Chronicle 46
Lunar Lightning asked Howard to show him the context of his betrayal of the Moon King. And so began the unfolding of the course of events leading to his banishment playing out on the surface of the central moon.
The Moon King called upon his favorite aspects as a challenge came to mind. Howard announced to the realm, “Lunar Frost, Void and Lightning, join us in the Court of the Moon King.”
“You three have served me well. I wish to reward you. But only one of you.”
Howard floated, explaining further, “Your King has seen an opportunity. There is a realm on the brink of collapse.”
The King’s voice grew heavier, “Kill the Realm Lord and return to me. The power that lies within the realm will be transformed into a moon and the first to do so will be its Lunar Aspect, gaining the abilities of two moons.”
Lunar Void’s cape curled inward to warp him out of the Court. Howard grabbed the tip of the cape and yanked him back out. “We haven’t told you which realm, dummy.”
“I will check every realm, then! I won’t stop until I find the right one. If I have to kill every Realm Lord, SO BE IT.” he shouted, warping out.
Howard facepalmed and floated back to the side of the throne. “He tries to be so edgy.”
“He’s ambitious.” the King noted, sounding impressed.
“He’s treating this like a scavenger hunt, I was about to tell them which realm.” Howard spun in the air in front of the two remaining aspects. “Lunar Frost, Lunar Lightning… the realm you must travel to is the Crystal Realm.”
Lunar Frost’s cape spread a haze around her and then she vanished.
The King continued, now speaking just to Lunar Lightning, “The many crystal beings of the realm fade in great numbers. Their Realm Lord, Verinnia, a primordial being like myself, is greedy and foolish. As she drains their lifeforce to fill her own crystalline form, the realm suffers.”
“You will have your crystal moon.” Lunar Lightning stated, spinning and warping to the crystal realm.
Lunar Lightning saw in his past self a scorn for the Moon King that he couldn’t imagine. What he watched confused him, as there was no crystal moon in the realm as far as he could see.
Lunar Lightning had visited many realms on mission from the King, yet not the crystal realm. He arrived in what appeared to be a cave of enormous crystals of all colors. Massive shards made up the walls, while smaller chunks and clusters were lining the paths around him. A few living, glowing crystals skittered around on the floor, but nowhere near the swarms he heard about from other aspects who had visited before.
Confined to a small area and unsure where to go, Lunar Lightning moved to create some space so he could view the realm from above. With charged fists, he smashed into one of the larger shards walling him in. It crumbled easily, but beyond it was another, even bigger shard. After that one, the same. The nearest crystal shifted and unleashed a high-pitched ringing. Lunar Lightning emanated static around his ears to shield from the noise The faintest glow of life from within the intact section towards the top of the ringing shard faded, and the rest of the clear protrusion shattered when it fully faded away. He had killed a dying crystal, indicating to him how easy the mission would be if Verinnia were anything like her subjects.
Disheartened by the endless layers of crystals, Lunar Lightning looked for another option, another way to navigate. Unlike his spacious, open-air home, this realm was more crystal than space. With this realization and without options, he decided to follow the paths that were laid out, paying attention to the directions the living crystals moved in.
After following the crystals that were growing in numbers, Lunar Lightning finally reached a chamber with room to move around in.
“Void.” LL stated, looking up at his competition. Lunar Void was flying high in the center of the large, circular room of dead crystals, looking upward at a speck of light shooting a bright ray down towards him.
“Verinnia isn’t in here.” Void said.
“We’re inside of her.” Lunar Lightning responded. He turned Void’s attention to the crystal critters that entered the chamber and attached themselves to the inside of the wall. As they joined with the corpses, the dim light within them shot upward toward the speck of light at the chamber’s peak. “Look at these creatures. They feed themselves to her. Like we do for father.”
Void’s determination wavered at Lunar Lightning’s insolence. He dipped into a void and appeared in front of his counterpart. “SAY THAT AGAIN.” he said, masked faces nearly meeting.
“You plan to do this forever? Go on mission for ‘father’ over and over until he has all the power in the universe. And us still as servants?”
“WE ARE GODS.” Void expanded a void to consume the entire realm, retracting it before anything could be affected.
“God’s serve as desired, not as commanded.”
“Refuse, then. Go back a failure.”
“You know what he would do, Void.” Lunar Lightning’s voice shook. “Lunar Wind was only a child.”
“And children must learn.”
“He loved the King. He loved us all! And his mask was removed, torn apart. His moon disintegrated to bolster the King’s moon. And for what!?”
“For…” Void held his thought as the ray of light between them stopped shining.
Both lunar aspects looked above to see ice blocking the pinhole above. “Frost.” LL said.
They made their way upward together quickly to see if Lunar Frost had claimed the realm. Each crashed through a thick layer of brittle, dead crystals to reach the surface. Explosively emerging into a bright expanse of many colors, they watched the ice that covered the area melt. Verinnia, a crystalline, ape-like creature with ten arms had six of them holding onto Lunar Frost. Three on each side held a half of the aspect’s body, frosty air spilling out of the empty suit.
“One of us will take this realm. But take it for ourselves. Not for him.” Lunar Lightning said.
Void nodded in response and vanished into blackness, appearing directly above the realm lord. Lunar Lightning expanded his static field and flew into battle.
