User blog:Datadragon Seraphim/The New Kingdoms: Expanded Universe - What if Corvus took the Gems of Daedric Force? Part 2

The second part of the story, where a madman takes the power of nigh omnipotence for himself.

Sariel, Tyrael and Azrael scattered, the beam of energy missing them narrowly. The siblings summoned their own weapons, which appeared in their hands. They raised their weaponry against Corvus, who just stood and smirked, obviously impressed by what the sword that he now wielded could do. In fact, Corvus seemed way busier examining his new weapon than focusing on his opponents, as a child would be curious about a new toy.

The three siblings nodded at each other and teleported into position around Corvus, attacking him from multiple directions. Corvus' newfound powers refused to allow him to be hit, though, as he responded with a spiralling slash that parried all their swords, each contact between blades releasing universe destroying levels of energy, causing the world around to break down even more, accelerating the very end of time and space itself. Tyrael, Sariel and Azrael didn't let up, though, changing the directions of their weapons, as they sliced at Corvus repeatedly.

Corvus blocked the attacks nearly flawlessly, making up for his lower skill with raw power, by creating dimension cutting crescents to force the siblings into defensive positions, or to simply block their weapons. He used the Godkiller with unearthly agility and skill, wielding it two handed, as his three wings curled around his body to block any hit tha bypassed his formidable defense. With a burst of energy, Corvus threw the three siblings back, as he laughed maniacally.

"Do you not understand? Sariel, Tyrael, Azrael, some of your immense powers now flow in my body! You think you can defeat me when I myself am infinite and all powerful? You really think you stand a chance against me? You have already lost the battle! I was just toying with you!" screamed Corvus, as he began swinging the Godkiller around his body in hypnotic motions, many dimensional rifts appearing around him. With a wave of his sword, all the rifts went flying straight at the siblings.

Sariel, Tyrael and Azrael backed into each other and started blocking everything that came at them from multiple directions, by using magicka flares to tear apart the dimension cutting blades of energy that flew at them. They used their sword to prevent anything else from actually hitting, with the balance being absorbed by a powerful ward that soaked up any attack that came from an odd direction.

"Huh, so powerful, soaked up one of my weakest attacks. I am so scared. What about you now just go and die!" giggled Corvus, almost girlishly, before he just raised Godkiller above his head. The clouds above him gathered as a misty black maelstrom, as it began to rain corrosive liquid. Sariel, Tyrael and Azrael instinctively warded full body, preventing the magical rain from even touching them. Black, tornado like tendrils started to descend from the sky, as Corvus' eye glowed a rainbow colour.

A giant eruption of dark energy came from the ground, as Corvus moved his free hand, again causing the siblings to scatter via teleportation. This wasn't a solution at all. They wouldn't win if they kept on trying to just survive and outwit their opponent. He was too fast and too powerful to minimize collateral damage. Tyrael looked at his siblings and said "unleash your true forms. Ignore the death of the universe, since it is already unravelling. Also, stop holding the universe together with magicka."

"Ok!' replied Tyrael's siblings, as they moved into stance. The three of them closed their eyes for a moment, causing massive amounts of energy to shoot skyward from their bodies, as their wings opened. Sariel's wings glowed a pure white, Tyrael's were flaming blue. Azrael himself split into a pair of entities. His life avatar, a beautiful woman with three misty, black wings, and his death avatar, a man with three ethereal white wings. Corvus just laughed and said "well, well, well, very impressive. At least I have worthy opponents now! Go on! I still win anyway, and you make my job easier by being the agents of destruction.

Azrael observed the situation and said, both his avatars speaking in synchrony "let's just attack him and put in all our powers. Go!"

Corvus laughed and leapt at the siblings, the entire Godkiller burning with black fire, as the siblings replied in kind, their own weapons releasing massive levels of pure magicka into the system, all coated with auras of energy that would create energy vortices that could tear everything in ten kilometers apart. The weaponry met, resulting in the release of a truly universe ending explosion, as all colour drained away.

"Damned, where is he?" said Tyrael, as they floated in the void. Sariel looked around, and so did both of Azrael's aspects, but they saw nothing. They were sort of confused, but there was no sign of Corvus anymore. Perhaps he was bound to the universe, and perished when the universe died as well. The Gems were supposed to protect him, though. It didn't make sense.

Their thesis was confirmed seconds later, when Corvus bloomed out of the darkness, the Godkiller impaling Azrael's life aspect in the chest. Azrael recombined into one entity, watching incredulously as his body was injured by the most mundane of attacks, just a stabbing strike, when all the dimensional blasts and fancy swordmanship had failed. He should have trained much harder. His sword spiralled away into the abyss, as he let go of it.

"Hahahahaha! Azrael, you would have made the perfect avatar for my father, but he is now dead. Your amount of self doubt, self hate, self confusion, it makes it all the more easier to possess you and use you as a vessel. Also, you know something? You are the perfect life form. Only you can claim to have an unbiased perspecitive. You are neither male nor female, old nor young, intelligent nor stupid. The list goes on and on" said Corvus "Unfortunately, you are dead ... and your sblings can't help you!"

True to his word, Sariel and Tyrael were both trapped in bubbles of energy, unable to get out, no matter how they struck at the bubbles with magically enhanced attacks that had the power to destroy cities, or with enough magic to end a universe. The power of the trinity, along with Lucina's abilities and the magicka stored in the artifacts that Corvus wielded ... those could break even the mightiest.

Corvus raised his gauntleted hand, the Gems of Daedric Force gilittering, as it charged up a blast of energy. Azrael could see the power being charged up in the hand, heralding his doom, if it actually struck him. In a last breath of defiance, Azrael used his telekinesis to shift himself right into Corvus, as he just grabbed the man by the lapels and delivered a bone crushing head butt to Corvus' nose.

The distraction was just long enough for Sariel and Tyrael to teleport. The moment Corvus regained his senses, he noticed his left arm was no longer part of his body. Azrael smirked as the arm inside the Gauntlet of Daedric force vaporized. Sariel put on the gauntlet, as Tyrael followed through with his sword slash, his weapon causing a destructive shockwave to propagate along Corvus's arm.

"You had the powers of a god, but still you do not have the will of one. Also, being powerful ... huh, being powerful will bring you nowhere. You need to know how to use the power, and you need to have a reason to use it. Power without logic or reason, it is destined to fail" said Azrael, as he spat a gob of blood into Corvus' face. Corvus released the grip on the Godkiller, as the pain of Tyrael's attack spread through his exploding arm, even though it stopped when it reached his shoulder.

Tyrael pulled Godkiller from his brother, using the weapon to cleave off Corvus' three wings, causing them to evaporate, before he kicked the now weakened enemy straight at Sariel, who had fully charged the gauntlet with truly awe inspiring amounts of magicka, hate and rage. Sariel responded by punching Corvus with her gauntleted fist, causing the man to simply evaporate, as his existence was undone by the sheer force of the attack. A shockwave propagated through the void, destroying and nullifying all possibilities of Corvus from existing. Sariel's rage was intense enough to cause the Gems of Daedric Force to all shatter, releasing the essence and causing the gauntlet to shatter into a prismatic shower.

Azrael laughed, even though the wound on his body refused to seal. He looked at Tyrael and said "return the blade to my body. Stab it into the wound. Only then we can recreate the new world, with new gods, with new everything, without the old threats. Please ... there isn't much time before I can no longer hold my body together ... I am the Omniarch of Life and Death, and so, in my death, let my rebuild life."

Tyrael obliged and stabbed the Godkiller though Azrael's chest once more, watching his brother glow with energy, as pair after pair of wings opened around the dying Steelfang. Azrael seemed to smile as he stood upright, the wings around him disintegrating into feathers of light that mended the universe, rebuilding it from the shattered fragments that scattered across the void. The Godkiller had vanished along with him. The universe was a perfect replica of itself previously, with everyone alive. WIth one crucial difference - none of Corvus, or his relatives, continued to exist. Their presence wasn't just banished, it was erased completely. There were no more Aedra, Daedra or Magna Ge. Mortals would be free.

Azrael eventually turned into a wisp of energy, that injected itself into the new world, causing the barren land to become fertile. The sun shone in the sky, as flowers, trees and such sprung up around the lands, turning the area that Tyrael and Sariel were standing in into an expansive meadow. Tyrael proceeded to hug his sister, saying "it is over sis ... we managed to defeat the evil."

"B ... b ... but ... Azrael, he had to die. No! This cannot be happening" said Sariel, as she cried into her brother's shoulder. Tyrael stroked her long, smooth hair slowly, to comfort her.

"He isn't dead ... all these plants, grasses, animals. The life around us, it is all a part of Azrael ... he's not dead, just ... different" said Tyrael, even though he knew he could have been telling a white lie for all he cared. Not that he actually cared that much. Azrael's sacrifice, while it wasn't ideal, it was not something they had a choice in.

"Tyr ... Tyrael ... is what you say t ... true? I hate myself. We should have just ignored protecting the soul of every living thing, while the universe was tearing itself to pieces. We could have won without casualties on our side" blubbered Sariel, as she still cried.

"I don't know about defeating him. What I do know, though, is that Azrael wouldn't want to see you crying like that, and he sure would have hated to let everyone die for him to live. So wipe those tears away, ok? You must remember, we aren't gods. We are just ascended mortals. These people we protected, they deserve the right to live as much as us" smiled Tyrael as he wiped his sister's tears away. The rest of the family started to phase into existance, having come to observe just what was going on. Corvus had used a substantial portion of his powers to keep them away, after all.

"I ... I guess so" sighed Sariel, as she calmed down. She broke apart from the embrace, as the two remaining members of the Metapotent Trinity turned to face their family, unsure of what to do...