Chapter CDI: Prelude ~Multehx

In a cavern on the far side of non-existence and between that which actually does exist, laughter did travel. Not that which would cause merriment in all who heard it, but more along the lines of causing those who could to relieve themselves fully into their loins.

The cause of it: the illustrious, highly nefarious "godfather" of inter-dimensional and inter-chronological crimes, the Time Bender himself, Sir Pseudo Havering.

The Twilighter growled deeply as he stretched, rubbing the weariness from his eyes. "Whyr damn," he murmured, getting his bearings and placing the mighty blade he had acquired upon his back. By some unknown force, it stuck there. His natural sinister, constantly frowning, piercing eyes glanced over his come savior. "Quite a sight, aren't you?" he smirked, folding his arms.

Malfector just stood there and stared back with his emotionless stare.

Pseudo observed him for a time more then muttered quietly, "Ultimate apex of an Infect to date, yes, master of personality he is not." With a look around he nodded to no one in particular. "Well, don't know about you, but shall we be off to the world outside now? I already hold absolute sovereignty here; it's fast in losing its luster."

Malfector nodded in response. "Yes, I would assume so. There are many interesting new events occurring back in town at this moment. Your forces have encountered a slight resistance."

Pseudo grinned, clapping his hands once. "Oh good! I do hope it's those meddlers. They always are such fun to toy with." He thrust a hand into the air, causing his purple cape to billow dramatically. "With all haste – we travel!" The air seemed to ripple with an arcane sigil before the two vanished into thin air.

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The ancient wooden door creaked as it began to bow outwards. Tremendous energy was seeping through each of the cracks surrounding it, washing the old, dingy hallway with light. The groaning of the pained, straining door became quite obvious as it continued to contort. After an agonizing eternity of this, with a blast of wind that almost shook the house to its foundations, the door was thrown violently open. A thick, bluish-purple mist began to waft out and filled the corridor, covering the floor to knee height. From within stepped the two. The large, robotic behemoth stood to the right of his smaller, yet far more chill-inducing master.

Entering the hall, the door closed and locked with a click behind them. All was calm again, though the mist thickly blanketed the floor still. The demon cleared his throat, and frowned deeply. Then, upon the select five alone he focused and trained his thoughts.

~My knights...I have awoken. Come hither and serve your master.~

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Across the city, at the precise moment this message was sent, four of the individuals in question froze in their assaults.

A twisted grin of glee spread over the semi-face of Professor Alfred Nsvem as he kicked the knight savagely onto his robotic accomplice. "FINALLY!" he exclaimed with a happy but aggravated groan. Pointing at the two he snickered. "Now...now you two are in for it." He laughed his high-pitched, insane laughter as he deftly leapt to the cart again, then to a rooftop, and was over it and out of sight in seconds.

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Baron Holograntis blinked in utter surprise. Both images of him froze in their charges, fading quickly back into the original. "He's....he...IS..." he murmured in shock.

"Who is?" Jaded frowned.

"Yeah, and what are they?" Scilas chimed in.

The Baron growled and backhanded them both savagely with his staff. "You'll learn soon enough! Bother me not, there's work to be done!" he cried back, bounding from roof to roof, disappearing into the shadows somewhere along the way.

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As mage and robot ran hard, the two sorcerers and an unholy army behind them gave pursuit. Their shoes clambered loudly against the pavement with each step, but abruptly dug their heels in, screeching to a halt. They stood there, heads tilting slightly, befuddled as their prey got away. Slowly they looked to one another, sneering. In unison, they thrust their staves skyward. With a frigid eruption of a gigantic ice formation and a pillar of fire from the street, which faded just as quickly, the two were gone.

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In an upper chamber in the far left wing of the house all appeared hurriedly: first, the two sorcerers in bursts of their respective elements. Then, panting, the professor barged through the door, followed shortly after by the slightly winded baron. They all assembled, shoulder to shoulder, falling to one knee in unison. From by the window where he stood, draped in darkness and the occasional flashes of lightning from outside, strode the man himself.

"Welcome back to the waking world, Master," Nsvem grinned.

"Yes, quite the pleasure to have you back with us," Holograntis agreed.

"How may we serve you best, lord?" Malus and Spiite bowed their heads in unison.

Pseudo smirked, adjusting the glove on his left hand, pulling it tighter. "Well, gentlemen, I called you all here as, well, I'd rather not have to call you back from the other realms again."

"What do you mean, sir?" the other, lesser demon, the myralik asked.

Pseudo smirked. "Just what I said, Baron. I intend to wipe out this pitiful planet of all existing life, and cultivate it anew as my own." He began to pace slowly. "Malus, Spiite."

The two stood in unison.

"You two, conjure the proper protection ward around the estate.”

The sorcerers saluted, hurrying out the door.

"Baron, Professor."

Those two stood.

"You two, rally the troops, gather them in the mansion, I'd rather not be accountable for the deaths of any of my own men today."

The two hastily complied, and sprinted from the room to waste no time.

Pseudo snickered, turning to Malfector. "It's about time for a new world to those that have already fallen to me."

Malfector nodded solemnly. "Yes, sir, it is."

Havering snickered. "You know, I'm getting to like your lack of personality, creepy though it may be."

* * *

Standing upon the roof, at the far end of the house, the Time Bender was perched, looking out and about the city, as the wind blew coldly and the putrid, frigid evil mist blew about freely over much of the city now. Eventually, his gaze fell to the street, where several hundred figures appeared. Mechna Knights, demons, Electraphorms alike, all marched into the massive house.

The Baron appeared upon the massive fence, looking up to Pseudo. "They are all here, milord!"

Pseudo nodded and called back. "Very good, but where is the professor?"

Holograntis nodded. "He's getting something he found of interest. He'll be with us shortly!"

Havering nodded in dismissal and Holograntis sprang to the ground and disappeared in with the troops.

The demon casually glanced around, spotting one of the sorcerers on either side of the building, sprinkling strange powders and shaking various liquids over the fence, chanting odd, arcane verse as they went. Pseudo chuckled at this, but his attention snapped back to the street as something quite large indeed drew near. It was Alfred, struggling to pull a rather massive, cart-borne...thing behind him.

"Alfred," he boomed, "what in the blazes is that!"

The professor wiped his brow, grinning wide like a kid with a new toy. "Why sir, it's amazing! I found this in an alley here! Someone tried to conceal it. I do believe it's a positronic nucleic disharmonizer, functioning on the subatomic level to destabilize the synch between neutrons, protons and electrons, and cause a total unbalance in the atomic composition of even that which is less than totally concrete!" He waved to it again, grinning wide. "Just sitting there!!"

The Twilighter groaned, rolling his eyes but grinning. "You know, I don't know what's worse; how you could just rattle that off, or that I totally comprehended it." He smirked, jerking his head to the side. "Just get it in the basement and get in the house. The warding's about finished it looks."

Sure enough, Malus and Spiite were near side by side now, and side-stepping closer. Alfred nodded and struggled with his immense burden inside the fence and down into the basement through the immense outer doors.

As the two sorcerers finished off either side of the same post, they looked up. "It is done sir!"

"Good," Pseudo replied, loosening up his fingers, "get inside and I'll get started."

The two hurried in through the main gate, shutting and locking it behind them. Havering waited until they were up the drive and the front doors were closed tight before turning back to the city. Reaching behind his back, he pulled loose the Sepalaris, and held it before him, parallel to the ground.

His eyes shut as he began to mutter, slow, rhythmic, rough tones, almost growls and barks. The handle of the weapon began to emit the same mist that was flowing about already, as well as a darker, more grey, horridly reeking of death itself. The chanting grew steadily louder and the wind began to pick up, stirring his hair exposed around his helmet and scattering the mists across the city. In moments, all was blanketed quite thickly. Pseudo's eyes slowly began to open, pupils demonically thin, brows in an intense glare.

His chanting continued, and, at several points of the city, the ground was cracked as several vortexes of swirling reds, oranges, and yellows suddenly, unexpected by him, opened under a few of the individuals in question who had come to stop him, and closed as they fell through.

He knew none of this. The mist seeped into every crack, every corner. Havering's pupils changed from an icy blue to crystal clear glass in color.

All is stricken…

The pavement and every surface began to crack and pale in color.

All will ROT…

Houses suddenly collapsed by the thousands with weak supports. Entire forests fell, the trees rotten from the inside out and putrid.

All to crumble…

The fallen derbis, houses, trees, everything began to break down and fall to the ground.

All to dust…

The crumbled pieces of all fallen seemed to decay even further, even more dramatically, falling to fine powder upon the earth.

ALL. TO. DEATH.

The mists bellowed out across the land in an explosion of wind. The dusts across the land billowed and spread, seeming to engulf and subject more of the surface of the planet to the same fate. Slowly, in almost domino fashion, the planet became a dirty, ashen grey. Graveyard grey. The hue of death itself.

Pseudo smirked, lowering the blade. "Now this," he growled, "is more like it."

-----END ACT II-----