Alert: A Dark Destiny

Your influence over the domain of fate and your ties to dwarves were so significant that even as an echo of the god you once were, you deserve to know what you are about to be told. Prepare yourself, vestige of Morehammer, for what you are about to learn and the decisions you make based on that knowledge will influence the destinies of entire worlds.

A newborn deity is about to set in motion events that may permanently alter the destiny of the dwarven species. Althos, a lesser deity who has acquired a plethora of dark powers, is aiding a powerful dark-dwarf in her insatiable, insane quest for vengeance against her sister. He has given her considerable power, and even now then they are on their way to accomplish her goals.

Althos knows not the long-standing and possibly permanent consequences of what may come from aiding the dark-dwarf, Ava. Even his particular version of the system is not fully aware of what may happen if he continues on his current path. He does not yet possess influence over the domain of fate so his particular version of the system is infantile in its knowledge.

Althos is now within the island that the humans of Torus call "Puerto-Rico". He and Ava are minutes away from accomplishing their goals. In minutes Ava may believe she has achieved her vengeance against Aoife, her sister. And if she comes to believe that, then odds are there is no going back.

You once fought to prevent the emergence of a god of dark-dwarves. As valiant and as persistent as your efforts were, they may turn out to be for naught unless you act now. If you do not use what remains of your power to intervene and lay-low the machinations of this alien god, the dwarven race may begin down a path like that of the elves or the unicorns, one that permanently divides them.

Vestige of the once-mighty Morehammer... Will you act? Will you save your people, from the ignorant clutches of a newborn god of corruption and ambition? Are you willing to sacrifice what remains of your might, if it means your people get to continue to be united?

One of the greatest secrets Atlantis' Emerald Palace contained was a number of utterly impenetrable barriers deep within its darkest and most obscure reaches. These barriers were composed of incredibly potent divine energy, pure power that prevented anyone from bypassing them. The secrets these barriers contained were not known to mortals, and even most versions of the system were ignorant of the true natures of the treasures these barriers protected.

Past the third and final barrier laid a small nave, a rectangular chamber once intended to house members of a congregation during services dedicated to the ancient chief of the dwarven gods: Morehammer. It was here that a solitary, strange, and ethereal being wandered eternally.

This mysterious entity had the superficial appearance of a powerfully built, armed, and armored dwarf. He wore armor made of golden-colored and gleaming metal and had on a helm that was covered in images of hammers both for construction and for war. This dwarf stood a bit under one and a half meters tall and had long brown hair that spilled freely out of his helm and down to his back.

He had a tense look on his face. He was deep in thought.

"What do I do here?" He asked himself. He was mentally scanning through his still considerable list of powers, but he was finding none that he could use to warn anyone of the danger to the future that was going on elsewhere.

After the vestige spent a few moments searching through the hundreds of powers he possessed, he realized that the system may indeed have been correct when it cryptically suggested that he may need to sacrifice what remained of his might to intervene and save his people from a dreadful destiny. And Morehammer, or at least what remained of Morehammer after the true deity was slain half a million years ago, thought about whether or not he would do that. While he did so he closed his eyes.

"Has the time finally come to begin to end my eternal existence? Is it finally time for me to cease to exist?" The vestige asked. A number of emotions were audible within his voice. Fear, excitement, curiosity, and even a twinge of hope would have been audible to anyone who was able to hear him. But no one did.

Perhaps the worst part of the vestige's eternal existence was his inability to be heard by anyone else. The vestige was utterly alone and so deep within the bowels of the palace the dwarves had built that no one could hear him. And as a vestige, many common godly powers were lost to him such as the ability to establish mental links or to communicate with mortals through dreams. If he truly wanted too he could sacrifice his own might to use these abilities, but doing so would permanently weaken him.

Morehammer's echo smiled as he realized, after considering his situation, that it was time to begin to hasten the end of his eternal existence. In life the dwarven god had been a valiant hero who went to great lengths to protect his people. In death, he figured he ought to do the same. He came to this realization with the blinding speed that was possible only for a god or their echo.

"For the sake of my creations... I shall finally begin to move again." The vestige declared. There was joy in his voice.

"I shall not abandon even a single daughter of mine to the darkness of an ignorant, newborn god." The phantom of a deity declared. His eyes were beginning to glow as he spoke. The vestige sighed after he finished speaking, and began readying himself for what was to come.

I starred into the portal in front of me. It showed me a sight from many hundred kilometers away, the depths of a mine I carved by hand. The mine's interior was dark, almost pitch-black. Only the faint luminescence of some of the stones within the mine radiated a gentle glow that showed us the way.

My servants and worshipers all turned to look at me. Their eyes were filled with anticipation and I chuckled at them. I took the few steps I needed to take to cross the distance separating me from the portal, and then through it.

I stepped into the mine with ease and found myself standing face to face with a thick, dark wall. The dark wall was composed of the natural stone that filled most of the space within this hand-carved tunnel. My eyes were easily able to peer through the dark stone and identify the assortment of secretive natural treasures located within the mine, but I knew my servants wouldn't be able to so easily see through this unaided. Without breaking a sweat I easily gave all of them the ability to see in the dark, so to make travel a bit easier. I then stepped to the side while motioning for them to follow me.

As I moved to give my forces more room to come through, I gently placed a hand on the wall in front of me and willed it to collapse. The wall obeyed me, crumbling quite easily and filling the tunnel with noise. I knew that that would happen. Doing this much was well within my capacity as an elemental overlord, and indeed I could do so much more than just cause earthen walls to fall apart at my touch.

Of all of my elemental powers, the one I was the most familiar with was that of the earth. Between the earth powers, I possessed through the earth subdomain and the subdomain of agriculture, as well as the generalized elemental overlord powers I possessed a keen awareness of the earth and a number of considerable powers through it that I could wield.

The earth at my feet was my friend, my ally. I not only controlled stones and sand, but even dirt and soil were mine to command. And my oldest detection based ability was one based on powers over the earth itself, a potent ability to be aware of anyone or anything else with feet on the earth.

Beside me, a number of creatures were crossing through the portal I created. Demons, undead myremekes, and Ava stepped through the portal I had made while studying the sights before them. They all had excited looks on their faces and a number of emotions visible in their faces. I smiled at them and then began to speak.

"We are minutes away from finally accomplishing Ava's dream. All we have to do is find Aoife. And kill her." I told the assembled creatures. As soon as I was finished speaking, I began to set in motion another part of my grand scheme.

An instant after the word "her" left my lips, I cast a powerful illusion over the diverse crowd of dark-hearted beings. An explosion of light radiated out of me and filled the vision of my targets with potent, hypnotic light. It also instantly filled the minds of the targets with colorful images and absorbed all of their attention. Their eyes widened and their faces grew slack, even those of the demons. My potent "Divine illusionist" ability was no doubt responsible for this success.

I waited for a second to ensure that they weren't aware of me. I performed a surface-level examination of their minds using my basic mind-reading powers and found that they were well and truly distracted. When I was sure that they were, I teleported myself out of the mine and elsewhere. To the room in which Aoife and her pseudo-clone were currently waiting for something to happen or for instructions from me to arrive.

In an instant, my surroundings instantly shifted from the interior of the mine to the simple room in which two dwarves were patiently looking at each other. Both almost leaped out of their seats when they noticed me beside them at the front of the strange island around which they positioned themselves. I chuckled at the pair and began to speak.

"Hello, you two. The time is almost upon us. Even now, Ava awaits you." I informed them, as they began to recover their composure. Aoife glared at me as I revealed this and I calmly smiled at her. I could tell that a part of her was unnerved by my unflappable nature right now. To be fair to her she hadn't interacted directly with me all that much so it was unsurprising that she found my behavior strange. That said, she wasn't my main focus at the moment. I turned my attention to my creation.

"You are the star of the performance we're going to be putting on." I told her, speaking frankly. Without her I'd need to risk Aoife, and one way or another at least one of the two sisters would die. She looked at me curiously, and I reached out and grabbed her hand. It felt rough, calloused, and strong.

As I did so I quietly activated my "tactile teaching" power. I shared every single one of Ava's and Aoife's memories with the strange clone, filling her up with two lifetimes of knowledge, experience, and memories. Her consciousness was suddenly taken from her by the potency of what I was doing and how much of her mind it took from her at once.

As I activated my strange power, the clone froze and her eyes began to almost violently radiate a powerful, silvery light. I could feel her brain reacting, painfully to the sudden and incredible overload of knowledge, experience, and memories. I chuckled and began to pour potent holy-energy directly into her mind.

The holy-energy poured into her brain and began to undo the harm and pain she had suffered from the sudden backlash of receiving too much information in any form. The silvery light her eyes were radiated began to increase in intensity, but a smile lit up her face. Her brain was adjusting to the information properly, all while the holy energy made her feel comfortable and experience temporary bliss.

Aoife and I sat in uncomfortable silence until the silvery light radiating out of the clone's eyes began to dim a bit. As it did, the clone began to move. She was gradually regaining consciousness.

"Hello, Aoife." I said, referring to the clone. My eyes were locked on her face. She tilted her head in my direction and smiled at me.

"Hello, creator." She told me. Her voice was gentle, calm, and relaxed. She knew everything now. Everything she needed to know. And she understood Ava's point of view. She did know both sides after all.