Death, Devotion, Dissonance

*****

The third vision entered Endra\'s mind. 

This time, he did not find himself in any fancy place. He was on a flat plain, with a few pillar-like cliffs rising from the ground near him. There were at least a hundred of these pillars, and they seemed to be arranged in a certain shape, but Endra couldn\'t tell exactly. 

The sight made him think that the spot was not naturally made. But why would anyone do something like this, he couldn\'t say.

He patiently waited for the vision to show its characters, while he thought about the previous vision. For whatever reason, it was taking a while. 

\'After a century of living in the new world, the Twelve managed to resurrect themselves using some kind of ritual… But their souls were tampered by the Empress, so they were forced to act out of their control. They were forced to act as proper Calamities…\' 

That sounded like a good enough summary, but there were more details he had to consider.

\'But it\'s also likely that they were under control when they were the Hivemind in the first place. They didn\'t say it explicitly, but they made it obvious enough.\'

They had to write a fake guide on how to summon them, and because of that, it was also possible they were forced to do the ritual. Sure, their original goal was to reincarnate somehow, but Endra made an assumption that they wanted to stay as the Hivemind. 

He had no evidence, but he could see the advantages of staying as one giant, connected brain. 

The main reason were the Runes he saw on the pillars. More specifically, how little he knew of them. Granted, he wasn\'t a specialist, and the kingdom was especially stingy about imparting knowledge on Runes, but he at least knew every Supporting Rune. They were the basics of the basics, after all. 

If he could describe Main Runes as the skeleton and organs of a body, then Supporting Runes were the blood and flesh that filled in all the gaps. Without them, a mage could never make a functioning Talisman or device. 

On the pillar, there were Supporting Runes he could recognize. But there were also some that he couldn\'t. That alone spoke volumes about how magically advanced the Hivemind was.

Their complexity and variety rivaled the Runes that modern mages used.

In only one century, they were able to produce results that rivaled what it took 15 centuries for all the other countries. Granted, the Hivemind were piloted by the collective consciousness of twelve of the strongest mages of the era before the Empress, but even then, their progress was insane. 

\'I guess it\'s a good thing that the Hivemind are no more… Or should I say that it\'s a great loss?\'

Endra pondered about an alternate history where the Hivemind survived, but soon got back on track.

\'What\'s the third vision going to be about?\'

Slowly, shadows appeared on the field. One by one, the Twelve Calamities appeared. Their appearance and clothing were not of the time they left the Hivemind\'s ruined Capital, nor did they resemble what they wore before the Empire. 

They looked more worldly. 

They weren\'t particularly doing anything, though. Except, all their necks were crooked slightly. They were all looking towards something up above. 

Endra followed their gaze, and saw up there the Final Empress. 

He found himself kneeling instinctively, but he still could not pull his eyes away from her.

He saw many depictions of the goddess, but he felt that none of them could capture an iota of her essence. But that felt understandable. The depictions could only describe her appearance. If he was completely objective, the Empress was not a celestial beauty able to topple kingdoms with her face alone.

Even her clothing leaned towards modesty. She was wearing a simple black robe, which was accompanied by accessories of dark golden shine. A hairpin, a necklace, and a chest ornament made from a joining of circular motifs.

Beautiful clothing, but nothing mind-blowing. 

So, was it her gaze and expression that forced others to bow down to her instinctively? Not really. The Empress\'s gaze was sharp, and the slight golden hue coming from her eyes definitely gave her a divine feel, but Endra was not unfamiliar with such mythical beings. To him, the stormy-eyed woman who sent him here was more impressive. 

But there were few visual details that were proof of her divinity.

Endra couldn\'t tell how it was possible, but her jet-black hair flowed in an ethereal, almost liquid way. Countless lights shone unevenly inside it, giving them a majestic and celestial look. Endra was convinced that a universe was contained in them somewhere.

Then there were her hands. 

Seeing them, Endra\'s head hurt. It was as if her hands were constantly blurred. Even when they moved a slight bit, afterimages would appear in their trail. 

\'The Myriad Arm Goddess…\' 

Another title of the Empress popped up in his head. 

If her title were to be trusted, the Empress had countless arms attached to her two shoulders. They didn\'t need to have space to accommodate them each though. Similar to what happened to the objects that spirits touched, they could exist while overlapping with each other, hence the after-image-like, blurry effects. 

But those were things that everyone could learn. 

The thing that put the Empress above everyone else was simple. It was so simple, that there wasn\'t even a need to think so much about it. She felt different. 

Even a human like Endra, who was said to have the worst instincts among animals, could feel the simple difference of status. 

The Empress exuded an aura that rivaled the cosmos.

Then, an absurd thing happened. The Empress of the vision glanced at Endra for a brief moment, before directing her attention towards the Twelve Calamities. 

"Well," she spoke with a smile on her face. "How have you liked my little world?"

The question could\'ve been for Endra, but he knew it wasn\'t so.

"Just kill us already," one of the Twelve, Lan, groaned. 

"Such a waste," the Empress hummed. She seemed to enjoy the situation. "How could I do something like that when you\'ve so graciously put yourselves in my hand?"

"Then what do you want from us? Just for experiments?"

"For the most part, yes. Simple things, really. How would a race who could share their thoughts progress, what kind of magic will you all be able to develop and how fast, how would the peak of the old age fit into the new world… Things of that nature."

"That last one didn\'t go so well, did it?" the Sinmother added with a bitter chuckle.

"Yes. Although you all are forced to act the way you do, your powers are too much to handle for others. It\'s a boring solution, but I must impose hard restrictions on the stronger beings of the continent. The godlings shall not be able to leave their homes, and the countries shall learn the Oaths to control their mages."

"Good for them… but what will happen to us?" the Father of Beasts spoke.

"You have no more questions?" the Empress tilted her head. "As old acquaintances, I feel that I at least owe you some answers."

The Twelve looked among each other and they shook their head. Even Lan, who seemed the most hot-headed of the bunch, only sighed slowly. 

"We\'ve had a lot of time think," Ori spoke. "I\'m sure each of us have reached our own conclusions."

"Is that so?" 

The Empress looked disappointed, but she seemed to have expected the outcome.

"Then I won\'t keep you waiting any longer."             

A sickle materialized in her hand as she descended to the ground. Its curves were much more acute compared to normal sickles, and its edge had an eerie sheen to it. She graciously held it with one of her hands.

Then, some of her hands rose slowly and pointed at the Twelve Calamities. Endra could count eleven of them, and they were pointing at everyone by Ori.

"I Deny you your bodies."

Decreeing so, the Empress cut off the eleven hands with her sickle.

The moment the arms were cut off, only Ori and the Empress were left behind on the plane. From the others, only their clothes remained. The eleven arms fell to the ground unceremoniously and turned to dust. 

"Khgh!" Ori grimaced as she fell on the ground, clutching her head. 

It did not take her long to start frothing at the mouth, her whole body shaking uncontrollably. "Take them out! Please!"

Despite the girl\'s suffering, the Empress watched impassively from above her. She wore a stern expression, but there was something else in it. \'You deserve this,\' the expression seemed to say.

Endra could not understand why the Empress would think that.

Ori\'s seizure stopped. She was still, but from her groans Endra could tell she was awake.

"Sit," the Empress ordered.

Sluggishly, the girl assumed a seiza positions.

"This is revenge for Von."

"I understand," Ori managed.. "We are forever regretful for the fall of your nation."