Lightkiller Bugs
The sun of the World of G.o.ds represented the law of light, being the source of energy for most secondary planes. The prime material plane, the various outer planes, even the divine kingdoms of the G.o.ds had grown accustomed to harnessing its energy, making it a natural condition for many things to grow.
Such things were normally taken for granted. Only when it was lost would one experience true horror! Multiple worlds entered darkness when Leylin devoured the sun, causing many beings to weep and wail. They all prayed to the G.o.ds, but to no avail.
Lathander’s face grew ashen in the Celestial Hall. He was the Morninglord, someone closely connected to the sun’s glory. With the sun devoured, he suffered heavy injuries.
*Cras.h.!.+* His pedestal shattered immediately as he fell down the ranks. He’d become a lesser G.o.d in an instant, about to fall if not for several other greater G.o.ds helping him.
“Argh… My sun! Dendar!” He roared in rage once his divine force stabilised, his expression contorting.
However, several evil G.o.ds looked at him in a different manner. The Morninglord was someone at odds with evil, and he offended them regularly. If not for the Magus infiltration uniting them all, they would definitely have attacked and killed him right away.
*Boom!* Multiple explosions sounded out in the Celestial Hall, as all the G.o.ds of the sun and light fell from grace. Lathander was actually lucky, several intermediate and lesser G.o.ds had just died immediately! It was like when the moon exploded, their fates extremely pitiable.
The G.o.ds in the Celestial Hall blanked out, unable to recover from the shock.
“Not good!” Oghma exclaimed, “Our plans to migrate our wors.h.i.+ppers to our divine kingdoms… Even if we can create light and heat inside our divine kingdoms, we won’t be able to fulfill the requirements… Our gates were built on the sun’s energy, they’ll need to be rebuilt!”
Divine kingdoms were supported by faith, but they also used several other energy sources as well. The sun was chief amongst them. G.o.ds were extremely stingy beings, so they’d rather use convenient things like the sun and the Weave to reduce their consumption of divine force when they constructed their divine kingdoms.
With the ability to warp reality, G.o.ds could indeed create small suns in their divine kingdoms. However, this would consume divine force, a precious resource that came from the faith of their wors.h.i.+ppers!
The prime material plane was wrought with disaster, and the Weave had been destroyed. The G.o.ds would have to struggle if they couldn’t expend their resources at times like these, but Oghma had discovered that they were at a deadlock. They needed wors.h.i.+ppers to win this war, but now they needed the power of faith to move their wors.h.i.+ppers into their divine kingdoms… They didn’t have the resources right now to do so, which meant their wors.h.i.+ppers would dwindle as the prime material plane was wracked by disaster.
This vicious cycle was the root of Leylin’s strategy, striking at the foundation of the G.o.ds and shattering it. His own divine kingdom was in Baator, and in the worst case he could just turn all his wors.h.i.+ppers into devils. The worst that could happen was the loss of a puppet controlled by the A.I. Chip. On the other hand, the G.o.ds would have to give their very lives up!
Doron sat paralysed on the ground within the prime material plane, unable to bother about the belongings that meant the world to him. He was staring up at the sky, his mouth wide open.
What had he just seen? Nine heads had suddenly appeared in the sky, merging into one and swallowing the sun! And then?
Darkness! Darkness enveloped the world, causing him to strain his eyes to see anything at all. He almost felt like he was dreaming.
The camp had descended into chaos. Wailing and weeping resounded throughout the city, the end of the world that the priests had warned them off had actually arrived! The innate fear that caused was enough for a person to suffer a mental breakdown!
“Don’t panic, be still!” Holy light radiated from the priests’ hands, barely illuminating their surroundings. Doron saw only fear on the faces of the others, some of them scared silly. The sun being swallowed was like the skies collapsing!
“Check the teleportation gate!” the bishop ordered.
The priests went up quickly, but after several failed attempts they reported back helplessly, “Not good… The door to the divine kingdom has been destroyed. The Lord’s divine kingdom has s.h.i.+fted as well, so we’ll need to relocate.”
“Then what are you waiting for?!” The bishop frowned, but very soon his expression changed again.
“The Lord has sent a decree! Stop all plans to s.h.i.+ft the wors.h.i.+ppers…” Fear shrouded the bishop’s face as he spoke of the holy decree word by word.
“What?” The priests were shaken. All along they’d believed that the Lord’s divine kingdom would save them even if the prime material plane lost the sun and headed for doom. However, the plans had been halted. It was like they’d been kicked off the ark that was supposed to shelter them from the apocalypse!
The news wasn’t kept secret, spreading very quickly. The refugees quickly began to howl and clamour, with even the paladins and knights unable to maintain order anymore. They themselves could no longer determine their own future and fate! There were even some who joined the ranks of the refugees in their outburst.
“Everyone, quiet! We…” The bishop saw things go south, but it was already too late to fix the situation. The clamour grew louder and louder, eventually becoming a violent mob. Doron was caught up as well.
A wave of rioters surged forth, stomping, kicking, and cursing incessantly. Many were trampled to death under the stampede, grabbing the priests and night in despair as they used any and every weapon available to them to vent their resentment and despair. Some officials were even torn to shreds.
The mob finally lit a large fire, tossing everyone who couldn’t escape inside it. The priests and knights were gobbled up by the fire as the rioters watched their struggles in happiness.
*Buzz!* Doron was at the outer perimeter of the rioters, still managing to maintain his rationality. It was at this moment that his ears picked up a large buzzing noise.
“Strange, what’s that?” He raised his head, seeing a giant green bee in front of him. It opened its mouth, letting more bugs fall down.
“Argh!” The rioter closest to the fire had his face pierced by the vile bugs, each the size of a human head. Their sharp stings immediately pierced through his skin, causing him to leak blood profusely as he screamed in agony.
The wailing suddenly stopped. The bug had already pierced through his brain.
“Argh… Monster! MONSTER!” Screams resounded as everyone beat a retreat, clearing up the area quickly. Adventurers and soldiers moved forward, attacking the bodies of these bugs with sharp swords.
A corrosive green substance fell to the ground as the bugs died, but the few kills had no impact whatsoever. The bugs began to blot out the skies, with hundreds of thousands, even millions of them descending upon the prime material plane. Several Professionals were killed in a short time.
The buzzing continued to grow louder, coupling with the screams to form a sort of living h.e.l.l.
“It’s fire! They were attracted by the fire!” Doron’s outstanding observational abilities led him to discover that there were more bugs gathered around the fire. He screamed out his discovery, dropping the torch in his hands as he ran into the darkness.
“Your Excellency Leylin, what do you think of this batch of Lightkiller Bugs?” A giant colony of hives had been erected within the marshlands of the prime material plane, giant green bugs swarming out from the hives.
Leylin was alongside Mother Core, looking at these bugs that blotted out the sky, destroying everything in their paths.
“This is a lower bound of the colony’s strength. Once enough flesh and souls are harvested, it will evolve to produce stronger and stronger units comparable to Morning Stars and even Breaking Dawns… The strongest broodmothers could even become beings of law!” Mother Core seemed to be flaunting to Leylin.
“There’s already forty different hives here. Our final target is to have them kill all the humans in the prime material plane…” she said indifferently. Even billions of lives were of no concern to an existence on her level.
“I really do have to thank you for your help.” Mother Core was thankful for Leylin devouring the sun. Her innate speed couldn’t let her enter the Barrens of Doom and Despair as fast or as easily as Leylin could from the Fugue Plane, so she’d only been able to watch on as Leylin completed the task.
“With you devouring the sun, our preparations are now complete…” Mother Core’s ma.s.sive figure appeared, and a killing intent emanated from her body. “In this Final War, we must destroy the glory of the G.o.ds!”