Desrho: The flutter of a butterfly's wings ~ Past

If they hadn’t been forewarned, they would have believed the island had reached its end.

The earthquake lasted a full minute. Crevices started opening on the ground, and a couple of houses in the city collapsed under the pressure. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone left in the city anymore. They had their choice, and most of them decided to flee from Desrho while they still could.

Even if Leucothea allowed them to abandon the island, she couldn’t say she had anything but disdain for the cowards who preferred to abandon their ancestral home than to fight the Gods that brought that threat right to their doors. The waters had taken most of the island, but every inch they manage to save from the Gods would be an honor only known for those who fought for it.

The island was now so small that from the balcony of the palace she could see the far away shiny figures of the two invading Gods. The Goddess of wisdom, previously known as Isis, bearer of no current name, and the God of the sea, Poseidon. They seemed to be alone, but they surely had hidden their armies somewhere below the sealine.

The first one is the most ancient Goddess alive, bearer of many names, the one who always came out on top no matter the fight or the danger. The other one, the youngest God there is, an upstart who was looking for a chance to prove himself and fill the shoes left by the recently deceased last bearer of the title.

The two of them were barely visible spots on the distance, but even then, Leucothea felt as if Wisdom had noticed her and was watching her while sneering. This could not stand. She could perfectly understand why the God of sea attacked, after all, she crossed on his domain first when she obtained power over the waters.

But Wisdom? Why did she target her as soon as she emerged from the waters?

When she lived as Halia she never crossed on her domain, and even when she got struck down and the telchines were almost annihilated Wisdom stayed completely out of it. Why involve herself now?

The only thing that made sense for her is that she was aware of the calling she was trying to do, but not only had she taken great care to keep the preparations hidden, but she also knew that if the Gods found out… well, she would probably be dead by now.

She came back inside of the palace. If they were far enough, then they would not be able to stop the ritual even if they knew of it. Leucothea reunited with Leuxitea and Makelo, the only other two living telchines, and went to the grand stage.

She looked at her surroundings for a final time, an open air scenario in the middle of the palace, once a garden, but for a long time the destined place for the calling. She knew that this was the make or break point, nothing would be the same once the ritual was over. The ground was starting to tremble again, ever so slightly, as an omen for the next wave of power that would shake the island. The servants were kneeling on the ground, at least a hundred people organized in circles one inside the other, all chanting in an unspeakable tongue.

Initially they were chanting based on the pieces of paper in front of them, but when they connected to the Gods realm, something else entered inside them. Now, all they had to do was bring the vessel who could carry the power that otherwise needed a hundred, slowly rotting, different people to contain.

When Leucothea entered the circle’s center, looking at the people in trance around her just before the flower bushes, beyond it the halls of the palace where she lived her entire life. Standing in front of an altar, she made the final proclamation.

“Bring the death’s vessel!”

The head priest appeared from inside the building, accompanied by 4 acolytes carrying Electryone in a padded platform. She was weak, conscious, but tied to the platform so she would not escape. Even if she was not, she didn’t have the strength in her anymore. Both her wrists had been cut, bleeding on the ground in a red trail that followed her right to the altar.

There, Leucothea looked at her, standing still, as if she was confused about the next step for a moment. So it would have seemed, but after a moment she caressed the face of her granddaughter. Unable to respond, Electryone looked at her hatefully, fully aware of who had orchestrated the pain she had endured and the entrapment she lived most of her life.

“When you get it, you’ll finally understand, my child.”

With no more warning, she raised her hand on top of Electryone’s chest. Leucothea’s clothes covered each inch of her body, but before touching her, she took her glove off. The reason soon became clear, as what was once a human hand had mutated beyond recognition, full of blue scales and long, sharp claws that could easily cut through a person’s flesh showed the inhumanity that she had now.

As if planned by a superior force, the moment her hand touched Electryone’s chest, the door burst open. A moment ago, the only thing that could be here were the chants of the circle or servants, but now the sounds of war engulfed everyone all at once. Through the door, the God of the sea, armed with a golden armor and a trident, and the Goddess of wisdom, with her spear and shield, had now invaded the palace.

Leucothea had no time to think, as it was now too late to stop herself. The gate was open, and reality had started distorting around her. The spot she was on had become an anomaly that spanned worlds, a needle that joined this world with the next one, imbuing the person in the altar with something that should have never been brought to the world.

The power that the hundred people contained, no, that they pulled but couldn’t fully bring, surged into the body of the unwilling, half dead Electryone. In that moment, the sky bent over towards her, towards the point where Leucothea’s hand stood as if the sky itself was pouring inside of her chest. For a moment, in that point that connected the two worlds, something unbent, something that resided in between the two layers that everyone else could see.

In that small crevice that had opened, a vision of horrific monsters filled Electryone’s mind, an neverending surge of dogfaced creatures that all looked at her for a moment, as if aware of her presence. When they neared to touch her, finally, she connected with the other side and the Death God entered into her body.

Then, when God touched her, she could feel her own soul starting to rot. The entity being poured into her, guided by the same essence of her soul, was replacing her soul with itself. Killing everything she once was and replacing her with an otherworldly incomprehensible being.

Her own soul was the compass, the only guide the God had to connect itself with the new form of existence it was being poured into. And it is because of that same reason that Electryone knew something had gone wrong, that disobeying the mandates of her imprisonment had now brought consequences she could not even begin to imagine.

The essence of the God poured into her, but strands of it started going away, into some other body far away, as the skies themselves started bending all over the island. Thunder roared horizontally, hitting the armies that were fighting outside where nobody in the palace could hear them.

The Goddess of Wisdom and the God of the sea could only watch the botched ritual, as from the anomaly between the worlds, the energy of death started pouring out of Electryone and took the form of dozens of monsters. The winged humanoid creatures came out in an onslaught, attacking the hundred servants and throwing themselves towards everyone on sight.

Leucothea had her hand fixed in place, stuck as a couple of the monsters started biting entire chunks of her flesh apart. Her shouts didn’t come from the pain caused by the sharp teeth of the monsters, but from the knowledge that the ritual she had worked on for so many years had fallen apart in the most crucial moment.

Death had now entered the world, breaking the front door, and taking everything it could on its way.