Imperious weaves to the side, turns his body at a slight angle to avoid an attack, and employs his energy blades to deflect incoming attacks. Then he moves in and thrusts his left blade at the center mass of one of the Vampiric Xenos. The blade a line of yellow radiance lancing forwards in the dismal darkness of the House of Fallen Peace.
The Vampirebrute turns to mist, but only for a second, allowing it to barely sidestep Imperious’ attack. They hiss in glee, and jump on Imperious in a strangely happy fury.
The finesse demonstrated in his earlier maneuvers suddenly vanished. Imperious guard dropped for a moment as he put his weight into an explosive punching motion from his left fisted hand. Extending past his fist was a foot and a half long blade of radiant solar energy, and it looked like Imperious intended to shove every inch of that brilliant yellow energy blade through the cackling Starvampire.
Imperious’ attack finally strikes true, scissoring the Vampirebrute’s head down the middle, turning it to ashes instantly. The second Vampirebrute hisses, and attempts to avenge its sibling-in-undeath.
OOC:
Attack forthcoming....aaaaaaaand, hit! Make a Fortitude save!
But again, it’s ferocious strike fails to siphon raw lifeforce.
Charging through the ashes of the felled Vampirebrute Imperious take it's peer's retaliatory blows like a mountain endures raindrops. Using the momentum of his attack he whirls around on the remaining Starvampire, throwing the same fist into it as part of the same attack. Through one Xeno and into the next, as though he had always intended to punch straight through one and into the other as part of his onslaught. As soon as the blow landed Imperious Imperious launched another punishing-thrust. This one from his right hand, which he sent hooking upwards, intent on planning a blow under the Starvampire's jaw.
The twin assaults turn the remaining Starvampire to ash.
All around him, Imperious sees the Starvampires’ minions fleeing for safety, the psychic control over them broken. The Tengu shriek and some, some lamenting the death of their ‘gods’, but, in the end, all flee, leaving Imperious and Nepenthe in quiet.
When the last of the Starvampires fell, Imperious looked out over the area, gauging the disposition of the Tengu. None pressed the attack. With the conflict over his blades dispersed. Turning his head to Nepenthe he allowed emerald green lenses to settle briefly on her.
"Check the remains for their possessions. I will see to the Godforge."
With that said he took a step back from Nepenthe and rose into the air, flying towards the Godforge. This bleak place's replacement for a sun. As he flew he asked Shi'Halal to reach out to the Godforge again, and he spoke to it.
"Korazzu and his subordinates have fallen. Do you intend to keep to your word/."
OOC wrote: Switching Shi'Halal's Arsenal Array to focus on Datalink and Enhanced Computers.
You survived. I am amazed at your will to live. I will keep to my word. Shall I disassemble this Resonance? I can do so right now, should you request it. I enjoy destruction, it has...finality——unlike so many OTHER things.
With his arms at his sides, head tilted upwards, Imperious flew onwards toward the Godforge. The queer distances in the place making the trip odd. The question had a complicated anwser. Lamassutu said that destroying the resonance would bring everything in it to Rustdeity. If that were accurate, which the Enginseer's information may not be, that could bring a host of parasitic Icons into the locate Datasphere.
"What will happen when the Resonance is disassembled? Would the inhabitants, or equipment the Starvampires brought here, be harmed? While I have no use for this pocket universe, those things interest me. There is a Resonance within this Resonance as well. What will become of it and the Icons within it?"
Laughter. They will all be lost to the outer edges of our own localized infinity, ejected to a place Beyond this one. They will be consumed by the malign things that lurk there. Maybe King Horse will eat them! Won’t that be grand! I do hope the fallen monarch does well in his dottage, but, with the Secondborn, it’s hard to tell.
As to the Resonance-within-a-Resonance? Why, it’ll simply be reconverted back to Useful Oblivion and sink into the Infinite Roots. Good riddance to bad rubbishy, I’d say!
That wasn't what Lucas wanted to hear. It was a good thing he asked. Drawing to a halt in his flight Imperious looked back towards the twisted representation of the Winter Palace that had been fashioned in this howling darkness. Imperious could have explained that so much meaningless destruction was wasteful in his eyes, but that likely did not matter to the object if destruction were part of it's inherent nature. A thing had to be true to it's nature.
"Then I am not ready to disassemble the Resonance. Do you know how the Starvampires transported people and equipment to and from here?"
More laughter. Of course. I see everything, here. I am all-knowing, albeit only in this one Resonance. Once I saw much further, but those times are dead in me. He kept his food in the Herdring, a building designed for livestock. He fed there, and made a merry disaster of those who rebelled against his word. I will miss Korazzu. He understood how things really are...and how they’ll all end up. Father delayed it for a very long time, but the Beast of Chaos will eventually waken. What a day that’ll be!
Imperious looked back in the direction of the Godforge. He allowed it to speak uninterupted. Some of the things it said were curious. Others seemed evasive distractions that Lucas discarded. He didn't know that the Starvampire was an awful person. The remarks about the Herd were noteworthy. It implied there were more than the Tengu here. Lives that would have been lost if the Resonance collapsed. More reason for taking care before acting.
"There will be plenty of death and destruction in my company. Even if our views are not the same, I have enemies and will no doubt gain more. Now tell me, how did Korazzu safely transport things to and from this place? Are you able to do that yourself and neglecting to inform me?"
Oh, fine. Be obstinent! He uses a wyrmtunnel, found under the Herdring. A leftover toy from the ever-aggravating iron dreamers. Do you know why they called them ‘iron dreamers’? Because their optimism. Simply. Wouldn’t. Die! Even as the Old Giants wiped them out, those delusional idiots never lost hope.
A word of warning about wyrmtunnels: they’re all connected. Carefully follow directions, or you might end up on a planet a billion and a half lightyears away. Stupid spacewhales never bothered to plot destinations. No! It was, “Let’s jump without looking and figure out the long, tedious way where we’ve ended up!” Idiots. No wonder they’re all dead.
