It is strange to see a corrupted version of herself. They are not identical in appearance; even though Pultine’s skin is dark, Pulatus’s skin is somehow darker and there are veins of corruption visible all over her. It could be decay, like her body decays along vein-like pathways that creep every inch of her, but it is more likely that the corruption is the infection that ties her to the mother she talks so much about. And if that is the case, Pultine wonders if it is possible to cure the Pito if they can be rid of that corruption.
While she waits for Nwa Wa to return to the command ship to cast her influence wide across the Pito that their forces had engaged and prepped for her influence, Pultine contemplates the moral quandary, though she is sure that the enemy she faces must die or they will continue to ravage the innocents still left in Talj. She wonders if there is any hope for a cure; how would a being be cleansed of this taint that exists under their skin like a disease? The only evident cure was death.
“Tracia, Ahdis, do you read me?” Pultine asks into her communicator on a secure line that no one else can access.
“I can hear you,” Ahdis answers.
“What’s your status?” Pultine asks.
“I am with five of the executioners. We’ve managed to subdue something that looks like it used to be an archangel of Endla and I used my knowledge of death magic to lock it down and cover it like everyone has been doing with black magic. Do you think it matters?”
“Nwa Wa can connect to Death Magic,” Pultine says.
“I am with Azalaan,” Tracia says over the communicator. “We have subdued a creature and it is covered in black magic. When can we expect Nwa Wa to take over?”
“Soon, I think,” Pultine responds. “But are you both looking at these things? If they are infected, can we cure them to end the influence of whatever evil has sent them here?”
“Do we even need to ponder this?” Ahdis asks. “We know what these Pito are capable of and they must be annihilated before they can corrupt anything else.”
“I agree with you, Ahdis, but Pultine is right to ask the question,” Tracia says. “I imagine seeing your corrupted self can make you rethink any enemy. We have touched many infected minds,” Tracia explains, “and I do believe it is possible to free them, but we don’t have time to figure out how to make that happen. We only have so much time before the black wall becomes functional again. We weren’t able to turn it off forever. Don’t let your resolve waiver in the face of your doppelganger.”
Nwa Wa cut into the private line suddenly, but she could only be heard by Pultine.
“Are you seeing any difference?”
“What kind of difference should I be looking for?” Pultine asks. “Everyone’s Pito is covered in black, one in purple magic, and they are completely still.”
“Narrare to me what you see,” Nwa Wa says and Pultine sees the black magic covering Pulatus begin to agitate, like it is a shimmering pool of liquid. Pultine explains what she sees. “I’m afraid that we can do no more.”
“You can’t control them?” Pultine asks with clear disappointment in her voice. She is close to Pulatus and Pultine’s body goes slack as she hovers. She’d been optimistic, allowed herself to believe that her collaboration with her fellow commanders and generals had been just what Talj needed to save an entire existence from a very cruel death that did not respect death at all, but puppeted the bodies of the most powerful to bring cruel death to something or someone else. But now it is clear that they can only fight, their tactics since arriving at this confrontation only delay the inevitable that they will have to physically rid this existence of the Pito which seems like an insurmountable task while floating in the face of the black wall that seemingly stretches infinitely across space. Even if they can kill the Pito that they have immobilized with black magic, there are so many who will come and who knows how long any of them can fare if the black wall begins to advance again as it was before Nwa Wa and all of the others who contributed their power managed to halt it, or scramble its major function. Pultine is crushed in this moment because it is clear that their best move is to send word to the Smiting Chamber that they have to retreat. There is nothing to be done for Talj with the forces currently at their disposal. They need the power of the Vodun to deal with the dark reality warping of the awesome enemy.
Pultine shakes away the sad truth, then straightens her back, wings beating casually, and she is her commanding self again.
“We can only do what we are doing currently,” Nwa Wa continues through the communicator. “We can hold them here. What is our next move commander?”
“General,” Pultine responds, “you will have to take command from Alia, who should come to this battlefront and assess her ability to combat the wall. I believe that if she can figure out a way to neutralize that, then we can eventually rid this existence of the Pito, though that war will be very long, I fear. You take command so that you can let everyone know when we will need extraction, which you should order as soon as you and Zaccaheus and everyone else allowing us to hold them here are unable to hold them like they are now. I hate to abandon this existence, but we have to regroup and reformulate based on what we know now. While you all are holding them still for as long as you can, everyone else should kill as much of this taint as they can manage with their powers. Maybe that will slow them down so nothing alive gets caught in its advancement until we are able to return”
“Or maybe we will only make it angrier,” Nwa Wa reasons.
“Maybe, but I think the less of it there is, the weaker it is. Command is your, General,” Pultine says.
“Where are you going?” Nwa Wa asks.
“I have to communicate with the Vodun and then I will channel amûk like a very good friend taught me on Bludon, which means, I will not be in a state to command. I will make one line-wide announcement, General. You get to the command ship and when I am done, keep everyone aware of the new objective and the time we have remaining.”
Nwa Wa does go to the commandship and she listens to Pultine’s line-wide announcement as she flies.
“Now is the time everyone. We cannot control the Pito, and we cannot stop them and the black wall forever. I am pained to say that we will have to retreat to regroup so that we save this existence. We will hold them until we can no longer hold them, and we will excise this taint from this existence, as much as we can. Let go, find your rage for what they will do to the beings of this realm, and for what they want to do to the beings of your own. They deserve all of your cruelty and there are a lot of them along this still, black wall who we can kill after we have killed the ones in front of us. Kill them and listen for further information on extraction.”
The instant that she is done with her message, Pultine drops her arms and flies toward Pulatas and when she lifts her arms again, she wields an axe in each hand that she uses to swiftly dismember Pulatas. When there are many decaying pieces in front of her, she flips the axes over her shoulders and they attach to her back as she lifts her left hand that pops and sparks with light that blazes bright for moment before it rages out in a wide beam, incinerating the pieces of Pulatus and even cutting into the dark wall behind them. The wall isn’t solid, but it is a disruption of the normal spacetime of this existence, until Pultine’s light hits it. She stares at the strange sight, the black wall with a deep groove in it now where the light had impacted it.
“Whoa,” Pultine hears and she remembers Djallon, the red ram warrior of the Disc of Gu who was here as one of the 4Warriors of the Fonlands. “That was impressive.”
Pultine nods and she takes a moment to calm the scream for violence against the dark enemy that rages inside of her.
“You can hold my essence?” Pultine asks and Djallon nods eagerly. Pultine holds her left hand in a Direction Formation to focus the Divine Essence produced by her Third Heart and she shoots a beam of green tinted, yellow white light at the ram warrior who is inundated, so much so, that when Pultine is done, Djallon has an aura of green around her and her red armor is now tinted green as well. “Go, kill as many as you can. Make a game of it. I will focus my amûk on this wall until the commander calls time.”
Pultine turns back to the black wall and she allows her power to completely consume her body. Her skin begins to glow and soon she is lost in the radiance of it. She can’t hear it, but the mmoatia issue a line-wide call to clear the circumference of the most intense light that Pultine emits, and when all of her forces are clear, the intense light flickers, then appears to implode. As the circumference of light recedes and dissipates, all of the Pito that had been caught inside of it, and even the wall that had seemed to swallow the light, was gone. Pultine has obliterated the taint of the Pito in a significant area around her.
Pultine is pleased and she advances into the spherical impression that she had made in the wall as she gathers her strength to do it again.
PRL Serials 