Prickly

  A shattered fragment of space appears where the figurine once was, and out of it emerges a worm with legs like Katherine's. The extradimensional worm Esstrey entered there, a creature with no name, and a written history of singur enters across billions of realities. A being that prefers to ambush its prey, and never be heard from again. It doesn't have the greatest eyesight, but the blinding light in the room is hard not to miss. A roar from the beast betrays its cks of intelligence, but the destru it causes in the spatial fabric as it flies through the cathedral is not to be uimated. It charges at Melthazar, i on adding the shining light to its colle.

  Melthazar responds with a ssh of his own, thermonuclear heat ripping a gash into the worm, while the legs of the creature pletely dodge the attack, taking their own piece of burning god-flesh from Melthazar iurn. The main body of the worm is tough, but it cks the ease with which it shift out of space like it's legs. It retreats out of space before Melthazar follow up his attack, only to return instantly from a different angle, ahat it's prey is fighting back.

  "Hold him down!" There's frustration irey's voice, but before Zha'klos question her for it Esstrey retreats out of space herself, shifting to a different area much like the worm. Cathy and Sofia already take up position to dey Melthazar, with Sofia having salvaged her half-molten husk. Some soldiers still live and respond to the call to hold, but their numbers dwindle rapidly as the two Gods battle it out across the cathedral.

  "You dare bring this thing into my sacred hall? Crawling maggots serving a rotten worm deserve to burn!" A bst of light erupts from Melthazar, it scorches the nameless worm, while f Cathy and Zha'klos to retreat.

  "She better get back here quick, I don't pn on dying alone."

  "Where is it? Where the FUCK is it?" Esstrey rummages through the crater where a mansion oood, the entire enviro away from the crater is hit with worse divine corruption than is located in all of Brynya, but the crater is empty of it.

  "You fought them once, don't tell me you get destroyed that easily! FIGHT!" More dirt is dug up, until Esstrey finds a small piece of something golden, ner than a .

  Another drive-by by the nameless worm, and another exge of blows between Gods. They are roughly evenly matched, but Methazar fights in his home, while the worm fights for its meal. Esstrey's various allies are overexterying to taihazar, as the livid God of light no longer seems to care for his own temple in an attempt to destroy the worm. Zha'klos is baded out of the air, Sofia is stomped underh his charge, and Cathy almost gets disied by his bde as the God makes tact with the being that ihis mess into his home. One more exge with the worm, and it finally leaves material space, frustrated that the prey fights back.

  Melthazar turns to the remaining Malens, rage still clear behind his helmet. Another dimensional rip opens above him, the worm trying to atta futility again?

  The rip in space doesn't spit out the worm, but the mermaid instead. Melthazar thrusts his bde upward, i on disiing the pesky roach re-entering bat. Instead of disiion, or even impalemerey uses blood magic to shift her body out of the way midair, she throunch, ohat should do nothing.

  By some stroke of luck, or remnants of battle-instinct long fottehazar attempts to dodge. The punch falls short, hitting his side instead of his chest. Instead of Esstrey's cw disiing, she takes a whole k out of the God instead, as if he were made of paper. Melthazar attempts to retreat, but Esstrey keeps up her assault, f Melthazar back. A small refle of somethiallies from inside Esstrey's cw, a natural result of two diviies being that close to each other.

  [Sliver of [Judgement]]

  A small piece from the st time Esstrey killed gods, a remnant of another being filled with hatred towards the core worlds, the perfect tool for killing immortal arrogance. Melthazar is all too familiar with the properties of this specific artifact, ohat strips the defenses of those who have sinned... except that the sins are built from small and irrational infras, causing the ones who live loo suffer more u. With Melthazar being one of the oldest entities, there is little he do against the cw with the artifact.

  That's fihere is only one cw.

  Melthazar jumps high, bstirey's area with light so powerful that the result is even the smoke normally left behiing pletely disied. Melthazar looks for the mermaid, not seeing her i, but dares not assume her demise. He's proven right, the mermaid cws his leg off, having appeared from a more stable portal nearby. Cathy assisted Esstrey, having granted her Lady a little bit of a jump. Melthazar responds in kind, sshing his bde at Esstrey's cw carrying the artifact. He loses the bde in the process, but gains the upper hand again as the Malens no longer have a feasible way of killing him.

  "Leave heretics, and never e back. To opposse me is futile, to tinue fighting is folly. I will let you go in reition of your strength, you mortals need not make this the day you die." A calmly stated appeal, and a genuine one as well. oint in fighting is there if the people he fights will die of age so soon anyway? Still, to offer mercy... if any Gods from other realms saw him right now, it must have looked like he's pying with ants. A disgraceful chapter ihazar's history he already wants tet. Esstrey holds the stump of where her right arm used to be, but her eyes never lose sight of Melthazar.

  "You don't get it... I've been dead for a long time... this was the day I lived." With Esstrey's words, Katherine's legs erupt from her back, and tear into the fabric between dimensions around her. Holes that all lead to different ps uhe Veil], one final effort.

  Magic is a fually ceptual force. A simple mantra repeated frequently irey's education of magie that had always stuck with her. cepts from people, cepts from animals, even pnts influence magic. Gods are... collective wills given form, powerful entities yes, but in the end are artificial creations of magic. The collective sciousness of trillions of entities, shaped to be what they are believed to be. The people uhe Veil] know of Esstrey, and they collectively fear her. A seemingly unhindered rise to power, followed by the greatest invasion the worlds had ever seen. While it isn't the kind of invasion to succeed, it never o. The fact the worlds were attacked in the first pce was enough already. [The tral Governor] usually monitors aes the flow of maween worlds, preventing cases where any media celebrity would undergo assiorey has just opened up holes to all the different ps pletely ued, allowing the beliefs of everyoo flood into her.

  She's believed to be a monster? So be it.

  Prickly