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“Bite me, I dare you. Turn around. I have dignity unlike you three.” Alter hissed at them. Agni snickered again and waltz over to the gods and turned around. “Go ahead, I’ve got them under my Veil.” He responded.
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It’s black. It all went black, then shifted to white, then shifted to a bloodstained cube. You saw Agni fall down then stand back up, then act like nothing happened, you see the same process repeat itself over and over again, like some sort of machine.
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Agni is sitting down, at a rather ornate table with….Crimson? But….Crimson is wearing a mask. What the hell is happening anymore…? You can’t tell depth, height or anything. You try to make anything out but it’s just a vast expanse of white.
“Come on, sit down you two.” Crimson beckons.
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"Wait, how did-" Aestus is confused, why is he hearing crimson? Here of all places? "Reactivate the spell, won’t help much but better than not?" Caligo said, just as confused despite seeing their surrounding
Aestus does just that, and after getting his bearings back, approached the table, sitting down with Caligo still in his arms.
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"Welcome to the Advent Pillar. It's a Obelisk. Safeguard really. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you two really fucked up." Crimson said. Oddly enough, his voice and tone sounded perfect. Like he wasn't sick at all. "Oh, um, right. You probably have a lot of questions huh. Well for one, I'll say this, I'm not Crimson. This is just a mask. Well ok, it's technically Crimson's mask that I use on his behalf. Name, you already know. I'm Alter, specifically Alter Ego, I stand in place for the Kyng in Red himself."
Agni passes a cup of some sort of dakr green liquid. Likely a special tea, to Caligo and Aestus, and another cup for Alter who takes it and drinks from it. "Oh, mint and lavender, nice. A bit dark today though. I assume you added the medicine to it? Yes? Ok, thanks at least." Alter said to him, Agni just gave a soft nod.
"He's not lying. You really did screw a few things up just now. You're in the Advent Pillar. In the courtyard of the Garcarnian capital, it's name is rough to translate, but it's called Iziet. Praxis is here too, as well as Kani. We're just keeping you here until we can clear a few things up. Other than that, questions are all yours now."
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Neither touched their cup of tea
"What did we do exactly?" Aestus asked, Caligo feel like it’s his fault, he dug up grave stones, accidentally but he guess it doesn’t matter much.
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"We'll, it's more like what was done to you really." Alter responded first, taking off Deceiver and setting it down on his cup. He looks like like a splitting image of Crimson, aside from the lack of the Limiter and striking pair of eyes, in which his are a neutral grey. "We're not too sure how or when it happened, but...well I mean, I can show you or *THEY* could. Up to you." he said, almost...cheerfully. Even Agni looked a bit excited.
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Caligo visibly relaxed. Finally! He is not in trouble for once, Aestus does look concerned and unnerved still on the other hand
"It doesn’t matter, just show us." Aestus said after a moment.
"Hey wait! Any reason you look like crimson?" Caligo interrupted to ask.
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Agni chimed in before Alter could, telling the gods; "One thing at a time if you would please, my dear friends. Settle on one, and we'll get to the other. Which shall it be? An explanation of what you did, or an answer to what Alter is. You can't have either at the same time. After all..." Agni paused, raising a finger, pausing for a moment as if listening for his voice to be called before continuing. "...there must be Order in the world." he finished, following a deep rumble from somewhere within the Pillar and a deep cerulean mote of energy rising from Agni's cup of tea.
Alter grabbed the mask from the table, putting it back on, his features almost immediately changing to which matches Crimson to a T. With a small guttural groan as he stayed silent and waited for the gods to answer. Or at least one of them to. None of which mattered much at the current time.
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They looked at each other for a moment, as if communicating without speaking, before Aestus turned back toward the others. "I suppose knowing what we did, or what was done to us is more important?"
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"I had a feeling you would say that. A well and wise idea too. Looks like someone owes me some money now!" Alter said, nearly jumping to his feet and slamming his hand down onto the ornate table, seemingly trying to break it. He pointed a finger at Aestus. "Alright, stand over here next to me. Trust me, this is gonna be fun for me. Not sure for you. But for me, oh yeah." He said and walked a few steps away from everyone (jeez, imagine your perception. Hard to tell depth) and places himself on the ground, crossing his legs. "right here you golden idiot!" he said, oddly cheerfully through the mask. It was rather unnerving to see and know that Crimson's face was on another mans body. Even I shutter to think of it.
Agni sighed and scooted his chair back and walked over to Caligo. "Take the empty seat please and sit at the table. Unlike Alter, someone needs to have respect." he said, a bit loudly so that Alter would hear, which he probably didn't. Upon taking a coser look at the table, not only did it seem to be a perfect circle, but it's wooden face was a multitude of carvings of animals and plants native to neither Arithnia or Garcarnia, at least, they didn't seem to be. Even down to the feet they reached down to. The only exception were the 6 chairs arranged in a circle that were made of a white and black marble. One of the only things aside from the table and the two men that showed any idea of how far anything was.
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Calico growled, yes growled when Alter called Aestus and idiot, the taller god simply petted him to calm him down before moving next to the false Crimson, after placing Cal on the chair.
Caligo looked between Agni and Aestus, wondering just what was going to happen, but not wanting to interrupt again
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"Alright, here's how this is going to go down. At least, that's how I think it will. You're gonna feel one hell of a jolt and probably like your body is trying to separate from your skeleton. Maybe. Not sure. Can't tell ya. Or you just might go blind again. Never called on this guy before, so I have no idea what's gonna happen anymore. Might be happy, might be realistically pissed off, either way, this is gonna be fun to watch. Have fun meetin' him." Alter patted the god on the back and smiled cheerfully, and grabbed the necklace around the gods neck and crushing it, sending strands of golden energy into every direction before pooling into a large sphere onto one of the tea table chairs.
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At the same time however...
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"If it would please you better, we can stay here. Not like there's much to worry about. Actually, perhaps that's a better idea. Just stay there. I've no real idea what's going to happen next. I've only done this once before, so...it's really anyone's guess. However, I can say that this will burn a bit. Nothing intense, but it will be mildly uncomfortable," Agni assured the god. "and there will be some bright lights too. So, um, please be aware of that." The man in blue said. Taking a few steps back and touching the ground, picking up a basic rapier and swinging it a few time. "This is going to be painless for the most part. Might burn, but you'll be safe." he said and rushed forward at Caligo, blade in hand, making contact with his chest, the blade never pierced it. Instead it pushed off what seemed to be a odd support-like structure closely like bones off Caligo, which exploded into a mass of white energy and light and spiraled around before attaching itself to Caligo and releasing itself off and dipping into the floor, soon traveling to the empty chair at the table in a large, mote-like orb.
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Clashing lights of gold, white and blue burned through the room, creating a canopy of roars and cries. Once all had died down, two translucent blue wings were covering the two gods, as eyes that sparkled brighter than a sapphire kept close eye on the two. "The pain will last, I am doing my best to mitigate it. So do bear with me." the Titan said. Eventually unfurling it's wings two men sat at the table, one, dressed in gold, kept his legs on the table, smoking a cigarette, while the other sat properly, a thin white tail spread across their lap as were reading a book. "Caligo, meet Advent, the man in white, and Aestus, the one in gold is Leonidas, whom I've no doubt you've met a bit of. They are the Relics personified for you Your brace and necklace respectively. Acting as your Veil's of which you have little perception of, they have kept you safe from what your eyes cannot see with them around." the Titan explained, its deep and guttural voice commanding. "As for me, I've no doubt you are aware of who I am. My name is Agni, or Azrue as I can sometimes called. However, I am also the Titan of Order, Agnithara. In service of Kyng Praxis."
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"Wow, like one of Arithnia’s god?" Caligo asked with literal stars in his eyes "wait, were we, wearing people this whole time" Aestus is very conflicted on that part, and clutching the space where his necklace was, Caligo for his part barely seem to notice the lack of braces, for now at least.
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"If it pleases you to see it that way, then yes. I am akin to Arithnia's 'god'. And to answer your other question. If you think it's like that, then yes, it would be easy to understand that you were wearing people in some way or another," the Titan uttered softly, almost as if he didn't want the other men overhearing. However, at least one of them did. Advent, who rose from his seat and gently set the draconian tail on the ground and briskly walked over. His rather dull emerald eyes peaking over the half-frame glasses gazed almost longingly at the gods. He just stood there, as if he was sorry to even be called. Though he showed no idea of such in emotions. Once he felt satified, he walked back to the chair and sat down.
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"I don’t like the implication of that…but it’s cool you’re a god too!" Caligo exclaimed excitedly, a hand was placed on his hand, Aestus who had decided to come back next to his ‘colleague’, "or god adjacent, still why reveal all this now?"
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Agnithara hesitated to answer for a moment. Choosing his words carefully. His eyes almost seemed to betray his words. In possibly the lowest voice he could muster, he whispered to the gods. “You….created a Titan.” He voice carried itself so softly to them. Advent and Leonidas seemed to overhear the Titan utter said words. As they both turned their heads to Agnithara.
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They stared at Agni in disbelief "we did what" they said almost at the same time
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“It’s true. It’s the sole reason we’ve been keeping you away and in one place most of the time. We’re trying our best to figure out how exactly you created a new Titan. So far most of our efforts have come at more of a cost than anything else.” Agnithara echoed shallowly. You could tell from his eyes that it pained him to even speak of it.
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Caligo’s brain seem to have stopped functioning, stuck staring in the void as a million thought rush in his head, Aestus on his end seem deep in thoughts
"Maybe our magic went haywire." Aestus eventually said, Caligo snap out of his spiral to stare at him "you think we accidentally made them?"
"It’s possible. Our creators made everything, who’s to say we didn’t inherit some of those abilities?"
"Oh! Like when Cinis and Mesos made the lithokins!"
"Exactly. We know we can make objects. And I remember your rabbit project."
"They don’t live very long tho." Caligo look very sad about that fact
"But they live. I might be able to do it as well, our magic act strange here and we don’t fully know our capabilities…"
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"It's vastly different from what you would expect, honorable Mage. As you're well aware, Arithnia is always changing, both before our very eyes and in ways we cannot perceive. It's all a part of a puzzle that only a few can see the whole of. While I wouldn't necessarily say this is a current cause for concern, I would be lying if I did say so. This Titan is causing some very negative effects. And from those it affects...well it's hard to say." Advent chimed in. his tail flopping up and down in his lap. Leonidas took a draw of his cigarette and blow the smoke into a ring. His ever-so-golden eyes shone rather brightly. Just as he opened his mouth, both Agnithara and Advent shot him a silencing glance, easily telling him to shut up.
The blue Titan cleared his throat with a deep rumble and sighed, sending out a small wisp of a smile from his maw. "From what Aster, Sano, and Praxis have said, it's likely a threat to you two. Assuming it's a big enough deal, it would seek a reason to either kill you or send you back home. Anything more than that is just mere speculation and theory.
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"We are very sorry that something we made is causing issues" Aestus bowed apologetically
"On the bright side we might have a quick way back home?" Caligo said nervously
"We’ll help with the godlin- um titan if you need, it’s our fault they’re here after all."
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"You're sorry for some shit you didn't even know you caused? I thought I had it bad, but you two take it to a new level. Nicely done, nicely done. Word of advice, though, you didn't intend to do this, nor do you want to use this Titan as a way home. I don't think being killed by one or sent somewhere else by one is any fun. No one knows what the Titans can do or what they are capable of, if you prefer that word. Oh, also, I'm totally sure you could fight hand-to-hand with a Titan." Leonidias oozed with a deep sarcasm in the last bit.
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"We can fight-" Caligo tried to protest but Aestus stopped him "we got our tails handed to us by a kyng, if titans are more powerful we stand no chance, sorry buddy" Caligo visibly deflated
"I still feel responsible, if there is any way we can help, truly don’t hesitate to ask" Aestus added
Last edited by LazyOwlViolet (May 21, 2025 15:38:38)
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"I'm glad one of your asses remembered that. Not like you actually fought him anyways...." Leonidas said, mocking the gods.
"Don't be arrogant here Leon. They don't know what this world is. Can't blame them for it. So calm down and keep them safe at the least. It's what Cor wants anyhow. That's why were here. Unless you forgot." Advent retorted, snatching the cigarette out of his hand and putting it out.
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The two gods looked at their protectors as they argued, well it was mostly Aestus that observed, Cal was busy climbing Aestus to rest his head on the other’s shoulder
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"I...am always at a loss for those two. I am deeply sorry. At least they keep you safe though, that's the only positive I can think of right now." Agnithera told the gods, a sort of pleading sorrow in how voice.
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"yes, it nice, usually we are the ones doing the protecting, it’s like a vacation." Caligo said, Aestus simply nodded