Post by Gigachad on Aug 18, 2021 12:05:38 GMT
Beyond lithorian borders-Austral Expanse
Qhoz'ul sat back in his boney throne,lazilly reading over sensor data as his fleet swam through the depths of the austral expanse. The incomprehensibly large Diyu void located just a few AUs beneath them. Said fleet of bio vessels had approximately 100 such creatures. He sat at its heart within a battleship,with two others on either side. In front of him lay 15 heavy cruisers and another 30 light ones represented the fleet's front. Twenty destroyers sat behind everything else and lastly a wing of 16 frigates guarded each of their flanks.
Qhoz'ul enjoyed his expeditions,they were a chance to leave the constant competition and infighting of The Almighty's chosen,a way to train his mind in a way few in the gladiatorial pits could. At the very least,he enjoyed being by himself,surrounded only by automatons and captains that dared not to bother or question him. This was not one of those times,a fact made apparent by a telepathic message inserting itself into his mind from the battleship to the left.
"You are deranged,I hope you realize it"
He sighed,but promptly responded
"What is it this time,Naz'kid?"
"Don't act stupid,you realize we are almost in the Expanse's deepest parts. You know of the dangers that lurk here"
"I do,those dangers make for the greatest catch afterall"
"Do not try to act powerful Qhoz'ul. We all know our lives are in danger as of this moment"
"Only if the beasts detect us. Of course,with you complaining to me over the connection every five minutes,rest assured that the Black Tooth himself will be upon us shortly"
"Bite your tongue and pray to The Almighty that The Beast does not find us. The least you could have done is take proper warships with you."
Another voice,this time from the battleship to the right,Uq'eik.
"I cannot believe I am saying such things,but she is correct. Don't you think using such a token force is risky?"
Qhoz'ul chuckled
"You clearly don't do this often. The key is being fast and agile,distraction and aiming for the weak spots. That and I do like a challenge"
Before either could continue,the three lights in Qhoz'uls eyesockets blinked in surprise as the edges of his vision darkened. He tried to move but felt the strength leaving every inch of his body as the darkness completely overtook his vision. Here he was,unable to see,hear,smell or feel anything. The sense of time was quickly lost as he drifted in this primordial abyss. He could still think,that was a relief,meaning he could try to piece together how this happened and how to rid himself of this predicament. Qhoz'ul did not worry,not yet,such things would be of no help.
After an unknown amount of time like this,he was surprised as light filled his vision once more. Everything around was still pitch black as far as the eye could see,but his own body became visible. He flicked his hand a few times,getting accustomed to the feeling once more. The lithorian then looked down,more darkness. He bent down and thrust his hand downwards,being stopped by a solid surface. He was not floating,but rather standing on something,yet something that gave him no feeling whatsoever. Was it transparent? It had to be,he could not see his own reflection in it.
The alien clenched his other hand in frustration and felt something,turning around to see he was gripping his staff. How could that be? He did not have it on his person while sitting,not that he minded of course.
The perfect silence and his thoughts were soon interrupted by what seemed to be whispers. They were faint at first,coming from various directions. Slowly but steadily,they grew both in intensity and number,starting to sound as if they had no physical source. The lithorian gripped his tool with both hands,spinning around,waiting for an attack.
"I grow tired of your games aberration. Strike me or set me free,but do not waste my time."
As if responding to him,the cacophony of whispers stopped. Qhoz'ul continued looking around,suddenly noticing a tendril of fog creeping around it,stretching up into the black empty sky. Tiny dots appeared,soon revealing themselves to be more gaseous appendages,each one gracefully touching the smooth ground before coiling around his position. Soon a spear of the strange matter darted out of the swirling vortex,making a beeline for him. The alien narrowly dodged,avoiding contact and swinging his staff at it. He was caught off guard when the piece he cut off from the main mass shriveled up and disappeared.
Hope flooded his mind,he had a chance. And so this continued,increasing numbers of appendages hurled themselves at him only for Qhoz'ul to bisect,each time barely avoiding contact. When he slashed the one hundredth tendril,a deep bellow assaulted his sense of hearing,causing him to drop the staff and clasp the sides of his skull like head. A fruitless gesture,considering his eardrums were not there to begin with.
That was when the horror crept into his train of thought. He felt that. He was not meant to feel the burden of pain,no lithorian was. And yet here he was,stuck with the unfamiliar feeling of a thousand needles piercing his soul,no doubt caused by his lack of built up tolerance to such. Another bellow caused him to loose balance and fall,barely holding himself off the ground. He could see himself in the substance now,yet this sight was quickly eclipsed by another,one which made Qhoz'ul certain this would be his end.
There,just above his reflection was an entire planet,only made of flesh and other organic material. He looked up with disbelief,confirming that the object was in fact there,high in the sky. Its form was riddled with cracks while its wrinkled surface pulsed and heaved with raw malice. A new chorus of whispers erupted from it as whole hurricanes of the foul smog wafted from its crevices,completely obscuring the object as it descended for the lithorian like some kind of thinking beast.
"By The Almighty…."
The lithorian said,feeling fear deep in his heart for the very first time since his creation.
In an instant,thick tendrils of miasma gripped his form as if they were solid,bringing agony to every inch of flesh they touched. Several proceeded to force themselves through Qhoz'uls boney jaws,yet more crowded into his three empty eyesockets. The whispering was overpowering,drowning the alien's own thoughts as the feeling of raw hatred and malice almost became palatable. He had never felt such concentrated disdain,even in The Almighty's worst episodes. As Qhoz'uls mind began to break under the strain,he heard what sounded like a loud thump,followed by the sound of glass cracking. The gaseous horror left his orifices as a broken cacophony of hisses erupted from the planetoid. The lithorian looked towards the origin of the disruption,noticing cracks in the horizon itself,rays of cyan light peeking through them. Another thump signaled the creation of cracks and dents in another region,followed by another,and then another. The fifth strike broke the camel's back,shattering the entire void of darkness in that direction,bits of anomalous matter fell as the blackness was replaced by a shining mass of the light. An impossibly loud roar erupted from this new feature,causing the planetoid to screech in agony with its countless voices as ripples in space itself dissipated the foul gases that cloaked it. Qhoz'ul instinctively clasped his head once more,yet despite the roar being orders of magnitude louder than the flesh beast's own,there was no searing pain to be felt.
Qhoz'ul began feeling a strong connection to the boundless glowing entity before him. Realization hit his visage as he pledged itself to it,pressing himself against the perfectly smooth ground and praying. This was it,his creator,his undying lord,the one which gave him life and the one which would ultimately embrace him in death.
The Almighty
A piece of the radiating matter proceeded to split off from the main fold,forming a sphere roughly equal in dimensions to that which stood before it. Another fit of hisses left the planetoid,new trickles of miasma gushing from its gashes. In an instant,the glowing sphere took off,narrowing into a glowing serpent of exotic energies as it charged the foe. The planet retaliated,several tendrils of smog coalescing into a gigantic arm that shot out for the slithering opponent. It was not fast enough,the serpent coiled around the appendage with blinding vigour. The featureless end that faced the planetoid shifted into a maw lined with glowing fangs and clamped down upon it,earning a scream of agony from the geologic aberration as more cracks riddled the point of contact. Its coils clamped down on the soggy appendage,causing it to dissipate
The beast became desperate,countless new tendrils of smog burst from its new wounds and tore this avatar off of itself,using all their might in an attempt to crush it. This too failed,a flurry of bladed projections shot out of the serpent's bright form and lashed wildly as if they had minds of their own,turning the other party's grasping limbs to nothing. The luminous one retracted these projections and instead sprouted a pair of arms,each tipped with one hundred claws,every one thinner than a strand of hair. The spherical abomination began to buckle under a new series of strikes,its form more ridden with deep canyons as entire pieces were chipped and flung off. The avatar of The Almighty then slithered high into the heavens,splitting into several different strands which converged once more as they impacted the largest wound wracked upon their foe's crust. In a blast of immense power,the mysterious evil was torn asunder,leaving only the projection of the lithorian hivemind standing. Its brilliant glow began fading,eventually receding back into the psion,its job complete.
Qhoz'ul suddenly woke up with a gasp. He looked around frantically to find the familiar surroundings of his bridge. He instinctively recalled his staff from a dark corner and got off his seat. The lithorian spun around with the weapon in hand,still not trusting that the nightmarish predicament was over. That was until a telepathic message reached him,bringing him relief.
"QHOZ'UL. RESPOND QHOZ'UL" shouted the familliar voice of Naz'kid
"I am here. What is the matter?"
"WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR MINUTES FOOL. THERE'S A MASSIVE SIGNATURE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US. ONE HUNDRED AU OUT. PERMISSION TO RETREAT"
He looked at the sensor readings,hand clasped around his chin. A Veraxian Leviathan,a small beast by the standards of the Austral Expanse as a whole,yet still enough to swat them away as if they were flies in a direct engagement.
"Denied. The Almighty watches us closely on this day,we cannot disappoint. We stand our ground and accept this mighty catch"
The lithorian spread his arms,taking direct control of his third of the fleet,for now the strange experience he suffered would need to be left for later,the hunt was on.
Qhoz'ul sat back in his boney throne,lazilly reading over sensor data as his fleet swam through the depths of the austral expanse. The incomprehensibly large Diyu void located just a few AUs beneath them. Said fleet of bio vessels had approximately 100 such creatures. He sat at its heart within a battleship,with two others on either side. In front of him lay 15 heavy cruisers and another 30 light ones represented the fleet's front. Twenty destroyers sat behind everything else and lastly a wing of 16 frigates guarded each of their flanks.
Qhoz'ul enjoyed his expeditions,they were a chance to leave the constant competition and infighting of The Almighty's chosen,a way to train his mind in a way few in the gladiatorial pits could. At the very least,he enjoyed being by himself,surrounded only by automatons and captains that dared not to bother or question him. This was not one of those times,a fact made apparent by a telepathic message inserting itself into his mind from the battleship to the left.
"You are deranged,I hope you realize it"
He sighed,but promptly responded
"What is it this time,Naz'kid?"
"Don't act stupid,you realize we are almost in the Expanse's deepest parts. You know of the dangers that lurk here"
"I do,those dangers make for the greatest catch afterall"
"Do not try to act powerful Qhoz'ul. We all know our lives are in danger as of this moment"
"Only if the beasts detect us. Of course,with you complaining to me over the connection every five minutes,rest assured that the Black Tooth himself will be upon us shortly"
"Bite your tongue and pray to The Almighty that The Beast does not find us. The least you could have done is take proper warships with you."
Another voice,this time from the battleship to the right,Uq'eik.
"I cannot believe I am saying such things,but she is correct. Don't you think using such a token force is risky?"
Qhoz'ul chuckled
"You clearly don't do this often. The key is being fast and agile,distraction and aiming for the weak spots. That and I do like a challenge"
Before either could continue,the three lights in Qhoz'uls eyesockets blinked in surprise as the edges of his vision darkened. He tried to move but felt the strength leaving every inch of his body as the darkness completely overtook his vision. Here he was,unable to see,hear,smell or feel anything. The sense of time was quickly lost as he drifted in this primordial abyss. He could still think,that was a relief,meaning he could try to piece together how this happened and how to rid himself of this predicament. Qhoz'ul did not worry,not yet,such things would be of no help.
After an unknown amount of time like this,he was surprised as light filled his vision once more. Everything around was still pitch black as far as the eye could see,but his own body became visible. He flicked his hand a few times,getting accustomed to the feeling once more. The lithorian then looked down,more darkness. He bent down and thrust his hand downwards,being stopped by a solid surface. He was not floating,but rather standing on something,yet something that gave him no feeling whatsoever. Was it transparent? It had to be,he could not see his own reflection in it.
The alien clenched his other hand in frustration and felt something,turning around to see he was gripping his staff. How could that be? He did not have it on his person while sitting,not that he minded of course.
The perfect silence and his thoughts were soon interrupted by what seemed to be whispers. They were faint at first,coming from various directions. Slowly but steadily,they grew both in intensity and number,starting to sound as if they had no physical source. The lithorian gripped his tool with both hands,spinning around,waiting for an attack.
"I grow tired of your games aberration. Strike me or set me free,but do not waste my time."
As if responding to him,the cacophony of whispers stopped. Qhoz'ul continued looking around,suddenly noticing a tendril of fog creeping around it,stretching up into the black empty sky. Tiny dots appeared,soon revealing themselves to be more gaseous appendages,each one gracefully touching the smooth ground before coiling around his position. Soon a spear of the strange matter darted out of the swirling vortex,making a beeline for him. The alien narrowly dodged,avoiding contact and swinging his staff at it. He was caught off guard when the piece he cut off from the main mass shriveled up and disappeared.
Hope flooded his mind,he had a chance. And so this continued,increasing numbers of appendages hurled themselves at him only for Qhoz'ul to bisect,each time barely avoiding contact. When he slashed the one hundredth tendril,a deep bellow assaulted his sense of hearing,causing him to drop the staff and clasp the sides of his skull like head. A fruitless gesture,considering his eardrums were not there to begin with.
That was when the horror crept into his train of thought. He felt that. He was not meant to feel the burden of pain,no lithorian was. And yet here he was,stuck with the unfamiliar feeling of a thousand needles piercing his soul,no doubt caused by his lack of built up tolerance to such. Another bellow caused him to loose balance and fall,barely holding himself off the ground. He could see himself in the substance now,yet this sight was quickly eclipsed by another,one which made Qhoz'ul certain this would be his end.
There,just above his reflection was an entire planet,only made of flesh and other organic material. He looked up with disbelief,confirming that the object was in fact there,high in the sky. Its form was riddled with cracks while its wrinkled surface pulsed and heaved with raw malice. A new chorus of whispers erupted from it as whole hurricanes of the foul smog wafted from its crevices,completely obscuring the object as it descended for the lithorian like some kind of thinking beast.
"By The Almighty…."
The lithorian said,feeling fear deep in his heart for the very first time since his creation.
In an instant,thick tendrils of miasma gripped his form as if they were solid,bringing agony to every inch of flesh they touched. Several proceeded to force themselves through Qhoz'uls boney jaws,yet more crowded into his three empty eyesockets. The whispering was overpowering,drowning the alien's own thoughts as the feeling of raw hatred and malice almost became palatable. He had never felt such concentrated disdain,even in The Almighty's worst episodes. As Qhoz'uls mind began to break under the strain,he heard what sounded like a loud thump,followed by the sound of glass cracking. The gaseous horror left his orifices as a broken cacophony of hisses erupted from the planetoid. The lithorian looked towards the origin of the disruption,noticing cracks in the horizon itself,rays of cyan light peeking through them. Another thump signaled the creation of cracks and dents in another region,followed by another,and then another. The fifth strike broke the camel's back,shattering the entire void of darkness in that direction,bits of anomalous matter fell as the blackness was replaced by a shining mass of the light. An impossibly loud roar erupted from this new feature,causing the planetoid to screech in agony with its countless voices as ripples in space itself dissipated the foul gases that cloaked it. Qhoz'ul instinctively clasped his head once more,yet despite the roar being orders of magnitude louder than the flesh beast's own,there was no searing pain to be felt.
Qhoz'ul began feeling a strong connection to the boundless glowing entity before him. Realization hit his visage as he pledged itself to it,pressing himself against the perfectly smooth ground and praying. This was it,his creator,his undying lord,the one which gave him life and the one which would ultimately embrace him in death.
The Almighty
A piece of the radiating matter proceeded to split off from the main fold,forming a sphere roughly equal in dimensions to that which stood before it. Another fit of hisses left the planetoid,new trickles of miasma gushing from its gashes. In an instant,the glowing sphere took off,narrowing into a glowing serpent of exotic energies as it charged the foe. The planet retaliated,several tendrils of smog coalescing into a gigantic arm that shot out for the slithering opponent. It was not fast enough,the serpent coiled around the appendage with blinding vigour. The featureless end that faced the planetoid shifted into a maw lined with glowing fangs and clamped down upon it,earning a scream of agony from the geologic aberration as more cracks riddled the point of contact. Its coils clamped down on the soggy appendage,causing it to dissipate
The beast became desperate,countless new tendrils of smog burst from its new wounds and tore this avatar off of itself,using all their might in an attempt to crush it. This too failed,a flurry of bladed projections shot out of the serpent's bright form and lashed wildly as if they had minds of their own,turning the other party's grasping limbs to nothing. The luminous one retracted these projections and instead sprouted a pair of arms,each tipped with one hundred claws,every one thinner than a strand of hair. The spherical abomination began to buckle under a new series of strikes,its form more ridden with deep canyons as entire pieces were chipped and flung off. The avatar of The Almighty then slithered high into the heavens,splitting into several different strands which converged once more as they impacted the largest wound wracked upon their foe's crust. In a blast of immense power,the mysterious evil was torn asunder,leaving only the projection of the lithorian hivemind standing. Its brilliant glow began fading,eventually receding back into the psion,its job complete.
Qhoz'ul suddenly woke up with a gasp. He looked around frantically to find the familiar surroundings of his bridge. He instinctively recalled his staff from a dark corner and got off his seat. The lithorian spun around with the weapon in hand,still not trusting that the nightmarish predicament was over. That was until a telepathic message reached him,bringing him relief.
"QHOZ'UL. RESPOND QHOZ'UL" shouted the familliar voice of Naz'kid
"I am here. What is the matter?"
"WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR MINUTES FOOL. THERE'S A MASSIVE SIGNATURE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US. ONE HUNDRED AU OUT. PERMISSION TO RETREAT"
He looked at the sensor readings,hand clasped around his chin. A Veraxian Leviathan,a small beast by the standards of the Austral Expanse as a whole,yet still enough to swat them away as if they were flies in a direct engagement.
"Denied. The Almighty watches us closely on this day,we cannot disappoint. We stand our ground and accept this mighty catch"
The lithorian spread his arms,taking direct control of his third of the fleet,for now the strange experience he suffered would need to be left for later,the hunt was on.