{In hopelessness, either we find ourselves despairing or courageous... Yet cowards die many times before their actual deaths [Julius Cæsar], as sometimes even to live is an act of courage [Seneca]. As determination is not blinding hopefulness but the courage of hopelessness. So dear reader, whether thou hast came from 50-word tasker contest by @jayna or @bananafish's "FinishTheStory" in their 32nd iteration, take well to my street philosophizing section... Today's music-aide: "Seal the Deal Boss fight music" [1.] (A Hat in Time Seal the Deal OST).}
- Ashen spirits -
Ashen spirits, ashen spirits. Why must ye ashen haunt us? Oh ye ashen limp and moan, a sound that scares kids. If ye were innocent, why cannot a child see such? More-so, your death speeches invoke eloquence but your actions are eloquence’s Brutus. Oh stay away! Ashen spirits, ashen spirits.
{This part of the post was for the 50-word tasker contest by @jayna.}
Banner Created by @f3nix
- The Void of Tesseract-19 -
Prompt by @f3nix
The hoverbike lay abandoned on its side, the engine still warm. The fine black dust carried by the incessant wind was a snake that crept in every small recess.
From the top of the dune the Tesseract 19 could be seen with the naked eye. The column pierced the black sea of graphite and challenged the dark crimson sky. The awareness of his distance made him wince. That construction was enormous. That impenetrable artifact, Moloch's sharpest tooth.
Intertwined with dust, the warm wind brought an imperceptible howl: the bark of the monolith, an omen of death.
The man waited, a stiff exoskeleton bent over the black sand. The helmet lay abandoned beside him. Soon the team would have arrived.
"Soon you will arrive too and everything will be accomplished, one way or another."
He thought of her smile, her courage, her strength. "My life, how could I've been so reckless to have you involved in all this?" The tears were already kneading blackened as the memories of their happy normality swept over him.
"I can not let them find me like this". He stared at himself from outside: another tower on a dune, far more uncertain than the one that howled his feral wish.
These and other demons echoed within the chambers of his soul, when his eyes met a green sprout. The man stared that little miracle that, against every odd, was striving to affirm its existence. In the midst of that sea of bottomless despair.
The tear finally found its way lingering and bathed a leaf. The man managed to pull himself together and, now smiling, he put on his helmet.
"This Moloch will tremble, time has come for an awakening."
Ending done by @theironfelix
An alien shriek, boots clicked around, ashen-black puffs and out came a floating slug. Those boots then carefully squeaked around and away from the plant as the Grunt spoke:
"What is an advisor outta regs-?"
"Hast thou forgotten that oure species be disunited, 'specially-"
"Forgive my tongue, neck-haired Elder, but you see Tesseract-19?"
"Indeed, an ærial will be zapp'd."
Cocking his head, a speck in the pale-yellow sky was there. And both flew back as Tesseract-19 bolted and made ash of it. Relaxing his neck, the Grunt noticed the Elder's red-pulsing eye-tube and three metallic-limbs on each side. The Elder spoke as they attached a gas-mask on:
”In another time, these saplings were commonplace. Yet Moloch’s sin affects Fortuna herself and well... It and I stole the kill contract. Breathe easy, yer squadron be safe and be with the Legios... There be increas’d reports of vestiges near the border. Likewise, time’s runnin’ out and we must buy time for the Kunst Meister.”
The Elder floats down, covering the sapling in ashen-black puffs as it absorbs that in itself. The Grunt racking their laser rifle, spouted:
”Fly Elder!”
Metallic-limbs clutched and nested the Grunt as the Elder puffed while zipping across the desert. Alarms cried, Tesseract-19 hissed and ashes electrically punished for a speeding dark myst's existence. The myst arched up while Tesseract-19’s fire-rate increased; now electricity danced around the myst's trial. Finally reaching the flight's extreme, electricity was dispensed in one bolt that short-circuited the shields. Off in the distance, desert worms flew out and their voices made the surface fly.
Plummeting, the Elder and the Grunt re-materialized and bursted through. Yellow-lit androids engaged lasers down the line, yet the Elder mind-stopped the energy and mind-spoke to them. The Grunt dropped to the floor and advanced forwards, yet danced back as once-hidden spider-limb vestiges began stabbing the floor. However, that performance was ceased as the yellow colour flagged into red-light and rounds was fired. Soon disappearing, the Elder mind-forced the door away and spoke to the Grunt:
"Grunt, now the robots live. Disconnected from Mulloch, they reconnected back to life's Chaos and Order-"
Their euphoria was broken by sterile order of spider-limb strikes at anti-Mulloch agents. Soon the Elder and the Grunt flew through a robotic revolt against vestiges of spider-limbs and humans pouring from The Void. Reaching Mulloch's chamber, they re-materialized and began pounding; robots soon joined in the art project. With one final strike, the doors flew open and the Elder mind-pinned and mind-dragged Mulloch from his combat throne. With such, the Grunt picked up that the spider-limb vestiges disappearing while seeing the Meister planting charges while eyeing the screens. Meanwhile the Elder's metallic-limbs reformed to plasma:
"Spider of The Void, I banish thee from life. Thus we end the Anti-Void War!"
"Ha, The Void cannot-"
Mulloch's head flies off his spider-corpse and a galaxy hopper rips open, everyone rushes towards it and it soon closes. In Mulloch's final moments, he sees It walk towards Kunst and teleports him out before the electric-flame consumes the core.