he remembered he had a researcher in his grasp. 

With a slight clap, Blitz was released from his control but not from his grip. Confused, the metallic firg turned his head left to right, grasping at the alien sight in front of him. Once he noticed Feth, he wanted to ask him for help. For the first few seconds of freedom though, as his mind cached in all the surrounding clues and came to a conclusion. 

Blitz- “ You’re a Dubnos agent, aren’t you?”

Relieved, the librarian mimicked with his hand a fan cooling his head- “ Thank god I didn’t do long-lasting damage to that brain of yours. Short story- yes. Addendum- you’re going to help me out, because the longer this portal stays open the smaller that pile of still living bodies will become. Feedback?”

The researcher's first instinct was to angrily shout at the librarian, and then try to shake his way out of the dark water binds. But a quick calculation convinced him that the safest route for the people of Caer might be to “do as he says. For now…Also, this is the greatest opportunity I’ve had so far to study Dubnos and the portal.”

Blitz- “ I understand. Bring me up to speed with what needs to be done.”

3 hours ago

Blitz- “ Something is blocking whatever you’re trying to do through that portal.”

Feth- “...Yes. Thanks. I know.  But what?”

Blitz- “ I can’t…say? Problem is there’s not much for me to analyse, but if you are sure that Ogda received signals from this same spot days or weeks ago, it’s either a temporary jam or-”

Feth- “The signal size”, the librarian realized. He attempted a one-to-one call so far, but if it’s just-” something to activate pre-saved actions, then it could have more success.”

The researcher now feared what his insight provided. Especially with how jolly Feth pranced around above the knee-height lake. Ashen woke up around the same time as well, finding himself back in the same place filled with delusions from Dubnos. He caught sight of the librarian twirling with glee, then of the trapped Blitz. And to his horror, of the opened up portal to Dubnos. 

A few strains of his ash flew unnoticed in the air, until they reached Blitz’s pupils, forcing him to catch small glimpses of the particles. He turned his eyes toward the old dragon and slightly nodded. 

Feth- “ Yeah, that’s not going to happen”, he said before his fog enveloped the little pieces of ash and crumbled them to invisible, powerless molecules. “ You should continue napping, old man. Believe me or not, I don't want you to suffer in your last moments. I feel a bit of kinship with those that were unfairly punished by your Dia.”

The dragon scoffed, but said nothing. He didn’t want to even acknowledge such a comparison, especially after witnessing the piles of citizens. “ Tell me, child of Dubnos, if you only wanted to feed this layer to your master, why wait so long?”

Before Feth could respond, Blitz bit his inner lip and replied. “ Multiple reasons, I’m guessing. Feth, how long did it took you to let loose that flood in Brigit’s original’s village layer?”

Feth- “ Man, you and Goidel were like the only interesting ones around here. As for your question… 10 years-ish?”

The old dragon grasped some air and coughed a dry cough. “ 10? And how did you knew-”

Blitz- “ Intuition. We recruited Feth a few weeks after that tragedy, in the layer right next to Brigit’s home. Couple that with his uncanny control over the dark water and such. But that gets us to today’s inquiry-” While the metallic firg kept distracting the librarian, Ashen attempted a second miracle work with his ash. Tiny amounts of it gathered around the base of the dark water bind that held Blitz’s left arm. It would be a meticulous job, but the discussion allowed the dragon to slowly build up his blade.

Blitz-” Why are you so in a hurry Feth?”

Like a magician, the fog monster reached deep inside his body and pulled out an orb like object. “ This…is me”, Feth unraveled, inviting them to quack at his real form. “ Just a conduit made to blend in, gather information, sabotage and analyze. I’m a tool the Fabricator made to buy time…And my conclusion is: this whole sidestepping of direct conflict has been slowly killing both worlds.”

The phrase made Ashen’s pupil shrivel into a tiny black spot. “ You want to start the World Funeral already?” 

Feth snapped his pointing finger at the dragon like he was right on the money. “ Already? In my opinion either side should have started it ages ago. The Fabricator should have done it after the betrayal from a few decades earlier, and the Dia and The Beast should have put it in motion since we’ve started to corrupt and consume layers. How many have you lost so far, 6 lands?”

Ashen’s teeth rattled like crazy, and all of his body tensed as the old dragon tried to free himself from his binds, with scales flying off of him. He would be free, even if it meant losing another arm. But that was also another distraction. His ash finished cutting Blitz’s arm free, who didn’t waste time and fired a concentrated electric blast at the Feth’s orb.

The librarian appeared to be focused on Ashen, never turning around to catch a glimpse of the blinding light from the attack. Before the frying heat of the electricity could even touch the orb, though, a second pair of dark arms sprouted from Ashen’s back, entirely blocking the attack. 

Feth- “ So that was your plan, huh? Hoped for more, but I think it’s time for me to have some alone time”, he said, before punching Blitz unconscious and using the mist to put Ashen back to sleep. 

10 minutes ago

An impatient Feth repeatedly tapped a finger on Blitz’s metallic armor as the ringing sound helped him calm down. His signal to activate the World Funeral was sent, of that he was sure. If it was received, though, that was still an issue.

Suddenly, a large geyser of dark water sprouted out from the portal, followed in suit by a whirlwind of bird-like constructs without beaks, and these single legged messengers announced the arrival of their master. After them, an emaciated creature covered in the same blueish slime that filled the dark water rose its prolonged head through the portal. Instead of eyes, there were only black lines drilled in the flesh that circulated around its head. 

As it slowly rose above the edge of the hole, a chain around its neck went down until it reached the hand of the master of the birds. A thick robe made out of crow feathers hid her body and face, but the person confirmed that it had those once she curiously twirled around to catch sight of the Layered Domain.

????- “ The fog is much thicker than the one in Dubnos”, she concluded in a raspy voice. 

Feth- “ Yes, that is my doing.”

????- “ And who are you supposed to be?” asked the cloaked being before a feeling of dread and sheer terror overcame all of her senses. She swiftly got on her knees and bowed her head to Feth. “My apologies, my lord. I should have known that only the Blood of Dubnos and his avatars would have the capability of summoning me and this…creature. Does that mean-”

Feth- “ Just let go of the chain, aristocrat and return back to your land. You and the rest of your kind will soon hear the bell chime and gather before the Fabricator to enact the World Funeral.”

The Dubnos aristocrat squeezed her chain for a second while her hand violently shook it around. Without any other word, she then did as commanded and let go. 

The emaciated creature felt when the weight of its binds around the neck disappeared and turned its head toward the sky. Something out there called it, and it did so direly. A pair of slimy wings sprouted from its back, and not soon enough, as Ashen was already aiming a heated blast from his mouth that seemed to also hurt his throat as well.

It took Feth around a quarter of the pool of dark water to block the incoming beam. The librarian sprouted his back arms once again and connected his body to the dark water, ensuring that he was supplied with a source of power that felt like it was never ending. 

While the two firgs fought against each other, the Bell monster quickly rose above the arena, breaking through the mist dome and soaring in the sky to breach it to the other side. Once it was far enough, Feth left Ashen to slowly lose his patience and hope as the slimy creature became tinier and tinier in the distance. 

Even when Ecne rushed after it, he no longer was concerned. Feth just took a seat in front of the portal and spoke to it. “ Eternal rest, here I come.”