“Any word on the Death Witches?” Pultine asked as she sat in the captain’s chair of the large spacecraft that led other spacecraft into the depths of space. The view through the large front window of the ship reminded her of traveling through universe Prime 5 with Rusa so long ago.
“None,” Tracia said from her seat close by. “But I don’t think that we should waste any time talking about them, we can confront them when this mission is done. Do you see that graphic that shows how the Pito are moving across this realm?” So much devastation and I’m worried if we split our forces, we will be sending them into danger.”
Pultine looked to Ahdis who stood next to Azalaan, God of Dreams, and the Tinyeleti Warrior known as Mulweri.
“I sent Tinyelti Warriors ahead of us and they confirmed the graphic,” Mulweri said solemnly. “There is literally a wall of devastation moving across this realm. I ordered them not to go around it or inside of it for fear that they would not return, but we anticipate that everything behind that wall has already been lost to the Pito.”
“And, unfortunately,” Azalaan said, “if the Pito sleep, they have not done it since we’ve arrived. I can’t hope to influence anything that is awake. I do have access to their subliminal dreams, their daydreams and the hypotheticals they play out in their minds. These are not beings in the sense that I am used to, they don’t have their thoughts and desires, or some do, but they get clouded out by the overriding voice of one known as Pulatus, who looks and sounds an awful lot like our beautiful and fierce commander…”
“Cool it, dream guy,” Ahdis said jokingly. “She is already taken and we need to be focused on the mission. Is there anything you can do to undermine their efforts here or their coordination?”
“I am seeding many doubts, constructing fantasies of a fearsome foe who will kill them all. But I don’t anticipate it being very successful, the way these things communicate, it’s hard to make anything louder than the voice of the hive mind.”
“Maybe Nwa Wa’s influence with the dead can help,” Mulweri offered. “What Azalaan describes sounds similar to the way the Zombie Warrior General exerts influence over deads and dead things. And there must be a lot of death accumulating in the wake of that wall.”
Pultine asked that Nwa Wa be summoned holographically from the ship she was in with a large contingent of black-aligned forces from the Disc of Lêgba. There were also ships of red and yellow aligned forces from the Discs of Gu and Xêvioso, and Pultine and her closest advisors were in the ship of white aligned forces.
In the blink of an eye, Mulweri appears next to Pultine’s command chair and Nwa Wa is beside him.
“We have communication between these ships!” Nwa Wa said as she stumbled around a bit on her feet, regaining her composure.
“I thought this made more sense,” Mulweri said defensively. “With you here, we can test your powers combined with the Dream God’s.”
“This ship will soon be overrun with powerful and beautiful females…” Azalaan stared but Ahdis interrupted again.
“We get it, you like females, show some restraint,” she chided and Azalaan looked momentarily embarrassed.
“I don’t mean to offend,”Azalaan explains, “I’m just overwhelmed. I’ll be more mature.”
“He wouldn’t be so smitten if I took off the pale mask,” Nwa Wa said. “So what are we doing?”
“I am implanting dreams and fears in the Pito,” Azalaan explained, “but there is an overriding din of a hive mind making my dreams less impactful.”
Nwa Wa stood silent for a moment and a cloud of black smoke began to form around her head. After a moment she made a curious sound.
“Mmmmmm,” she said. ‘This black wall is composed of the undead, I should be able to jam the hive mind, but it will take time. I must be closer and I need more power. Can you give me a boost, young man of dreams?”
Azalaan smiled and was eager to help and they worked silently in a corner of the command room.
“Mulweri,” Pultine said to the Tinyeleti Warrior, “go to the black ship and bring anyone here whose powers mirror Nwa Wa’s, anyone with a command over the dead. We want to group them with Nwa and Azalaan.”
Mulweri nodded and then disappeared.
“They told us that these powers were most susceptible to Green, Yellow, and Purple Magic,” Tracia said to Pultine. “We should keep that in mind. I will join Nwa Wa and the Azalaan and see if my excellent skill can help Nwa Wa disrupt their overriding commands from the hive mind. But I will also go and recruit others in white aboard this ship who can boost Azalaan.”
Pultine nodded Tracia out of the command room.
“Anything else from the other ships?” Pultine asked Ahdis.
“Only that we will stop the ships and engage the enemy soon. The wall is a sight, “Ahdis said with wonder, her eyes glued to the view of space before them through the window. “I hate to say this, but I think Tracia did the right thing freeing the Death Witches. This is their kind of insane. Do you feel it, Pultine? It is Green, Violet, and Gold all at once, the three grimoires of the Fonlands.”
“It is eerie how familiar it is,” Pultine admitted. “The magic of the beings of other universes has felt different, sometimes more or less so, but distinguishable from Divine Essence. This feels too familiar. Is this real?”
“I was going to ask that,” Ahdis said. “If this power is as powerful as the Vodun and the Smiting Chamber and the godly beings from the other realms believe it to be, and it is determined to end this realm, can we do anything to stop it?”
“We can do everything,” Pultine said defiantly. “I said that it was eerie, I’m not defeatist. Keep an eye on that corner, Nwa Wa and Azalaan are making progress.”
“Then I must be just in time,” Pultine and Ahdis heard from behind their chairs and they both turned to see Tracia with the Hyperion, also known as Alia. “What can I do?”
“I will go with Nwa Wa and Djallon to engage Pulatus,” Pultine says as the major commanders of the smaller contingent of warriors meet in the void before the front of the battle. “I haven’t heard from Ali, he and the Halfyn Heir were already engaged, I wonder how they are faring?”
“I will pass along news as soon as I receive it,” Alia says. She appears on the visual display of the helmet that Pultine wears as she occupies the commander chair of the ship. “Nwa Wa says that the wall of death behind the Pito are still confused about the blackout of their overriding command. We can hold that for a while but not forever. The Pito are harder nuts to crack, though. Ali and the Heir are with someone called Adofo, they are still in the battle. Maria, Mulweri and the thing called Lord Cockroach just sent an update, they are still moving through the black behind the Pito and have not reached normal space. Even with her Transverse power, Maria is having trouble navigating this existence. It seems like everything behind the Pito has been lost to the Pito. I will see if Nwa Wa and the necromancers and Tracia and the floramancers can get it to recede maybe? It is a plant infection, right?”
“I believe that it is,” Maxx says; even though he doesn’t wear a helmet, he has a communicator that links him to the group. He is eager to get to battle, to test his new weapon that is intimidating at his back, attached by the Superconsciousness that glows steadily around his body.
“They are all infected with a fungus,” Whadgaf says. “That is their hive mind, their lifeline, it gives them enhanced strength.”
“Well,” Pultine says, turning to the line of Pito in the distance, “let’s see if we can punch the plants out of these things. Everyone, regular updates to Alia, if you need linewide transmission, ask her. If you need extraction, she can get you out quickly. Remember, no casualties on our side. Let’s do this.”
The 4Warrior known as Djallon wears full body armor that is nigh indestructible, and she flies with Pultine and Nwa Wa toward the distant figure that seems to be the center of the line of Pito and when they are close, they see a dark mirror of the leader who meets Pultine in space.
“This is fitting, I guess,” Pulatus says with an evil smirk. Her wings are like burnt lace and they seem to slice space around her like razors as they beat at her back. “What have you done?” Pulatus says and motions at the black wall behind her.
“You don’t know?” Pultine asks, returning the evil smirk. “I guess you can figure it out later, if you survive this encounter of course.”
“It is funny that you are here to challenge me. You are so ignorant, and I recognize you because I was once you, Pultine. I was skeptical of the black tendrils and I was sure of my own place in my realm. But then, I embraced it, and I am more than I could have ever imagined. You all may have eked out small victories here as you blindsighted us on our quest to bring the power of the great mother to the multiversal structure, but that is all you will know, those small victories. You cannot win. We are all of you, but better. We are every version of us who has come to the great mother and been enhanced in her image. I am Pulatus, legion of Pultine, and you are only one. Bow now, and stop your resistance. It will fail and you all will become one with your better selves to better serve the great mother.”
Pultine shakes her head and looks down at her hands that are open before her.
“You are a legion of me,” she says to her hands, as though she is defeated at the realization that the Pito are extremely powerful and too much for her to face on her own. She looks at Pulatus who looks crazed. “You are not me.” As she says it, light begins to appear at her open hands and axes with large blades and handles materialize in each of her hands. She holds them down at her side. “You are a sad copy, the sad remains of beings like me. You are not enough for me, and for the warriors who battle with me.”
“I thought that this was a battle between us,” Pulatus says. “I thought we were seeing how we measure up.”
“We are, but not individually,” Pultine says and she raises an axe, which is a cue for Nwa Wa who lifts a hand and flicks black magic at Pulatus that flies quickly and slimes her shoulder. Djallon charges Pulatas as a large, double-sided ax appears in her hand and she engages Pulatas who is fast, fluttering on her razor sharp wings to dodge Djallon’s axe. Pultine joins, swinging her axes deftly to slice at the aboatia who never flinches when she is cut. Eventually, Djallon manages to restrain Pulatus with the handle of her axe, holding her against the indestructible armor.
Suddenly, Pulatus begins to convulse and Djallon releases her. Pultine watches as Pulatus’ body is covered in the inky black magic that Nwa Wa had flung at her and it eventually covers her body completely, transforming her into an oily form that eventually covers her wings and stills them. Pulatus stop moving completely and the three warriors watch and wait.
“It looks like we did it,” Djallon says. “We should tell the others that we can save these corrupted beings…”
“I have not confirmed anything,” Nwa Wa says firmly.
“If this doesn’t work to free them, at least we know the physical fight is not impossible to win.”
“If the black wall were still advancing, we’d be in real trouble,” Nwa Wa says.
“Anything yet?” Djallon asks, watching the black form floating.
“Shut up and let me do my work! If you want this to work, let me do this in silence!” Nwa Wa is tense and she focuses.
Pultine and Djallon watch silently.
PRL Serials 