《The New Mythology - The Wright War》 1 Vision of the Void

1 Vision of the Void In a distant era, an oracle had a vision of oncoming strife. The king of the gods, Theranis, clothed himself in humanity to inquire of the future. It was revealed to him that the ruler of the gods must take up the Perfect Weapon to drive away a tide of void-formed beasts. So he went away, shedding his mortal cloak. He mounted his flying chariot and travelled across the molten desert until he found the wandering Forge Mount of the maker god. They spoke of the vision and they worked together for a long time to shape the Perfect Weapon. When it was done, they declared it the deadliest thing in all of creation. So frightful it was in fact, that as soon as Theranis held the weapon, a fragment of doubt poisoned his mind and the weapon slew both him and the maker god in an instant. Thus ended the reign of King Theranis the Great. There the weapon laid for an age until the prophesied emanations of chaos, slung by the callous void, almost overwhelmed the realm. The gods, without their martial king and their armourer and terrified by prophecy, offered no ease to mortal suffering. They fortified their own houses and prayed to their distant MOTHER for deliverance. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. A distant descendent of the said oracle had risen to be a champion of the people, guiding them from lost lands to sanctuary, however temporary. She decided she had seen enough suffering and went in search of the Forge Mount. Guided by her ancestor''s cryptic writings, she found the Mount and avoided its traps. She seized the Perfect Weapon and tamed it with a new name, the Shadowless Blade. She then went forth and strove against the darkness and defeated them by the score. Then she walked into the city of heaven, took their throne unhindered and lambasted them for all the realm to hear. There she sits still, Queen Ahlum, wielder of the Shadowless Blade, Sovereign of Star Vium and all the Realms within. The void born however ironically adopted new means of entropy. The great beasts could not match force against the Shard of Infinite Light and their titanic bulk worked against them. So they hid about the world, calcifying into hateful beacons. These towers could hide themselves from perception and shed hordes of smaller beasts to plunder the world. Worst of all they released plagues of malice upon things of rightful creation. Hate, doubt, ignorance, apathy and the greatest of all, fear, were whispered into the minds of plants, animals and sentients alike. The gods, led by their new Queen, sought out these towers themselves and laid waste to the few they found, but the beasts hid themselves particularly well from them. Most of them remained, in the sky, on or below the ground and deep within the seas. Hidden this way, their sin plagues abounding, the realm entered a Dark Age that lasted until the coming of the Wrights. 2 The Second Wright

2 The Second Wright Medhan was born in the fifth century of the dark age when man was little better than a beast. Much of the world was driven to the edge of madness by the hidden towers. Rather than violent death by titanic horrors, civilisation suffered a slow agonising withering. Medhan had a different madness. From the moment he was born, he was plagued by sporadic inspiration. When the inspiration found him, it was in the sound of hammer falls. He would scream and try to shut out the noise and heat that overwhelmed his senses for days at a time. When it was over, however, he would exhibit some new knowledge or obscure secret. As a toddler, he knew the ways to animate the simple toys given by his woodcarver parents. When he was seven, he captured a ghost inside an inscribed glass jar and would question it on its understanding of the world. At ten, he had made a small army of wooden helpers to do his chores, while he sat on the riverbank fishing. It was this knowledge that brought him fame. By the time he was a young man, he had assembled a menagerie of strange creations and they were in great demand. These servitors were resistant to the void creatures and could pierce their obfuscation. Royals, struggling to keep their city-states intact, bought them by the hundreds to protect their walls and hunt for the singing towers. Who can say how many gods came as well in mortal guise to purchase a flock of artificial hummingbirds? There was certainly one who came and made no effort to hide. Ahlum, the Highest of Sovereignties called upon him herself. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. She waited at the door of his simple workshop until he was done before speaking to him. She looked older now, though that meant little to those who enjoyed the comforts of heaven. As ever she bore the Shadowless Blade but it was sealed within scribed paper and cloth. She praised his inventions for finding the towers but she needed more. More ways to find all the towers and more ways to destroy them. She needed weapons for both mortal and divine hunters. Medhan could not undertake this job, he explained. He could not control the subjects of his inspiration and he lacked the raw infrastructure needed for such a task. Ahlum said she knew what he required, for she had seen it in an age before. She bade him find and raid the Forge Mount. She gave him leave to take what he desired but stressed that the most essential thing was the actual fires of the Forge itself. These were spectral flames of every colour that could condense dreams into substance. She could not tell him the way, for the Mount always moved. She could not tell him the traps, for the systems of the Forge routinely rotated the nature and triggers of the traps. Her ancestor''s prophecies were only of use at that one specific time. She did however promise the aid of the gods and gave him a horn that could always reach the heavenly city. When she was gone, he promptly began studying and reverse engineering the heavenly horn. He also did not set off at once. He finished all the orders he had been given and took no more. He spent many days assembling all manner of tools and servitors in preparation. It took three full years for him to finally set off to hunt for the mountain. 3 The Forge Mount

3 The Forge Mount Medhan had crafted a horse that could run tirelessly over any manner of terrain or across water. It could run across air or fire as well but only for a moment. Wherever he needed shelter he would unfold a piece of paper into a small house with a simple room and a stocked pantry. It even had running water because of a box that could pull water from the air in seconds. When the night or storm had passed, he would then fold the house back up into a square of paper and move on. It took three months of steady travel for him to reach the molten desert. He set up his house, with its depleted supplies, at the edge of the desert. The molten desert had dozens of shield volcanoes that formed when very fluid magma rose through a shattered tectonic plate. The ground was volatile and weaker than it appeared so Medhan dared not search himself. Instead, he released a dozen flocks of artificial starlings to search for the wandering Mount. He remained at the house and replenished his supplies by hunting and fishing around the Last River. His most useful tool of the journey so far was an animated rope that he kept around his left forearm. It could unfurl itself and stretch a long way to tie itself around an object. It wasn''t technically a weapon but Medhan found it made hunting and fishing a non-issue. He lived like this for weeks before the starlings returned. He followed the small swarm on horseback for several weeks until he found the rest of the birds circling the Mount. Many of the birds were broken and drained at this point. The desert was unkind even to his creations. Many times a day his horse was forced to run on air to escape the collapsing ground. The heat from above and below was also wreaking havoc on his fine enchantments. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The enormous gate was open, torn off its moorings by a void-form even before Ahlum seized the Weapon. The first trial he encountered was the moving maze. Here the walls shifted constantly and impossible geometry seeped into reality. Ahlum passed through here using a path laid out in her ancestor''s ramblings. Medhan passed by donning a masterful lie, tricking the maze into thinking the forge god was here. The maze turned into a straight path to welcome its long lost creator. The second challenge was far more lethal than the first. Stone tigers, impossible to deceive, guarded any further ingress. Ahlum fought them and defeated them after a great struggle. Against these four-metre tall giants, he also deployed force. He threw seeds onto the ground and these rapidly grew into half-dragon, half-wolves. The two sets of constructs fought but he ignored them and passed into the next chamber. The third challenge was a puzzle. A pattern needed to be drawn using reflected light and stones. Ahlum knew the solution and moved on. In solving it, a new puzzle was generated and this remained for centuries. It took Medhan three days of trial and error, of notes scribbled on paper, walls and the puzzle itself, of cursing and praying, to solve the thing. Even then he was sure it was simply just luck. The vault opened and he entered into the Forge of Heaven. 4 The First Wright

4 The First Wright A servitor, dressed in servant robes, greeted him and asked how they could help. Ahlum had asked to be shown the greatest treasure of the Mount and was led through the labyrinthian complex to the Perfect Weapon. Medhan did the same, hoping to find a great tool or the Forge itself. Instead, he was led to a three-meter by three-meter pool of blue liquid. Inside the gel-like liquid, a beautiful woman slept. "Somewhat disappointing," he said. He asked the servitor to wake her and it did. The woman cleaned herself and soon returned in fresh clothes. "I am Jaini, daughter of fire and sea," she said before expressing frustration at how long it took him to get her. She said she was the source of his inspiration, trying to lure him to the Forge Mount for decades. She was the daughter of the forge god and his wife, the goddess of beauty and the sea. She explained that she was her father''s student and claimed to have assisted in the creation of the Perfect Weapon. When it went rampant, she was elsewhere in the mountain. The mountain suffered great damage and falling debris almost mortally wounded her. She managed to crawl into a healing pool to save her life but was trapped in a coma-stasis ever since. Her only option was to try to mentally reach someone in the distant world but they always failed to reach her. Medhan was the youngest she ever started with, purposefully setting him on a wright''s path. Baited with a small taste of knowledge, she hoped a wright would then have cause to seek out the vacant holy place of their kind. Instead, Medhan stayed home, building what he could with the scraps she gave him. Indeed it took a visit from the Usurper Queen to get him to make the trip. And even then, it took almost forty months to get there. He was too cautious, even after she gave him the knowledge of how to pass the first two challenges. While she was lambasting him, he wandered around the room, examining the secrets of medicine and organic manipulation. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! "Now that I am free, I will proclaim myself the new forge god and demand the return of my father''s magnum opus," Jaini declared. "I care not at all about that. I merely wish for a few boons for my workshop." She was incensed. He was a wright and she was thus literally his god. "Your contract with the Thief will mean nothing when the Perfect Weapon is returned to the proper hands." He was annoyed. He had freed her from a long waking nightmare even after she had tortured him since birth. "I am owed something. And I will collect it today." "The Forge Mount and all within it is mine. You will get not even a gram of soot from me child." He produced the heavenly horn from his person. The animated rope unfurled. Two swords, a hammer and a shield materialised behind him and floated there. "I am not leaving here empty-handed." Jaini backed down. A wright needed preparation and she had nothing of use on her. God or no god, he was heavily armed. Even worse, she could not risk him calling down agents of heaven to investigate. Not before she was ready. So she gave him a deal. "I will allow you to take one ember from my father''s forge," she said, leading him to the Forge. This was a trick of course. No mortal vessel could contain the flames and she had given him no inspiration that could aid him in such. Using the forge''s tong, Medhan reached into the forge of many colours and withdrew a singular ember. This he placed into a silver box. There the ember floated in place, cycling through the prismatic colours. "What sort of box is that?" Jaini asked, simultaneously furious, awed and worried. "A box with no sides or bottom. At least none on the inside," he said, casually invoking her father''s impossible geometry. He began to leave, his floating armoury disappearing before he stopped. "I owe much to your visions, Revered Jaini. But not everything." 5 The Anthill

5 The Anthill Before Medhan set off for the Forge Mount he created a queen ant the size of a table. He instructed it to build a tunnel system beneath his workshop. When he returned a year later, the Anthill had become a vast system that went kilometres in every direction, populated by legions of artificial insects. It was into this hidden fortress that Medhan deposited the ember and began furnishing the Anthill with equipment and fittings. He unleashed his mind and kindled the flame and began injecting ideas into reality. When Ahlum came the second time, she did not wait patiently at the door. She barged into the workshop and found him deep in alchemical work. He had been warned of her approach long before by his remote agents and he intended to keep the underground faculties'' exposure limited. She was angry and claimed he had made three grave errors on his quest.
  1. You should have left the girl there to rot! Her arrogance is unchecked. She desires the blade but lacks the strength to wield it much less the desire to fight the fallen ones.
  2. You should have used the horn to call us at once, while the Mount was vulnerable. Now she sits in the Forge Throne, all of her defences armed against any who would approach.
  3. You should have killed her and taken everything she now claims as her own. Already she sets the gods against me. The most foolish gods plan a rebellion. These I do not worry about. But wiser heads consider abandonment and she has already taken orders for voidcraft.
Medhan absorbed the beratement while continuing his work. He was dripping bright liquids into different miniature trees and observing their reaction. Sometimes he would snip leaves and dissolve them and test them with fire and other chemicals. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. He spoke in his even, quiet tone. "I cannot change the past. I can, however, start on your original issue now." "Well, the girl is my problem now. Solve that." Medhan exhaled audibly. Ahlum flushed red with indignation. "If I go to war with the Forge Mount, how many of her kin will flock to her? How many gods will I have to kill before the others in your pantheon decide that I am their problem and they try to solve me?" She said nothing so he continued. "I have made something useful. This species of tree will shield minds from the voidborn. They feed on their psychic waves so they''ll grow quickly. Use these to protect towns and cities while I work on ways to track the towers." Then with an almost lacklustre interest, he blasphemed. "Let the gods leave if they want. Mortals will rise or they will die on their own merits." Ahlum accepted the offered bag of seeds but said he should not underestimate the power and danger of the gods. When she had departed, she was perturbed. Both of the Wrights had not been easily awed and treated her with scant respect. Perhaps she had more problems than she initially thought. 6 In Exchange

6 In Exchange Deep within the Anthill, there was the Ember. Within an impossibly huge white room, a large obsidian shard floated. The obsidian was filled with cracks glowing with many colours as the Ember thrummed within. The room was circular at the base and tapered to a point high above the obsidian. All about the walls were tables, tools and plans, drawn in both papers and light. Erin, a tall and lean woman, sat at a table near the entrance reading a book. An ant entered the room then trembled as a holographic image of a tall, slender, insectile figure appeared above it. Erin stood and bowed. ¡°Elder sister.¡± The image of the ant-mother nodded slightly. ¡°Erin. Where is our father? I need to speak to him.¡± ¡°He is busy at the moment.¡± Erin looked at the obsidian shard that was currently pulsing blue fire. Medhan was hidden within, at work on some new craft. The ant-mother considered this for a moment. ¡°He has forgotten his calendar. The gods will be here soon. Three of them, each in large chariots.¡± ¡°I will meet with them and make the delivery.¡± The ant-mother accepted this. Erin was the youngest of their father¡¯s works but she was the most pleasant to the eye. ¡°Be careful with them,¡± warned the ant-mother. ¡°Gods are prickly, prideful things. Our father does not want trouble yet.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The outward appearance of the Anthill was quite modest. A simple ranch with several large barns, far from any towns. The gods descended from the skies in their chariots. The Sea Queen emerged from her craft which resembled a large translucent bubble, filled with sea-green water. Kahan, the Great Lord of the Sky, came down in a chariot mounted upon the back of a great eagle. A steel ship bore down and Stonecarver emerged, his giant footprints embedding deeper into the land than any of the ships. The gods were left waiting for a few minutes before Erin appeared. She treated them with just more than a modicum of respect as she directed servitors to present and then load the merchandise. To Stonecarver, a thousand rats were designed to hunt and eat void-formed matter. They were intelligent things, capable of boring through the ground and breeding with natural rats to spread their wrought modifications. In exchange, Stonecarver emptied his craft of rare ores, gems and crystals. For Kahan, a hundred large eggs. From them would grow large condors capable of flying for months without rest. The intelligent birds would then guide larger forces to destroy any void-formed they found. In exchange, Kahan gave one egg. The black egg glittered in bright sunlight momentarily revealing golden writing. Unlike the mined material of Stonecarver, this egg was quickly and carefully whisked away to safety. For the Sea Queen, five hundred vials of cyan liquid each capable of temporarily transforming an entity into a draconic version of themselves. These dragons could dive into the deepest oceans to find the most hidden towers and break them. In exchange, the Sea Queen produced five thousand vials, each containing the final breath of a mortal. However, she would not give them to Erin, demanding instead to give them only to the wright instead. Erin knew the value of this particular trade and made an executive decision. 7 The Sea Queen

7 The Sea Queen The Sea Queen entered the Ember Chamber. The projection of the antmother glared at both her and Erin but said nothing. "Is he in there?" The Sea Queen approached the obsidian. "Do not cast your thoughts into it," the antmother warned. "I am well aware of how the Forge works. My former love would never allow me this close to it. A stray thought would corrupt an entire work. But your creator is a cautious Man. He has crafted a wall against thought around the flames. Even Lugan would struggle to touch these flames." As she spoke the fires flared green out of the cracks before retreating entirely. The obsidian became dark and the room much, much colder. The obsidian shape twisted and Medhan emerged and floated to the ground. His close-fitting monochrome robes were sweat-soaked and dyed in a dozen colours. He noted the presence of the women in the room but instead summoned a strange creature. Two miniature magenta elephants walked to him and began hosing him down with warm, cleansing water. After the coloured soot was washed away, they blew hot air at him leaving him relatively pristine. "Introductions please Erin," he said in his quiet voice. "Father, this is the Queen of all Seas and all Beauty. Revered Queen, this is Medhan the Wright. Father, she insisted on meeting you during the exchange." This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The Sea Queen was enormous compared to him. Two and a half metres tall, it would be flawed to call her statuesque for no statue could compare. "It is customary to prostrate when meeting your superiors." Medhan was towelling his hands. "I''ll keep that in mind in case it happens. Why did you wish to see me?" "Did your parents not teach you proper manners?" "How to greet a god never came up." "Perhaps I should explain your failure to them? A child''s sin is a parent''s sin." "You are welcome to do so, Your Reverence." "I would have to find where you''ve hidden them first. I can see why you and my daughter got off on the wrong foot." Every time she spoke she inched towards him. Medhan looked to Erin who explained that the Sea Queen was Jaini''s mother. "Do you anger many women, Master Wright? So many you''ve lost track." "I''m not good at following family trees. Much less those of gods like yourself. Now tell me why you''re here." "You vex my daughter. She has taken apart many of your creatures but can''t quite replicate them. You use the flames differently than her I think. Mostly though I came to see whether my husband survived his hubris and has finally found his way back from death." She was right in front of him now, staring deeply into his tired eyes. "I see that he has not. You are not him." She seemed defeated by the realization. "He would''ve liked the way you built this room." With a wave of her hand, the vials of final breaths materialized nearby. "Our transaction is complete." She began to leave but he said, "Leaving already? Is there something else here I can interest you in?" She pondered for a moment before smiling. "Leave us, creatures," she ordered but Erin and the antmother remained until they saw their creator wildly gesturing to do as she said. 8 The Horror Hunt

8 The Horror Hunt The two figures were on the hunt in the fields when the slender avian chariot appeared in the sky and darted towards them. The tall woman stood her ground while her slender companion sat waiting. ¡°Revered Aunt. Revered Uncle,¡± the pilot said after dismounting the silver craft. ¡°Jaini,¡± said the Aunt. ¡°It has been an age since we¡¯ve seen you.¡± They exchange pleasantries and small talk but the Uncle said little outside of polite but curt, body language. ¡°Tell us, child, few seek us, fewer find us and none are happy to have done so. What do you need of these two old fools?¡± ¡°Revered Aunt. I''m sure that you''ve heard I have been struggling since my return. I am a builder. A creator. An artist. Beauty and purpose hand in hand. Because of this, I find myself unable to build what these dark times need. My art cannot suffer this world. Revered Aunt I have come to learn. To be inspired. I have come to know War.¡± War laughed. ¡°Always so dramatic girl, though I am flattered to be considered a Muse. The truth is I heard that you cannot compete against the brutalist you inspired. Mass production. Programmed synthetic organics. His ways are alien to your father''s teachings.¡± The Uncle spoke. ¡°Efficient and effective. The means are irrelevant. He does not seek awe. He provides results.¡± Jaini could not speak up to her Uncle so she waited until War continued. ¡°We are on a hunt Jaini. Accompany us and you will see first hand what is needed of your works. I¡¯m sure we can give you a few pointers or so. Ah! Look there. Our informer has news.¡± Jaini followed the pointed finger to a rat with a small hat on its head. It stood up on its haunches and saluted and was ready to guide them onwards. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°The rats have found a nest.¡± War took up her weapons and strapped them to herself. ¡°Lead on my Captain!¡± She laughed as the rat saluted again and began marching off south. Jaini began to follow her but stopped unconsciously when her Uncle rose. His presence filled the field and the grass began to shrivel and dry. As he walked by he stopped and said, "To know her, young Wright, you must know me too. Are you truly prepared to know Death?¡± They followed the rat for a few hours. Death was silent as always. War however was in her typical vociferous mood. When Death lagged behind to admire a butterfly, Jaini ventured the question to her. "Why did you two not defend the Throne from that mortal?" "The Weapon was a concern. Your father and our brother disappeared from the Monad. But the boy sided with Ahlum so it became a moot point." The situation in heaven became clear in an instant. "Ah." It wasn''t just the Weapon. The boy. Lugan. Son of War. Son of Death. Touched by MOTHER. A mind beyond comparison. Imprisoned as a child by Theranis out of fear. The beast caught them unawares. It flung the three gods about with its momentous charge. The ''Captain'' was killed in an instant, crushed by a spiked hoof. Even now, with the creature amongst them, they could barely perceive it. It would''ve appeared to be a huge bovine, three metres tall at the shoulder. Two spindly, humanoid arms protruded from its shoulders. Three whip-thin tentacles replaced its tail. Its head was hidden within a mass of overgrown horns. It was this helm of horns that bashed into Death and sent him flying into a tree. These details were lost upon the gods who could just sense the thing. They could only see as a shadow at the edge of their vision. They could feel the cold when it looked upon them. It made no sound but they heard its voice pounding in their mind. TRAMPLE. CRUSH. RUIN! Its two spindly arms stretched and gripped War and Jaini by the throats. It then began to run through the trees, dragging them behind it. The two gods crashed through brush and shrub. Jaini¡¯s face was pressed into the mossy ground. War bounced off a tree into a stone and her holy blood littered the forest. 9 The Beast of Ruin

9 The Beast of Ruin The beast stopped in a shallow stream. It lifted them into the air and slammed them into the rocky riverbed. Jaini had been mangled into unconsciousness by the dragging. Her limbs were broken and her body bloodied. War was bleeding and stunned but she was still struggling. The beast held them under the war, intent on drowning them. War, no longer dragged about, managed to pull a dagger from her belt and began sawing the gangly wrist. The beast lifted its spiked hoof and stomped upon her but War sensed the attack and caught the point in her forearm. With a surge of force, she ripped her blade through the beast¡¯s ankle. She stabbed the dagger into the thigh of the leg holding her and dragged it downwards. The beast recoiled, its spear-hoof pulling out of her, while the rest chipped and sparked on the river stones under them. As it shrank away it attempted to keep hold of the broken Jaini, but War was quick and grabbed at the air in front of her niece and held it. She crushed its wrist and cut off the hand holding her niece, freeing her to drown on her own. War could still not perceive the beast but she still had it in her grasp. She flung the dagger at the likely centre of mass and it bounced off the helm of horns. With her hand now free, she unsheathed a heavy sword that was more like a sharpened block of red iron. She swung where the dagger struck. The sword slammed into the horns and both blade and horns chipped. She swung again and again, hacking away at the horns. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The beast railed against her, slamming her with its shoulder. She fell into the water but kept her grip. From her sitting position, she swung her sword horizontally and the blade shattered a horn. The beast retaliated by turning upon her and goring her into the riverbed. Red bloomed out of the river where broken and battered horns punched into godly flesh. Its front legs knelt and it drove more and more of its weight into her. ¡°Got you.¡± She released the arm and her broken sword and tried to wrap her arms around the neck of the bovine thing. The horns grated against her ribs and she could not find its invisible neck so she grabbed the horns themselves. With her legs, she pivoted and took the beast to its side and then back as she rolled onto it. It flailed with its legs, trying to impale her but she stayed close to the underside. She lifted the head and drove it down again and again into the riverbed. The whiptails lashed up and struck her in the back. Poison seeped into her wounds and she began to falter. Then she heard Death finally arrive at the riverbank. The beast had run quite far to split them apart. ¡°I¡¯m here,¡± he cried out. ¡°Give me a goddamned second with this thing!¡± Death obeyed War and exhaled a saffron mist. This cloud enveloped the melee and sank into their flesh. For a moment the lashing of the tentacles stopped. For a moment those thrashing spear-like legs were stilled. And within that moment, War gripped the two biggest horns she could feel, planted a leg on its chest and pulled upwards with titanic might, ripping the beast¡¯s head from its body. Holding the head aloft and her eyes glowing red, War roared in triumph before the duet of poisons overwhelmed her and she fell as well.