The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building] Chapter 260 – All Heaven Above

The inclusion of Elassa in the White Pantheon has fundantally shifted the dynamic, although that is only natural when a Goddess appears who represents magicians. If it was up to alone, then I would have kept Elassa as a client and deal with her in the sa way we deal with countries, not individuals. Alas, she fought in the Great War, she did do her fair share.

Unlike Divine Orders, whether it be Clerics, Guardians, Paladins or Seekers, mages are fundantally a different class of people. Orders can be described as military organisations, none have a life-vow amongst the lower ranks, and all selectively recruit candidates. Whereas one is or is not a magician. There is no such thing as leaving Elassa’s desne, one can’t unlearn what they have learned. In the sa fashion that hearing Kassandora’s music addicts one to the taste of War, Elassa’s thirst for discovery is just as addicting.

So while the mages follow Elassa’s commands in the sa fashion Orders listen to their respective Divine, mages are not an Order. It is this discrepancy that brings about my largest issue with Elassa. If a Paladin were to strike a man down in the middle of the street, then I would pay for it. Order responsibility is inherently collective, Magician responsibility is kept individual. Elassa simultaneously tries to pretend she is a single Divine, in the likes of Iniri, yet she is powerful enough to be second to Allasaria, whilst also giving Magicians the benefits of Orderhood, whilst also representing her people as a nation-state.

It is not that I vie for power, but I cannot abide by this hypocrisy. Elassa’s influence must be curtailed. I am sure that Fortia and even Helenna will agree with .

- Private Writings of Goddess Maisara, Of Order. Written shortly after the Great War, before Maisara voiced support for Anassa’s imprisonnt and the transition of Arcadia from a War College.

“We will have to stay at least a kilotre in the air. I’d prefer two, but one should be enough.” Kassandora said as the doors of Raptor One started to open. They had taken Lyca’s and Eliza’s team with them. Raptor Two was carrying Fleur’s and Edmonton’s close behind them. “Otherwise the n might start getting called.” Sothing in Kassandora doubted that sorcerers would fall prey to the Jungle’s whispers. If they managed to survive Anassa’s awakening, they should be strong enough to resist the trees below, but sorcerers were too valuable to waste on testing. Elassa herself, Kassandora was already sure she would not. The woman simply did not the character to fall to madness like that.

“I’ll hold you then.” Elassa said.

“Not a sorcerer?”

“Do you trust or so mortal?” Elassa asked coldly, Kassandora saw the sorcerers in the back all turn away. So were ashad, like Eliza, so took it as a fact. Lyca did not seem happy about the comnt, although it was true. Did they really think themselves better than Gods?

“We’ll go first then.” Kassandora said as she walked past the sorcerers. Forty people on Raptor One, with the plane refurbished to make room for ammunition storage, made the rear a tight fit and she consciously avoided stepping on toes. Not out of politeness, but she knew that with her weight, there would be more than a few broken bones if she did.

Elassa followed close behind. Kassandora grabbed her hand as the rear doors started to open. The Goddess of War clicked her earpiece. “Douglas, how much further are we before the stomach?”

“I see it already. Three seconds and I’d be jumping.” Kassandora grabbed Elassa and looked out past the edge of the rear door. The mont she saw the telltale sign that they had arrived: the sudden cliff-face that was the only part not flood by shrubbery and trees and other plants in the Jungle, its surface the colour of aged bone, Kassandora grabbed Elassa and jumped.

Ultimately, Kassandora had never been a trusting person. It was much better to have so leverage over a person than to simply go ahead and simply trust them. Arascus and Fer were much better in this regard. Even Olephia was. Kavaa and Iniri and maybe Helenna, although to Kassandora, she didn’t look like much of a truster. So she had never taken the ring off Elassa, not for that entire flight, not for the briefing, not once. Elassa had not asked, whether it was pride or simple assurance that Kassandora would eventually, the Goddess of War did not know. But whatever the case, they now fell, holding each other’s hands, looking into each other’s eyes. Kassandora’s fingers travelled along Elassa’s until she felt the ring. There was no other way, for Elassa to use magic, Elassa had to be able to use it. For that to happen, Kassandora had to trust that the woman would not imdiately go back on her word. Kassandora blinked as she made a stupid realisation.

Kassandora was afraid.

And with that knowledge, she simply ignored the feeling, sequestered it off sowhere, and ripped Anassa’s containnt ring off Elassa’s finger. Kassandora felt the air catch her imdiately, it was nothing like Anassa’s grasping claw that carried her like a child through the air. Instead, it was a soft pillow of air Kassandora landed and stood up in as Elassa correct her posture. Behind her, the eighty-four sorcerers jumped out of the two Raptor jets. The planes did not slow even for a mont, the mont they had deposited their cargo, the sped off into the horizon. Once their rear doors had finished closing, they both broke the sound barrier and veered off into the distance.

Kassandora looked down War’s Orchestra began to play its tune. She saw the Jungle’s maw, those teeth, one chipped. That must be the one Fer had broken through back then during their escape. The mouth, from straight above, the ivory bones in the inside of that pit were visible. The Jungle around her, an endless sea of green that flooded into ravines and slowly clambered over mountains. A few of the sorcerers ca into view as they descended to et Elassa and Kassandora.

And War’s Orchestra reached them. They had already agreed, and Kassandora had told them to embrace her, so they did. They froze in the air as war started to fuel war. Their senses were shared in an overpowering manner, each man looking through each man’s eyes, and Kassandora through them all as she arranged them in lines. The four most senior sorcerers closest by, as each person fuelled themselves independently, yet also using Kassandora’s orders. She told them to stay at her level, so they did, how was unimportant: So stood on the air, others sat on seats of hardened wind, others yet simply floated on giant invisible cushions of sorcery. And Kassandora reached to Elassa.

Kassandora felt Elassa’s mind reach through hers. The tune of War’s Orchestra changed, from the slow drums and violins to organs and flutes. Their tunes danced around each other, fading out as others took their place. Elassa started to sing her tune, and the sorcerers followed. From the green Jungle underneath, it was all black specks in the sky, as if they were dirty pieces of stuck in one’s eye. Elassa moved them long a spiral, each magician raising their arms and mirroring Elassa’s movents.

Elassa started chanting. The sorcerers followed.

The sorcerers flew higher, their bodies used as catalysts for Elassa’s power. Kassandora heard the tune of War Orchestra’s change once again as Elassa’s voice copied itself out in a choir, of her notes adding to the gentle tune as the Goddess guided the mortals through Kassandora. They spread out, Kassandora did not even bother to try and figure out the ritual circle, nor the words they had started to chant. The glowing around person amplified, light started to swell and distort around them as the Jungle scread out from below. Kassandora only stood, frozen in the air, as Elassa kept on guiding her magic.

For once, she had co across sothing that was not her desne.

And Kassandora stood there as the Jungle scread out from below. When they were this far up though, there was nothing the trees below could do but watch. So they scread. Vines shot upwards, yet they only managed to cross half their distance before coming to a stop. They strained in the air, they Jungle scread again, the teeth around the Jungle’s stomach started to close. Kassandora smiled at the reaction, one of them was chipped, where Fer had smashed through it on the way out when they rescued Iniri.

That wasn’t even so long ago, yet it felt like a different age. “I have co back.” Kassandora said to it. She didn’t even know if they Jungle could hear it, for once though, she allowed herself to indulge. “You should have killed when you got the chance.” Kassandora took a deep breath as beams of pure light blue mana, magic distilled into its most raw form, shot upwards from the sorcerers. “Now, weep as you watch at how killing is done.”

And another beam shot from Elassa as the woman raised her hands. The sorcerers all copied the motion, a few shifted position as the spell they were casting started to have an effect. The winds around them started to twist and blow as they circled. As if Kassandora was stood in running water that rapidly changed temperatures, the wind ca on her hot at first, then freezing cold, then warm. Dust started to form a rolling curtain around them as the flutes and organs playing through War’s Orchestra started to pick up.

And then, it all died down. Everything went silent. Even the instrunt playing in Kassandora’s mind started gave up. The curtains of dust collapsed, even the Jungle was silent. Yet magic still poured out of the sorcerers and out of Elassa. The winds started to pick up speed again, pulling everything upwards as if trying to rip the Jungle out by the roots. Kassandora looked down as she saw the trees and vines retreating. The maw had shut entirely, the only sliver still visible of the inside was through the little chipped tooth.

And Kassandora looked up. She saw the Sun fade away. Its fantastic light, its heat and warmth were dulled as a blanket of night ascended from out of Elassa. It spread out like a slow flood or the beginnings of an avalanche as it devoured the bright blue sky away. And in ca the night to replace it, not Irinika’s overpowering darkness, so black that it was difficult to breath, but the most beautiful sky Kassandora had ever seen. As if all heaven above had co to visit Arda.

Auroras sauntered across the sky in greens and purples and reds and oranges as vivid galaxies lit up the background. All pale shades of cream that gently oscillated in colour, and moved and swayed as if they were specks of dirt floating on a puddle of disturbed water. Stars shot across the sky, from any and every direction, but always out of Kassandora’s vision, until they settled in their positions and ford shapes and constellations Kassandora had never seen. All heaven above started to move.

Chains of rocky asteroids stretched in belts across new sky as they intertwined themselves between planets. Plantes red, planets blue, planets green, orange and brown and pink and cyan. Gas giants ford as the galaxies started to condense. The stars burst out in lights and started to smash against each other. Worlds cracked as the rocks above crashed into them, and the gas giants set alight. All heaven above burst out in fla and fire.

Not Worldbreaking. That had been done before. This was sothing greater. Sothing that had never been tried before. Yet why? It was not impossible; it had simply never been done before. So it was.

All heaven above started to fall.