It is easy to decre war. Anyone do it. What is difficult is maintainiima the face of war. Many Divines view humans in the way one views a sword or a shovel. That sort of mentality bes no love nor call to a, it only justified when backed by the overwhelming strength of a Divie even among Divines. Divines like that do not eveo decre war, they remorselessly demand.

  I do not possess that strength, nor have I ever cimed to possess that strength, from the very beginning I was always basked by the shadow of Alsaria. For most Divines, a cause is required. A bea to rally against. War only be decred when something is on the lihe greater the dahe more authority I am given.

  Only a Divine has the power to drive oo seek e in Divinity’s bosom.

  - Excerpt from ‘The Philosophy of War’, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.

  Anassa gazed at the howling winds around them, at the clouds that brimmed with burning fmes, at the molten balls of magma falling from the sky, at the cracks in the ground, at the ravihat shook the surface of Arda, at the fming liquid metal and rock that surged upwards.

  Anassa gazed upon Worldbreaking.

  Essa saw Anassa looking up at her. As had been done all those turies ago, so was being done now. The self-procimed gatekeeper of Divinity, the sole false-t of Godhood. Deluded into majesty, wielding a bastardized art that Essa had oried to master. But she could not, her mind was far too stable, she was far too sao ever try and hahe delusions of sorcery.

  Anassa had e around just as the age of Worldbreaking was ing to a close. She had seen mountains rise, she had seen the rivers of magma, she saw the great storms, but she always assumed that she had missed the zenith of that era, when tis where cracked and os obliterated. But now, she stared up at Essa, she looked at the woman who had oaught her magid she grew… this feeling…

  It was almost disappointing.

  Was that it?

  Fire and fmes, rain and ruin, storms and sughter. It all had a crucial weakness, a fw that was fatal, that Essa could never prehend. It was all truthful reality, and truthful reality was only a matter of perspective. A handful of water was a flood of ages for an ant, a was merely a handful of water. Two truths, oy.

  Anassa appeared by Anassa, as if she was mirrored. And another, a fourth. Anassa spread out her arms and her form as her various inations followed. They made a barrier of bodies betweeral Requisitions, and the meteors above them.

  Kassandora rallied her men. She stabbed her bde into Iniri’s cracked wooden ptform, she raised the pace of the Orchestra. Fear? Terror? Awe? Who did Essa think she was? “LEGION!” She shouted. That was a good start. It was the sort of word that pulled upon the glories her men loved and respected and trembled at the thought of being aowledged as. “THE SKY BURNS! THE GROUND CRACKS!” It would be fruitless to try and pretend something wasn’t happening, when everyone could see it was. “YET YOU ARE HERE! LOOKING UPON WORLDBREAKING!”

  She quickly found the route, and the words started to flow louder than the swirling hurrie they stood in the tre in. “WILL YOU TREMBLE IN FEAR? WILL YOU LIE DOWN AND ACCEPT IT? WILL THE MIGHT OF DIVINITY DESTROY YOU? IS YOUR TERROR SO GREAT YOU FEAR FOR YOUR MORTAL LIFE? WHEN YOU MEET YOU AORS, WHAT WILL YOU TELL THEM? WILL THEY NOD AND UAND? WE ARE DEAD ALREADY! WE HAVE LOST A WE STRUGGLE! STRUGGLE AGAINST RUIN! STRUGGLE AGAINST DEATH! STRUGGLE AGAINST WORLDBREAKING! STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LOVE OF MORTALITY THAT BINDS YOU HERE! STRUGGLE UNTIL YOUR HEART STOPS AND TELL YOUR AORS THAT WHEN THE WORLD SHATTERED, YOU STRUGGLED. YOU STRUGGLED AGAINST IT ALL. YOU STRUGGLED UNTIL YOUR BODIES GAVE UP. YOU WILL STRUGGLE, BECAUSE THAT IS ALL YOU DO!” She found the cresdo, aarted to move.

  “DOES YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL LOVE THIS WORLD SO MUCH YOU WILL NOT CAST YOURSELF UPORUGGLE AGAINST WORLD’S END?”

  Fer got up as she looked at those stones. She felt Kavaa’s ble, it set fire withiomach as her fur grew thick, she gave her arms a shake and looked around at the soldiers around her. Men were aiming upwards, trying to find a clear shot at Essa without misfiring at any of the Anassas that stood there, arms spread out, sorceries brimming from their fiips. Kavaa’s blood was good, but it was not strong enough, her eyes found Kassandora. That was the blood she needed.

  Essa waved her staff again, the white crystal oaves’ tip fred with light once again, and a blue light came from it. Pure trated mana, the purest, rawest form of energy that existed on Arda, the very lifeforce of the world itself. With the surface cracked and exposed, it surged onwards. This location would bee a node for future leylines.

  Anassa spread her arms out. Crimson sorceries iwined iween her and her, it joined into a spiderweb. Her power started to rise, slowly at first and then faster and faster. It grew and grew, she could not pce a number on it, nor a parison, anything of the sort would reduce it, would drag it back down into the realm of reality.

  Her crimson dress whipped about in the wind. What was wind before a grand fortress. Too small. What was wind before a mountain? Nay, what was wind before the world? Anassa was of this world, she was on the level of Divines. She was a foundation in what made up Arda. Anassa was of the world, and the world was of Anassa. What was wind before the world? A mere tickle. It existed, but it was a mere breeze when viewed from that perspective. A red bst of light came from her, and her dress became calm in the wake of Essa’s apocalypse.

  She felt the heat of the molteeors of magma desding from above. What was heat before a stone? Not enough. What was heat before a volo? Nay. That was mere reality, words ed around themselves, words were a beautiful art. They flipped perspectives and cepts upside down as long as the user was skilled enough. What was heat before fire itself? Heat could not burn a fire, and who would not call Anassa as the spark of sorcery? And ark not just a fire? Anassa set alight with bright crimson fmes of sorcery, the other Anassa’s set alight at the same time. And a rush of hot air pushed the burning clouds away.

  Anassa felt the heat of Essa’s mana and Anassa smiled. All the Anassa’s smiled. What was mana? Essa herself described it as the life-force of this p. Could life kill life? Anassa blinked, her smile dropped. She was never wrong, but this had been the wrong path to delude oneself down. cer was untrolled life, and cer could kill life…

  And Anassa flipped the perspective. If life could kill life, then she was the former. The mana touched her and the burning stopped. This time, she was the endless cer. The stealer of life’s energy to selfishly fuel itself. It didn’t o make sense, Anassa simply had to believe it.

  And believe it, Anassa did, with her whole heart.

  Kassandora looked through the eyes of her troops. The artillery was foolish to use, it wouldn’t even touch Essa, and there was far too great of a ce for the falling shrapo injure Anassa or Fer. Or her own troops. That st one seemed like the most realistic ce of happening frankly. Through the sniper scopes, not at Essa, at the blindingly bright crystal at the end of her staff.

  And Kassandora felt Fer’s hand around her wrist. She sighed, if her sister needed blood, it was only up to her that she’d provide it.

  Anassa raised her hands and the storm arouinted red. She snapped her fingers, and crimson tendrils burst from her fiips, they smashed against those molten balls, tearing through them ainguishing the fires within. The tendrils spread out, faint drawings cast onto the fabric of reality, barely even with any colour as Anassa stretched her sciouso its limits. A hundred pairs of eyes, a thousand different brushes all painting simultaneously, eae ing around one of those burnieors and throwing it away.

  A storm of lead shot past her in a volley as Kassandora’s troops re-ahemselves. Essa merely waved her hand, the diamond at the end of her staff fshed as white as snow, and the bullets stopped in mid-air. They hit nothing, they did not bouhey merely stopped, and then helplessly dropped downwards. And another volley, to the same effect. A third. A forth.

  Anassa rose higher into the air as another Anassa raised her hands and fired a red beam into those bzing clouds. They colpsed upon themselves, as if an artist had taken an eraser and simply removed them from existence. She rose and rose and rose, until she was face to face with Essa. “It is over. Three against one.” Anassa said slowly.

  Essa merely smiled. She waved her staff, a bst of blue light shot at Anassa. That sort of power would be foolish to try and stop, there was only so much delusion a single mind could take while still prog some sembnce of coherence. Anassa took a step to the side and appeared oher side of Essa. “Essa!” Anassa hissed.

  Fer licks her lips to catch the st drops of Kassandora’s blood. There it was, a power most Divines could not replicate, a heart-warmihat raged within her, her muscles reshaped themselves to the tune of war as Kassandora’s Orchestra started its ow in Fer’s mind. “Thank you.” Fer said.

  Kassandora merely swung her arm, her hand torn where Fer’s jaws had ripped it apart. “Anytime sister.” She looked up at the sky, where Essa and Anassa were face to face. And Kassandora swung Joyeuse with that broken hand, as if the pain and wound was a mere sensation she could choose to ignore. “Now go.”

  “You will not defeat me.” Essa shouted as she spun around in the air, her staff trailing with a bze of blue fmes. She spun, her blue beam of mana through the crowds. Anassa took aep again. She… she did not want to kill Essa. It was ohing to sy mortals and lesser Gods. But Essa was one of a kind. The world would be less without her.

  “You are fag Kassandora. You have already beeed!” Anassa shouted bad spread her arms out. A flurry of sorcery erupted from around. Essa flicked her staff, her other hand moving in unison, and a shield of imperable pure mana absorbed the attack. “WE’VE WON ALREADY!”

  “A I am here.” Essa shouted back as fire burst around. The trees of tral Requisitions burst out in fme. Iniri rose into the air, carried by vines, eyes closed, as she the fortress began to beat its own fmes down.

  “And?” Anassa asked. “Here? There? Everywhere? So am I!” Several of the Anassas below disappeared, and more appeared around Essa. They unched atack, thin slices of sorcery, pin pricks aimed for Essa’s arms and legs.

  “Delusional!” Essa shouted, a bst of magic wiped the sorceries away. “DELUSIONAL ANASSA! You’ve deluded yourself into Godhood! You should have never been made! I MADE YOU! I WILL UNMAKE YOU!” Anassa shook her head as she took a step and once again re-appeared behind Anassa, close this time.

  “How I was made does not matter. I did it. Reality is many things, but reality aowledges I am Divine.” Anassa whispered and took a step back to avoid the bde of ice that fell onto her position.

  “Do not toy with me!” Essa screamed, fmes burst from her, snakes of fire with maws of ices that spiralled through the air and chased Anassa down. One Anassa disappeared, aook a step, another yet snapped her fingers and a bde of crimson light cut the magic chasing down, as if it was a real animal.

  “The world’s greatest strategist is on my side. It is simply a matter of fidence.” Anassa said as she rose higher. “You ot even hope to put a dent in that fidence! I have won.” Anassa rose into the air. “Because.” She snapped her fingers. “I know I have won.” And a beam of sorcery desded from the heavens above.

  Essa’s burning blue eyes flicked upwards, she moved her staff, a barrier formed. And magic met sorcery, the two energies tinting each other with their colours, until a purple sun shone above what remained of tral Requisitions.

  Anassa took a step, but Fer was faster. She shot from the ground like a bolt of lightning, with a speed unmatchable. Powered on by Kassandora’s blood, she burst through Essa’s barrier as Anassa ceased her magic. A cwed fist hit Essa in the chest and the Goddess’ eyes bulged. The fmes went out, to be repced by her natural sapphires. She coughed a over heaving for breath.

  And Essa looked down at her hands. Two pale hands. Two empty hands. Anassa caught Fer and swung her back to the ground as Essa’s magic weakened. She looked around frantically, and she saw the Goddess of Beast rolled into a ball, flying downwards, her tail ed around Essa’s white-wood staff. The diamond on its end that had been a ntern in worldbreaking now was nothing more than a precious and rge gemstone.

  Fer rolled onto the ground and Essa reached down. She elled what she could, with herself as a catalyst. A beam of blue energy shot from her hands, strong enough to fell even Iniri’s great oaks. A barrier of red stopped it as Essa started to lose height. She dropped and dropped, her hands trying to find magic, her mind trying to calm itself. That was the greatest staff ever made, grown for her, wielded by her.

  And as her tration dropped, Worldbreaking began to slow. The hurrie dropped its dusts, the winds slowed down, the fming clouds burned out. Essa did not care, she saw Fer drop, roll a back up. She saw the woman grab her staff with both hands. She saw her lift her knee.

  And all Essa could do was cry out. “NO!”

  And Fer she staff over her knee.

  And whilst Worldbreaking had only slowed, it now shattered. Essa lost her focus, she tumbled downwards onto the ground, saved only by a strand of red that chucked her to the same ptform Fer stood on. The Goddess of Beasthood weighed both pieces of her staff, her arms popped with veins, she grit her teeth, and both hands close, splitting the staff further into four. She dropped them all and wiped her hands together to get rid of the flecks of white sawdust. And golden eyes settled on Essa as the Goddess got to her knees. Ahood stepped forwards, nails twisting into cws as she found her prey.

  The Goddess of Magic shook, cried, blood leaked from her mouth, and she fell over, her head boung against the cold oak. The Goddess of Magily let out a pained moan, her arm outstretched to the white dust around Fer. A wind blew it away and tears formed in Essa’s eyes. But as of Magic y there, Of Sorcery stepped between Fer and Essa. Cold scarlet eyes met hot golden ones, and Anassa spoke. “You will not kill her. I do not allow it.”