Part XIII: The Cradle of Despair
Chapter 1: Return to Lemuria
Timeline AO 304
The scales of the fates always seem to balance out – whilst things were going well for Hacktor, I couldn’t say the same for me – although I hardly consider us as equals! Even still, I had to leave my pawn to fend for himself while I got back to searching for Dagaal. For the last three years I’d been wracking my evil brain how and where I could locate those mysterious places I’d heard about on my ‘vacation’ down in Ramos. Where was The Cradle of Despair? Where the Crypt of Death’s Horrors? (Although I still wasn’t sure I wanted to find that last one). In all that time I came up with…nothing.
“The Shard!” I reminded myself as I dropped what I was doing and raced to my bedroom. “Ach, this place is a mess!”
OK, I’ll admit, my bedroom wasn’t necessarily the cleanest room in The Cauldron – but trust me I knew where everything was. Or at least I thought I did.
“Where is the damn thing?” I screamed, looking at the chaotic amalgamation of centuries of conquest and arcane accumulation that filled my boudoir, and wishing I really wasn’t such an addicted hoarder.
The room’s walls, made of dark, jagged stone, were adorned with relics of battles won and kingdoms razed by the pawns of my past —war banners stained with ancient blood, the bones of fallen giants, and the tattered robes of vanquished sorcerers. Shelves bowed under the weight of cursed tomes bound in leather that seemed to breathe, their pages whispering secrets that only I could decipher. Yet the relic I sought wasn’t among them.
The air was thick with the scent of sulfur and old parchment, mingling with the faint odor of something long dead. My bed, a slab of black obsidian, lay in disarray, its heavy blankets soon torn aside in my frenzied search. Potions, once neatly aligned on an ornate ebony table, I now spilled across the cold stone floor, their contents hissing as they ate into the ground, creating swirling patterns of decay. Dark, ancient mirrors reflected my fury, their surfaces crackling with ominous energy as I ripped through drawers and shattered chests, hunting for the one thing that could guide me—my Shard of Varysha.
Every object in this room had been a trophy, a testament to my power, but now they were nothing more than obstacles between me and my goal. With every overturned chest, every shattered vial, the rage in my heart grew. The Shard was more than just a tool; it was a fragment of the primordial that traced its roots back to the lumenarc Varysha, a fallen angel like myself, and right now I needed his power again.
Finally I upended a chest filled with jewels that spilled across the floor like a river of blood, glinting darkly in the dim light, and there, hidden beneath a coil of faded parchment, the faint, pulsating glow of a strange crystal caught my eye, promising the answers I sought: The Shard of Varysha!
“My key to unlocking the secrets of the world!” I clutched the crystal as it seemed to swirl with the cosmic galaxy trapped inside – looking at the relic that was once crafted by Varysha whilst Zebub, Lucifer, and I were creating Terra at the very start of your world. Varysha’s ancient talisman granted its bearer the ability to traverse hidden pathways within the world, and that’s what I needed, “With this I can search even the hidden places for those mysterious tombs.”
A twisted smile curled on my lips. “Time to find you, Dagaal,” I whispered, the words a promise as much as they were a threat.
Ready to travel to my first suspected location I held the Shard of Varysha aloft, its ethereal light guiding me as I descended into the dark, forgotten depths beneath the Crystal Tower of Lemuria. The underbelly of this once-great city was a place of ancient power, where I had once imprisoned Lilith, the first woman. I had trapped her here in these cold, stone halls long before I ever gave her as a gift to Lucifer – long before she became the mother of demons she is to this very day.
“Ah, but how I remember Lilith’s cries of anguish,” I smiled with a sense of nostalgia. “Her screams had once echoed through these walls of the prison I’d built for her here. I can’t wait to see it all again.”
The air was thick with memories and the stench of time, but as the Shard resealed the tapestry of space I realized something was wrong. This prison world I’d last left was no longer the barren and forsaken. The cold silence was gone, replaced by a subtle hum, as though life itself had taken root where death and despair had once reigned.
“What is Illusia is going on here?” I bare bones of my skeletal jaw grated as I stepped further out of the darkness, looking around in amazement.
The walls around me began to shimmer with an otherworldly light. The rough stone smoothed out, replaced by intricate patterns of crystalline structure. I paused, my eyes narrowing as I took in my surroundings. “This is not the work of my hands!”
Suddenly, the Shard pulsed in my hand, resonating with the energy of this place. I advanced cautiously, my every sense alert. The air grew warmer as I walked along, and soon, I emerged into a vast, cavernous chamber. My breath caught in my throat, not in awe, but in fury.
Before me lay a new world and I immediately guessed that it was the work of the Mylars—descendants of the woman Lilith and the lumenarc Pan—who had once ruled the planet.
[The Mylars were the second major race I bred upon Terra, but the first truly intelligent one. They later cut themselves off from the evils of the world that I was creating by building an ice wall to lined the outside of the flat earth separating the planet – making it so that only they could enter and leave the ice wall. I later did the one better and used the Amulet of Zyphor to seal the Mylars ice wall – locking them apart from everyone else with no escape!]
I knew The Mylars had always despised me for the evil I brought to their world and for imprisoning them against their wished, but I never expected to find them down here. I could only guess that perhaps a group of the Children of Mu had further separated from their Mylar brothers who still lived on the surface of Lemuria – these instead having chosen to move completely underground, delving within the flat earth until they came upon the secret chambers that I created ages ago. These Children of Mu had dared to create their own sanctum here, deep within the earth, turning the very prison I had forged into a beautiful, self-sustaining world.
“They’ve taken my creation—built with an intent of pure malice—and transformed it into something beyond my understanding,” I gasped. “Something…beautiful!”
Whether it was only a portion of their people or all of them I didn’t care, “They shall pay for this affront!”
Ever the ingenious people, this subterranean realm was a symphony of light and innovation, where the natural and the artificial blended seamlessly into a harmonious existence. Quite frankly it was disgusting! Towering crystalline spires pierced the cavern’s ceiling, their surfaces alive with shifting patterns of color that pulsed in time with the heartbeat of the earth. These structures, both homes and evidently also power sources, drew energy from the very planet itself, channeling it into radiant veins that wove through the city like a vast circulatory system.
It was clear to me that the Mylars had harnessed this energy to fuel their advanced technology, which surpassed anything I had encountered on the surface. The scientist in me couldn’t help but study what I saw – realizing their world was illuminated not by fire or magic, but by the soft glow of bioluminescent flora and the radiant crystals that lined their streets and buildings. The air thrummed with the hum of their machines—sleek, silent constructs that moved with a grace and precision born of millennia of refinement. I also saw floating platforms that carried the little mites effortlessly between the spires, while translucent screens displayed streams of data, shimmering with information that only their keen minds could comprehend.
Looking elsewhere I saw waterfalls of liquid light cascaded from the heights, feeding into pools that sparkled like liquid diamonds. These appeared to be more than mere decorations and I guessed that the Mylars had engineered them to purify the air and regulate the climate of their underground paradise, maintaining a perfect balance that allowed life to thrive far from the sun. Their dwellings, carved directly into the crystal spires, I begrudgingly admitted were masterpieces of organic architecture, with walls that shifted and flowed like liquid glass, adapting to the needs and desires of their inhabitants.
When I got a chance to spy more of the people I realized the Mylars had changed a bit since I last saw them – at least those who now lived in these caves – for like the Drokka, these Children of Mu had evolved to match their underground environment, their already tiny bodies now had skin that shimmered with the same ethereal glow that permeated their world. They moved with a quiet confidence, their every motion a testament to their deep connection with the technology that sustained them. They had created a society that was both peaceful and prosperous, a utopia hidden away from the evils of the world above—a world that, until I arrived, had been free from the taint of death and destruction.
“But that will soon change!” I cackled with delight at the unexpected opportunity before me.
“You…” A calm voice said from behind me.
Turning around I saw one of the Mu men emerge from the shadows – his robes shimmering like the surface of an underground sea. “Azu, the God of Death. Have you come to destroy us once more?”
Seeing that the imp wasn’t scared of me, I bared my teeth in a mockery of a smile. “You dare to speak to me in such a tone? You have taken what is mine and corrupted it with your sanctimonious filth.”
“Your evil holds no sway here, Azazel,” the Mylar replied, his voice steady. “We have transcended your petty wrath. We live in harmony, far from the reach of your darkness.”
The air around me grew tense as countless more Children of Mu appeared – their serene, luminescent faces hardening into masks of determination. To my great surprise I could see “It” in their eyes—the recognition of the evil that had once imprisoned them, the hatred they had long suppressed but never forgotten. I had expected fear, perhaps even submission, but what met me instead was a resolve I didn’t know these little pacifists possessed. They would not bow to me; they would fight!
Meanwhile a sharp, resonant tone echoed through the crystalline caverns, a signal I recognized as an alarm. The soft glow of their city shifted to an ominous red, the vibrant colors fading into a foreboding hue as their advanced technology prepared for war. The floating platforms that had once carried them peacefully between spires now transformed into weapons of sleek, deadly design. Blades of pure energy materialized at the edges, humming with lethal intent. From the shadows, mechanical sentinels emerged, their forms blending seamlessly with the crystalline structures, yet their movements betrayed a lethal precision.
I watched as they surrounded me, their hands outstretched, conjuring barriers of radiant light that crackled with the power of their advanced technology. They moved with a fluid grace, their every motion synchronized as if they were a single entity, a collective force bound by the same purpose: to destroy the intruder who dared defile their sanctum.
But they had forgotten who I was—the God of Death, the harbinger of despair, their doom!
With a mere thought, I unleashed a wave of dark energy that shattered their barriers like fragile glass. The force of my power sent their platforms crashing into the ground, the once graceful constructs reduced to twisted wreckage. The Mylars were quick to retaliate, their machines unleashing torrents of concentrated light, beams of pure energy that seared through the air with devastating precision. I felt their sting as they pierced my form, burning away my robes, but I reveled in the pain—and it only fueled my fury.
I retaliated with a force they could not comprehend – a power that only we gods possess. Shadows erupted from the ground, tendrils of darkness that snatched the Mylars from their perches, dragging them into the abyss of despair I carried within me. Their cries filled the cavern, a cacophony of agony as I twisted their world, warping the very fabric of their reality. The beautiful spires that had once stood as symbols of their brilliance now crumbled into ash, their radiant light snuffed out by the darkness I commanded.
Yet they fought on, driven by a hatred so deep it bordered on madness. Their sentinels, undeterred by the destruction, surged forward, their forms morphing into monstrous shapes, each one more horrific than the last. But for all their ingenuity, for all their technology, they could not escape the inevitable. One by one, I tore them apart, harvesting their souls as their tiny lifeless bodies fell to the ground, their once vibrant city now a graveyard of shattered dreams.
In the end, only one remained—a leader, his form battered and broken, but his spirit unyielding. I held the little Mu man aloft, the dark energy that coursed through me wrapping around his throat like a noose.
“Tell me what you know,” I demanded, tightening my grip on his mind. “Where is the Cradle of Despair? Where is the Crypt of Death’s Horrors?”
He gasped for breath, his glowing eyes dimming as he struggled to speak. Desperation laced his voice as he muttered a single word that I forced out of him, “Hy-per…bor…ea.”
He choked on his words, his body convulsing as I pushed him further, desperate for answers. “Speak, you wretch! What is in Hyperborea? Is it the Cradle? The Crypt?”
“The Cr-cr-” But it was too late. With a final, ragged breath, the Mylar leader died in my grasp, his secrets lost to the void.
I cursed, flinging his lifeless body aside. Hyperborea—a place of ancient power, where the people of early man still dwelled in places hidden from the world. Perhaps it held the answers I sought. But what was the “Cr-cr” the mylar tried to speak? The Cradle? The Crypt? I would find out soon enough.
But first I sated myself by obliterating what remained of the Mylars’ hidden world, their existence wiped from the bowels of this flat earth, as if they had never been. “Ah, that’s more like it.” I laughed as I enjoyed the death and destruction all around me.
As the last remnants of the Mylar world crumbled around me, I held the Shard of Varysha tight, focusing its power once more. There was no time to waste. I would visit Hyperborea, and I would uncover the secrets it held.
With a final surge of energy, I vanished from the ruins of the Mylars’ paradise, leaving nothing but chaos and death in my wake.
The Apocrypha of Azazel 