Post by Ozzatron on Jul 16, 2011 22:12:21 GMT -5
IMPORTANT STUFF
IGN: ozzatron
Character Name: Serinas Veldar
Race/Faction: Crimson Brotherhood (LEADER)
Age: 26-30*
Alignment: Somewhere between Lawful Neutral, Neutral Evil, and Lawful Evil.
Physical Characteristics: Visible, inhumanly red veins that glow in the dark. Skin is pale, but not thin as in humans of advanced age. Eyes blazing with demonic flames in the same color as the veins.
*Serinas' exact age is unknown due to extremely long-distance teleportation. Twice. Additionally, he was resurrected by Krios, five hundred years after his death.
Current character count: About 48,000
PROLOGUE -- REJECTION
"These people are blind enough you wonder if their eyes are really functional."
This sarcastic comment kept going through my head as I was listening in on the commoners' conversations through the marketplace. They all believe in this one thing, this idea, this abstract, baseless idea of a supernatural being. There's even a word for it, but it's a name. "Mal". It's a name as a direct result of the most important rule about Mal: he's the only thing in his league; if you believe otherwise you're as good as dead.
If you believe in Mal, (which you do), you believe that he's the supreme authority and that if you screw up in life, this "afterlife" will be the most terrible thing imaginable. It's what I call faith control -- the emperor is the physical manifestation of Mal and therefore you obey or are doomed for eternity, apparently. And that eternity happens pretty quick if you don't obey. In fact, the emperor has his own personal assassin force called the Malefic (I like the pun) Hand that silently executes serious unbelievers; knowing about them is the other way to get on their list. After you're dead, they'll try as hard as they can to erase you from time itself. They remove all personally identifying items from your house, incinerate them, and then put it up for sale. Anything you've ever written, no matter how insignificant, will be destroyed, as it is unholy. Any other sort of record that you existed, for example job applications and school attendance records, will be edited so that you didn't. It's brilliant, cold, ruthless... and effective. I have to give it credit for that...
There's mountains of evidence to disprove this atrocity. But don't try to stand on them: information guards always have their crossbows trained on that point, and will shoot you down right as you climb to the top. Have fun tumbling down if it didn't kill you outright, too. These information guards aren't just watching the mountains of evidence; they're also watching mountains of media. Bias is a relatively steep slope. At the bottom, things may look fine, but they're pretty grim to the trained eye. In contrast, at the top you see paradise. Of course, you're supposed to take the easy way and just slide down into the darkness of reality, because it'll look good. Those who have the trained eye would try to climb to the top. But, as you look to the top, you also see more crossbows, and if you even try to climb the slope, you're falling down forcefully, painfully and maybe even lethally.
Freedom, although it is a word, can only be used in the context of the "successful afterlife". And that's a guess by me, and me alone.
This is the world I live in. It needs to be able to see, because I'm going to put it through absolute hell, and I want it to notice.
CH I -- REEVALUATION
I was combing the news for anything of value. Generally, I never found anything, but today, I struck gold. Well, actually I struck some red mineral. There was a moderate-sized column article about the mining crew headed by Darius, one of my personal friends, discovering a mysterious red powder. The article went on to say that this powder had seemingly no value, and Darius handed it over to the government so they could try to release its power through religion. Darius and I, on the other hand, tend to experiment on new things the scientific way. It's far superior.
Darius works with the earth because he feels it separates him from the unbearable stupidity of the masses. Additionally, because he has control over the caves he explores, he can easily use them to store illicit documents and other things of value. In fact, I've got some of my papers down in the depths. It's like a black market service that gets around government censorship.
The idea of a new mineral fascinated me. I packed up a few books of mine that needed safeguarding, as well as a blank one. After leaving the main town and venturing to Darius' most recent outpost, I was glad to find him on the surface; generally I'd have to wait until he came back up from the caves. He was actually busy storing some red powder into crates. Right as I showed up, he looked up and said,
"Hey Serinas! Glad to see you. You need another book stored in the caves?"
"Well, yes, but it appears I've shown up at the right time. I'm interested in your red powder." I handed the books to him, excluding the empty one of course.
He got up and opened the crate he was just busy filling. "This is the stuff. The government thinks it's useless, but me and the boys think that it's got some weird hidden power." I put my hand into the dust. It was very odd: it had large particles that were very smooth. I picked up a handful and looked at it.
"Hmm... The dust is very slightly glowing. You could tell easily in the caves, but not so much here on the surface."
"Yeah, we knew about that. Around here we call it 'Redstone', because we couldn't come up with anything better. It's better than 'Red Powder' at least."
"Agreed. Can I go down into the caves with you? I'd like to see this stuff naturally."
"Sure thing." He called out to his crew, "Boys! I'm going back in with Serinas to look at the Redstone. We'll be back in no more than two hours!"
We descended into the caves. Now, I'd been with Darius before into his caves, but this one was just... deeper. Much, much deeper. After twisting down through many passageways and climbing down ladders, we arrived at somewhere I thought must be a kilometer underground. There he led me to a Redstone vein.
"Here it is. We actually kept this one here for you; you're generally interested in this kind of stuff."
I knelt down by the vein and looked at it closely. After about 5 minutes I decided to try to do something to it: I stood up and gave it a solid, hard kick with my heel. It started noticeably glowing. I asked Darius, "Is there anything else you know about Redstone?"
"When we're mining it, our iron picks get a red glow around them as they strike the ore. I can't figure out what it means."
"Well then, could I borrow your pickaxe?" He handed it over to me. "I'm not one for hard labor, but let's see what happens when I give this thing a whack."
I lifted by arms up and swung the pick downwards, doing a bit of damage to the ore. However, what I was really interested in happened full power: The pickaxe was glowing red! I then decided to drop the force and just push the pickaxe head against the ore. Sure enough, it stayed glowing, and actually lit up the room pretty well!
While I was doing this, Darius asked, "Hey, doesn't iron conduct electricity?"
"Indeed. It does... this means that Redstone creates electricity! This is an excellent find. I'd like that crate of Redstone from you."
"Me and the boys will finish scouting these caves. Any Redstone we find goes straight to you."
I scrawled some notes into the book before we went back up to the surface. I noticed how much harder it was to go up than down...
This material has extreme potential... and it's all going to be mine.
CH II -- EXPERIMENTATION
Darius and crew had just hauled the crate of Redstone, now full, from the mines. After trading some words I brought it inside. It was actually lighter than I had thought, but I knew it was packed to the brim because small bits of it were being scattered on the floor. Darius never fails me; he's one of the few people I know that's trustworthy in the sea of fanatics. Actually, I take that back. The fanatics are trustworthy to the church.
Again thanks to Darius, I had what must have been hundreds of small iron objects. Most were scraps, but a good deal of them were actually useful for something. I collected these and took the book with the notes downstairs to my basement workbench. It took a while, but I also lugged the crate of Redstone down there. It was time to do science.
I put down a small pile of Redstone on my bench, then placed an iron scrap next to it with tongs. Both started glowing red; but the Redstone's glow was shifting around the pile of dust. You could swear the dust looked like it was alive. With the tongs, I placed scrap after scrap until they created a long chain leading away from the Redstone. I noticed that, although the charge seemed perpetual, it only could travel over a limited distance. The iron objects further away in the chain from the dust glowed fainter. Comparing it to magnetism and electricity, I wrote down that "the dust appears to exert a magnetic field that directs itself down available paths, similar to electricity." It only partially made sense, but that's what I was seeing.
Then I made a loop out of the scraps. If Redstone acted like electricity, this would create a circuit, and the entire loop would be glowing at full strength. Much to my surprise, there was still a gradient; and like previously, the dimmest point was the one farthest from the dust heap. For another test, I held a scrap over the Redstone pile. It didn't glow in the slightest. But when I held it under dust, that is, under the workbench, it was glowing even without being in direct contact with the dust. I was interested in this directional relationship, and wrote more notes. Because I wasn't particularly fond of holding the dust in my hand, I placed it in a bowl and held that up over my iron "snake." Sure enough, the entire snake lit up as before.
It was getting late. When I was going to dump the Redstone bowl back into the crate, I accidentally found out that having Redstone suspended over itself charges both areas. Most of the crate was now glowing quite brightly. Changing my mind, I decided to try and mix the Redstone dust with water. The result was a red paste that, although it stuck to surfaces, was easily rubbed off. Testing the paste's conducive properties showed that it was equivalent to normal Redstone in dust form. In a streak of brilliance (or maybe insanity, I'm not sure), I decided to smear the paste on both ends of a stick, trying to utilize the up-down relation. When held vertically, both of the stick's ends would shine brightly; when held horizontally, neither would. I wrote down that "the electromagnetic properties of Redstone seem to also be correlated to gravity. Whatever is carrying the 'red force' is being affected by it."
This invention turned out to be incredibly useful. At the time, I called it the "Redstone torch" because it's effectively a stick-based light source, just like a regular torch.
I now knew that Redstone could carry charge between itself. By drawing a long line of the dust and placing my new torch next to it, I found that it seemed to carry for much, much longer along itself than along iron. I had a hard time, but eventually I managed to draw a line long enough that the glow stopped completely. Measuring showed that the line was fifteen meters long! By messing around with the torch some more, I found that if there was an incoming current into one end, the other end wouldn't have power. This mystified me. I wrote down many more notes and then came to the conclusion that it was too late even for science.
It was difficult falling asleep. I was too excited.
CH III -- INTEGRATION
I had forgotten it was the weekend. After waking up stupendously late in the morning, I quickly ate breakfast and hurried downstairs to finish what I had started.
I made a dozen or so torches using sticks I had on hand. To see if the gravity effect worked on Redstone dust, I made an incline with paper, then scattered the dust on it. Nothing happened. I concluded that the strange effect must be related to the water and how it's affected by gravity; I really wasn't sure. After an hour of placing dust and torches in different configurations, I discovered something relatively amazing with the negation effect. These torches could perform logic! You could do "A or B" by just placing the dust together and "Not A" with a torch. As a result, you could do "Not A or B" by leading two dust lines into a torch. I recognized this as "A nor B", which, from some of my previous work, I knew could be used to create any logical expression. However I was a bit fuzzy on that, and I left to go grab my logic book from Darius' mines.
The sun had already gone through the top of the sky, and I felt that maybe fetching the book was a waste of time. I didn't dare read it in public, because it was technically illegal, and instead had it stored in my satchel. Once I returned I opened it to the section on "NOR-based Logic" and began building. While doing so, I also found out that the negation effect took a small amount of time to occur. This created yet another parallel to gravity, as it takes time for water to fall. After building all kinds of the so-called "logic gates", I wanted to try something I knew could only work with the delay. I built a circuit with 5 torches in a circle and linked it up with Redstone. The whole thing started to pulse all on its own. I called the phenomenon a clock, because it had a perfect rhythm with time. By adding more torches the clock became slower, and eventually I managed to make it exactly one second.
I wanted to see if shortening the torch sticks had any effect on how fast the negation reaction propagated. I was sawing on of the sticks in half when my hand slipped and I managed to give myself a relatively bad cut to the forearm. However, the Redstone dust was sent scattering into the air, and I watched with horror as it settled onto my skin and literally was absorbed into the cut. This couldn't be good. After tending to the injury, I was struck with realization. There was no doctor in the city who could extract it from my blood. It was there to stay, and I was now rolling the dice on whether it was harmful or not...
Regardless, I carried on. Successfully making short torches showed that the delay was indeed proportional to the length of the stick. The thought of corrupted blood kept nagging me though, and I was hesitant to touch anything iron for fear of electrocution. Instead of continuing the experiments I wrote an organized book on Redstone before deciding to rest.
When I woke, I thought I was in a nightmare. My blood vessels were visible beneath my skin. I checked, and my skin actually wasn't getting any thinner, but it was paler. There was absolutely no sign of the original cut. Other scars I knew I had, for example the one on my left shoulder, were also absent. I figured that the only way to know if I was in a nightmare, and also the only way to know if I really had Redstone blood, was to try and hold one of my iron scraps. I made my way downstairs, and picked one up with my bare hands. To my horror, because I was actually hoping for it to be a nightmare, the iron scrap was glowing radiantly. After going upstairs again I noticed, by looking in the mirror, that my eyes were now red, and glowing as if they were on fire. My mind was unhappily racing.
I'm a monster. How can I explain this to anyone? Is this permanent? Will I survive?
CH IV -- ISOLATION
I refused to show myself in society. I couldn't; I'd be killed as a monster. So I needed to escape it. The best way to leave society was to travel to the New World, a faraway place that, as far as we knew, was unpopulated. It was possible to get to the New World via boat, but I couldn't get a boat, being a monster. Regardless, the trip is quite lengthy and I didn't have the supplies.
All I had was Redstone. A LOT of Redstone. I decided that I had to make use of it.
I figured that, if I already had Redstone in my blood, I could have more. Going downstairs, I placed my hand into the crate of Redstone and attempted to absorb it. As I guessed, it worked, and as I absorbed it, I started to gain a reddish aura. Unlike before, I wasn't afraid of my integration, and wanted to use it to its full extent. By willing the Redstone out, I was capable of turning it back into dust. But that wasn't very interesting. I was intrigued, however, by the aura. What powers did it have? Re-absorbing the Redstone, I tried to use telekinesis of some sort. That is, I thought about moving the tongs on my workbench. Much to my surprise, they moved, quite forcefully in fact. While I was controlling them they had a red aura similar to myself. It didn't seem to drain me all that much, and I wanted to test the limits of the telekinesis.
Switching from the tongs to an iron scrap, I willed it to rip in half. Red cracks appeared on the scrap, widened, glowed, and finally the thing did burst into two. I was thinking, "Great. So I can make things explode." To test another limit of telekinesis, I tried to make the tongs not just fly across the room, but teleport. Again, they did. I felt like a god, being capable of bending the universe to my will. The power seemed limitless; I even teleported myself across the room. Then I had a revelation. If I could teleport myself a small distance using some power, I could teleport myself a really, really far distance using lots of power! It seemed quite obvious, but it was important...did I have enough power to teleport myself all the way to the New World?
I drained all of the extra Redstone from myself and put it back into the crate. Grabbing a measuring cup, I scooped one cup of dust out of the crate and placed the cup onto the table. Then I absorbed exactly 1 cup of power. To mark my starting location, I put an iron scrap down between my feet. Picking up another iron scrap, I teleported two meters forwards, then placed the scrap. Grabbing a meterstick, I measured the distance; I wasn't sure if "two meters" registered as a valid distance with my telekinesis. The distance was exactly two meters, so it apparently did. Then I walked back over to the workbench and drained all the Redstone into the cup. I couldn't see a difference in the amount of Redstone; so I decided to travel more distance. Because I still had the iron scraps on the floor, I simply had to teleport back and forth between them, say, 50 times. I absorbed the Redstone and did just that; I was actually surprised at how fast I could alternate locations.
Draining the Redstone back into the cup showed that only 1% of the cup was missing! The telportation possibility was getting better and better. I did the relevant math in my head; one cup would allow for 10 kilometers of distance. However, with my destination being about two thousand kilometers away, I would need 200 cups. I measured the crate with the meterstick; it would contain about 50 cups. So I needed four crates of Redstone.
Darius should be able to help me...
CH V -- ACCUMULATION, PART I
I was worried about seeing Darius in person, as a monster. That is, until I remembered that he agreed to give all the Redstone he found to me. I checked outside briefly; there were no more crates, or any other packages for that matter. The problem resumed; I would have to go and see Darius. I steeled myself: Darius would surely understand my corruption. With my new-found ability of teleportation, I didn't even have to take the time to travel there. It was around noon, so Darius should definitely be at his mines. In a move that I later saw as being exactly in opposition to my fears, I absorbed the entire crate of Redstone and warped to Darius' mines.
I showed up in a blaze of red light. The workers in the surface camp all turned around in confusion and fear. None of them panicked, thankfully. Just as thankfully, one had the nerve to say, "Is that... Serinas?!"
"Yes. Serinas with Redstone, I guess you could say. The entire crate of it."
Another said, "I don't believe it! Are you Mal?!"
"No. I'm still Serinas. I don't even believe in Mal, as you probably know."
For whatever reason, they liked to switch who was talking. The one who hadn't spoken yet said, "You're sure acting like him."
"Exactly. And it suits me just fine. Because he's no longer alone. I feel as if I'm on his level."
The non-believer came back with, "So what do you want from us, 'Almighty Serinas'?"
"Simple. More Redstone. I'm not angry with you in any way. I just... well, ran out of Redstone."
Suddenly Darius climbed out of the mine shaft. Before he could say anything to his boys they interrupted him: "Boss! Serinas just magically appeared! We think he's Mal, but he's denied it twice!" In a fitting retort, one of the others said, "You mean, you think he's Mal. None of the rest of us do."
Darius was surprisingly calm and collected. He walked over and looked me straight in my demonic eyes. "Serinas... what did you do to yourself?" I could suddenly feel how out of place I was. I had to come up with a response... but I couldn't. A tear dropped from my left eye. A tear of Redstone... It hit the ground and suddenly became powered due to my aura.
Darius consoled me, with all the workers looking on. "Don't worry about it, Serinas... You lived through whatever happened to you. You've figured out so much about Redstone. In fact, you've almost become all-powerful." His workers were surprised when he used that adjective. It could only properly be applied to Mal.
"But at what cost?" I let down my hood. "I'm an inhuman monster. I can't exist in society at all."
The workers remained silent; which surprised me. I was expecting them to gasp at how ghastly I looked. Darius was also mute.
"No matter what I discover, no matter how important it is, this society cannot have it. They're too single-minded. I have to leave, both for science and for myself. But to do that, I need your help."
One of the workers spoke up rather timidly. "He needs more Redstone, boss."
"Sure. We've got several crates of it here."
In a fantastic display, I looked at the crates, raised them up into the air and warped them straight to my basement. At least I hoped I did; I knew they weren't at the camp anymore. "Any more?"
"We'd have to mine more. The stuff doesn't grow on trees you know!"
"But look at me. I'm not useless now." I split a fearsome looking crack in the ground, then solidified it again. "I could gather all the Redstone I need... if I knew where it was. This is where you come into play."
"Fair enough. The stuff does take quite a while to dig out, anyway. Hopefully your magic powers can do better than our picks."
We descended into the mines, and he led me to a vein of Redstone. I told him not to bother with a torch because my aura was so strong. "Work your magic," he said in response. I was trying to figure it out: what would be the best way to extract the Redstone? I was going to destroy the rock around it until I realized what I was dealing with. I could just absorb it... And that's what I did. I put my hand up to the vein and sucked it completely dry of Redstone.
"This is so easy, it's child's play! I wish I could've done this before. Do you have any more veins?"
"Certainly. Follow me."
We went around through the caves, from vein to vein. I sucked them all dry. The power was magnificent. Darius eventually said, "That's the last one. There's nothing else I know of."
"Did you ever have a general digging operation down here? Boring through the rock, trying to find some ore? Instead of just searching the natural caverns, that is."
"Indeed we do... why?"
"I'm going to help you."
CH VI -- ACCUMULATION, PART II
We traveled over to the artificial tunnel. It was pretty meager in size; I had seen much larger ones done by larger crews. That was going to change. I raised my arm to horizontal and faced my palm towards the wall. Attempting to amass all the power I could, I focused on the stone wall. It was very durable; the only thing I had tried to destroy was a small piece of iron, and now I was trying a stone wall? I figured to just try it because I did have an entire crate of Redstone plus a dozen veins worth of power. As I focused more and more energy into the wall, red cracks appeared on it, just like the iron scrap.
"What're you doing, Serinas?"
"This wall is going down. I recommend you take cover." With that, I also willed my aura to turn into a shield. It did; there was now a layer of hard light surrounding my body. I focused on the wall again; putting more and more power into it. It sure looked like it was about to explode when it really was. I blasted a massive pulse of energy at it.
The wall disintegrated with a thunderous sound and a blinding flash of red light. The tunnel was now almost a hundred meters long. I told Darius he could come out of cover. "Amazing... I assume you did that?"
"Indeed. I can feel more Redstone down the pathway. It's actually somewhat common down here." With that, I walked down the rubble-filled hallway towards the Redstone power source I felt. There were actually several: veins of dust that I had obliterated with my blast still had their residual power. Darius hurried up to the surface, telling me he would warn his workers about what I was doing. He also, I guessed, would tell them not to worry if they felt some minor earthquakes. That made me feel satisfied: I was the only thing alive that could generate an earthquake...
After what felt like hours of blasting, I had a net gain in power. I felt obligated to just let off a massive detonation with all the energy I now had, but I remembered I shouldn't be wasting the Redstone that I would need for the teleportation. I warped up to the surface, where I exchanged words with Darius about the new tunnel and also teleported three empty crates back to my house, along with myself. When I arrived I was relieved that the five crates I had teleported earlier were there. I used telekinesis to bring all of the crates inside, then drained myself of power to fill the empty ones up. I wanted to know exactly how much power I had.
All 9 of the crates were filled and I still had some left over. I remembered that I would need four whole crates to make my escape, so I set those aside and absorbed the other five. The amount of energy I had at my disposal was legendary.
I'm going to show Mal, and all of his society, their match. It's payback time.
CH VII -- DESTRUCTION
I was sure of my mission, but there was one thing that was bothering me. My aura was as bright as a bonfire. I wanted to conceal it, and when I tried, I succeeded in suppressing it to a faint glow. Close enough, I guessed. I walked out of my house and then, deciding that walking was boring, tried to fly. The result wasn't flight so much as a roundhouse kick to gravity's face. It didn't really take effort, I just loftily moved wherever I want. Then I went for speed.
I activated a strong aura shield and then did a flying shoulder-slam sort of maneuver, trying to go as fast as possible. I must've been moving at around sixty meters per second. It was incredible. Switching to a more relaxed flight pose, I soared towards the city. In a few short hours, I promised myself, this city would know a new definition of hell.
As I glided in, I was noticed by one of the guards on the towers. He, like the miners, assumed I must be Mal and proceeded to get all of his comrades' attention so they could all stare in awe at me together. It was funny for a bit, and I let off a simple light show before deciding to put the shoulder slam to use. I assumed the position and screamed towards their tower at incredible speeds. They watched me go right into, and actually right through the stone wall with a sound that was similar to when I blasted the tunnel in the mines. Of course, having just opened an exit wound in the tower, it collapsed. I was floating over the city now, with a tower falling behind me. I thought to myself, "I must look like the devil or something." But it was entertaining. I didn't want to kill everyone, just Mal and all who seriously defended him: the priests, the bishops, and even the Word of Mal himself.
I figured that most of those targets could be found in the churches, especially the Grand Basilica in the center of the city. I went for the churches first. Landing on the ground, I opened the door like a regular person. Of course, everyone in the church was in a panic from the events outside when I entered. They didn't notice me until I turned the bishop into a Redstone statue with a visible red eye beam. Then, they all turned towards me with priceless looks on their faces. The priests started to run until I disintegrated them, lighting the carpet on fire in the process. Panic re-ensued and I smashed through the ceiling on my way to the second church.
With the chaos now spreading through the entire city, I thought that making more impressive scenes was unnecessary. I flew over to the second church and fragmented the entire eastern wall, causing the whole building to collapse. The third was surprisingly close to the second; it just went up in a monstrous fireball, leaving a crater behind covered in Redstone. I found something mysteriously satisfying about just obliterating the churches without regard for those inside them. (At this point I believe that my inner hatred began to run loose. This is the cause for my heartless conduct.) The fourth I forced to violently implode, and the fifth I literally lifted out of the ground and flipped upside down. Even more sadistic, I simply ignited the entirety of the sixth.
I found myself feeling quite evil and decided to set aside my main goal to try something. That something was ripping up the fountain in the center marketplace, then stimulating the water source to flood to the surface. It was surprisingly effective, washing away all of the stalls and people in the market. Even though I had originally planned to not cause too many civilian casualties, I felt a vehement hatred of the entire city. I uprooted a whole residential district and slammed it into the city wall, decimating both. With all this debris around, I had a good set of projectiles. Picking up a storm of stones from the destroyed residential district, I hurled them all, like an extremely heavy storm of arrows, towards the Grand Basilica as a first strike. The front hall of the basilica collapsed, but most of it was still standing. Including the religious officials' quarters and the sanctuary; basically, the important parts.
Looking at the spire on top of the Grand Basilica, I thought it could be a very potent weapon. But that would have to wait; I darted towards the basilica. I wanted to take out the Word of Mal in person. Although it wasn't necessary, I smashed through the enormous stained-glass window of the holiest place in the city with a shoulder slam, then calmly landed on the floor. This was it. The Word of Mal was standing across the room from me. He, surprisingly, said something.
"I do not know where you come from, you devil, but Mal will see to it that you are punished for your destruction of this holy city."
"You know... I've always wanted to ask you something. Why do you believe in Mal? Even in the darkest of times, such as right here and now?" I was looking straight at him, and I deliberately flared my aura and my eyes.
"A being as misguided as you has no hope in understanding the reasons behind faith. Mal protects us and guides us throughout our entire lives. To receive this care and benevolence, one must in return believe."
"If Mal protects you, why am I here, decimating the city before your very eyes?" With that, I split the floor between us open, into a large hole that led to the floor below.
"In the end, Mal will prevail. You will suffer unimaginable ramifications for your horrible crimes against him, the divine authority."
"I'd like to see him try. This is the end for you, and by extension, your pathetic religion."
Although I couldn't see what I was doing, I disconnected the spire from the top of the Basilica. I flipped it upside down and drove it through the ceiling of the room we were in, straight into where the Word of Mal was standing. It utterly pulverized him, but also went through the floors of both the sanctuary and the main hall beneath it. Because the Basilica was still standing, I devised another plan involving the spire, which I pulled out of the ground. To my relief, the Word of Mal's body was nowhere to be found. I went back out through the window with the spire levitating over the Grand Basilica's main hall. Most of the city was standing in awe of what I was about to do.
I created a serious-sounding, echoing, booming voice to project my message across the whole city. The message was: "Today, your religion comes to an end! The Word of Mal is no more!"
I rotated the spire sideways and brought it down, like a kitchen knife, onto the Basilica. It split the thing cleanly in two, but also broke in the process. Then I took both of the sides of the building and crushed them together above the center, actually in midair. Debris went flying everywhere, and a huge dust cloud went shooting out from the impact. To finish the job, I split the Holy Hill, the hill that the Basilica stood on in two and, using a massive beam of Redstone energy, bored a hole, a hundred meters wide, that was as deep as possible. Into this chasm I dropped the remains of the building. I was about to seal the hill again when I looked down the chasm. Through the debris I saw a sea of molten magma. Had I really bored a hole all the way to the center of the earth? As the Basilica (or what was left of it) fell into the molten sea, I saw a familiar red glow in the pit.
Flying down it, I found latent Redstone energy, just like when I had bored the hole earlier. But this hole was so large that there was huge amounts of the stuff. I absorbed it all, giving me a relaxing boost in power; I felt like I had finished my supply when I dug the hole. For lasting effect, I decided not to close the hill, leaving the gaping volcanic pit open for all to see. I flew out of the pit and landed in front of the crowd of people, just to see what they would do. They tried to kill me. Apparently the Word of Mal's last words were to destroy me at all costs.
I wouldn't let that happen.
CH VIII -- ANNIHILATION
I flew into a rage at the sight of the populace's non-acceptance of the finality of my actions. They still thought they could resist me. They still thought that Mal would give them salvation in this cataclysm. Even if he could, I swore I would stop him if he tried. That is, if he even exists.
Using the pit's Redstone, which felt more powerful and violent, I knocked the entire crowd down and away from me. Did I really need to do something even more drastic? I thought of the volcanic pit I had, and how earlier I had successfully flooded the town with the fountain. Could I turn this city into an active volcano? It would be a legendary apocalypse.
Floating over the pit, I attempted to agitate and energize the magma below as much as possible. I channeled what felt like endless energy into it while it churned and bubbled. It caught me by surprise when it worked; I didn't even notice at all when the magma started abruptly rising. Fearing for my own life, I flew out of the chasm, but watched from above. As the magma rose higher and higher it grew more violent and agitated. Still, I was worried that the pressure wouldn't be high enough for an eruption. So I narrowed the hole gradually from a hundred to a dozen meters wide, making a sort of inverse cone. Using the hill's stone, I molded an artificial volcano around the hole, then retreated to the outskirts of the city to watch the fireworks.
The fireworks were good. Really, really good.
The eruption was like none other ever recorded. It was an awesome display, even to me, of natural chaos, rage, and fury. The initial burst of magma came shooting out of the vent that I had made and soared about fifty meters into the sky before raining down upon the city; the rest was just as destructive. It ferociously spilled out of both the initial vent and other ducts that had ruptured open from the pressure. It cascaded out into the city, overwhelming and incinerating everything in its path. And it just didn't stop. I was expecting it to only reach the central areas around the Grand Basilica, but after about 15 minutes of Redstone-fueled fire and brimstone, it was at the walls. They didn't do a better job than anything else at stopping it; the intense heat converted the base of the walls into much of the same as their oppressor, leaving the rest to topple into the inferno.
It took about an hour for the eruption to stop. The city had been completely annihilated; it was just a sea of magma, slowly flowing out into the countryside. The volcano was still delivering more, but not very quickly. Ash blackened the sky and thus blocked out the sun, darkening the entire area. It looked like the magma was becoming the new sun on earth.
I didn't need to worry about my house, as it was on top of a large hill, higher than the city. So I teleported there, using the last of my power to surround it with a shield that would prevent me from choking on the ash. I went inside and slept unbelievably soundly.
Mission Accomplished.
CH IX -- DESOLATION
When I woke, I couldn't tell what time it was because the ash was so thick. Upon going downstairs I realized that Darius was in grave danger. I debated the risks of saving him and was about to decide against it when I remembered all of the books I had in his mines. I had forgotten to retrieve them before unleashing the cataclysm. Cursing at my mistake, I figured that they were as good as gone: even if I could get them, I'd need extra Redstone to teleport them to the New World. Even the book I had at home, the one with the Redstone findings, was going to have to be left behind.
Being incapable of bringing anything but myself to the New World, I was angered at how much of a new life it was and how little a continuation of my current one. I had sealed my own doom. Within a few hours, the barrier shield would dissipate and I would be exposed to the poisonous ash. There was no choice but to teleport. I sat down at my dining table and pondered deeply about anything, anything that could be done to avert the crisis I had created for myself. After about 30 minutes I had nothing. Downcast, I prepared myself for the teleportation. I didn't eat in the hope that any less mass would give me a bit of Redstone on the other end. Instead I immediately went downstairs and absorbed the four crates of Redstone, then went to the center of my living room for the moment of truth.
I sat down Indian-style (criss-cross) on the carpet and proceeded to perform a meditation exercise, attempting to clear my head as much as possible. The teleportation was so important that I was getting rather paranoid and worried that any stray thoughts would throw it off. In my zen state I got sidetracked, and was deeply enjoying the mental tranquility, losing track of time. Outside the shield was fading...
My peace was interrupted by a loud slam. I was startled and realized that my front door had been blown open by a searing wind. The ash was flowing into my house. Rather than panicking, I remained calm and willed myself to travel to the New World.
And travel I did.
CH X -- REDEMPTION (TJRP 1.0)
I appeared on a beach. At least, I thought it was a beach, because I felt sand. When I opened my eyes some five minutes later, I was relieved that it was, in fact, a beach and not a scorching desert. I got up and began to wander around the countryside. There was a small shack just off the beach. I had to stop and evaluate that. Was the New World already inhabited? Or was I not even in the right place? There was nobody to ask, so I kept on walking. I was even more dumbstruck when I found a walled city. A sign next to its gate said, "Welcome to Elysia". I couldn't think of any place called Elysia, regardless of the fact that if I really was in the New World there would be no civilization for hundreds of kilometers...
I decided not to think about it and entered Elysia. There I found a man. He looked at me rather puzzled manner. Right before he was about to speak I asked him where I was. The result was satisfying.
"You're in the New World. This is Elysia. I'm Ersake."
"Nice to meet you. I was worried this wasn't really the New World."
"I don't see how you couldn't know where you were. To get here, you pretty much have to sail here deliberately. Unless you got extremely lost."
"Well... actually, I didn't sail here. I teleported here, but I'll spare you the details. Just don't ask, alright? I'm Serinas Veldar."
And with that, I was right where I wanted to be. I was quickly integrated into the local community and met all the people there. Most of them were refugees, and there was even a mysterious bipedal pig. I reignited my scientific pursuits along with a few others by building some labs in Seralotta, a town near Elysia. The transition to the New World was much easier than expected.
After finding the Redstone in the New World (I was rather surprised it was in the area), I found that it was far less powerful than my homeland's Redstone. This saddened me, but also prompted me to preserve my native variety by draining it and sealing it in a vial made of pure diamond. I still carry the vial in my pocket, in the hope that someday it will be useful.
The labs garnered quite a few members and, with everyone's help, had an impressive underground complex and astronomy tower. However, it was time for my secret to be passed on, and I founded the Crimson Brotherhood: a technological society of people, who, like myself, have Redstone integrated into their bodies. All of the members of the labs were asked to become members of the Brotherhood. Excluding Jonathan White1, who refused, all of them agreed. The membership of the Brotherhood at its creation1 consisted of Keyalvis, Mike, Ersake, Krios2, and myself.
A storm was coming, however...
CH XI -- DESTRUCTION REDUX (TJRP 1.0 -> FOUNDATION OF TJRP 2.0)3
I was violently awoken by a loud bang. Wandering out of the staff area, I saw a huge smoldering hole in the entrance hall. I was extremely worried and ran outside. In the sky, there were meteors, plunging downwards to the land. I saw one hit the church on the hill, completely decimating it. The world was coming to an end.
Someone came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Serinas. This land is coming to an end. I'm here to save you. My name is Arkantos."
"What?"
"I'm Arkantos... an Ancient sent back in time to stop this cataclysm from destroying your Crimson Brotherhood."
"An Ancient?" I'd heard tales of them, but they were very mysterious. From what I'd heard, they were almost godlike creatures that had fine control over reality.
"Indeed. This is of utmost importance. I'm going to build a warp temple to transfer all of you to my homeland."
"I've got materials so you can do that..."
"That won't be necessary." With that, he created a stone in his hand; the stone disappeared.
"Do you need me to do anything?"
"Yes. Gather all of the survivors and bring them here."
I went back into the labs and, despite how much I searched, couldn't find Krios anywhere. Everyone else was present and unhurt; I brought them all to Arkantos. I traveled past the wreckage of the church and to Elysia. While I was in the labs, one of the meteors had struck Elysia; and like the church, it had been severely damaged. Neither Ersake nor Jonathan White were anywhere to be found. Continuing on, I took the railroad to Arboris, which was in flames. Bloberis, the pigman, was there mourning the destruction of his town. I grabbed him and took him back along the railroad, all the way to Seralotta.
Arkantos had finished his warp temple. More meteors were in the sky, so we quickly went up the stairs and filed, one by one, into the portal.
We arrived in the Ancients' homeland. However, it was still a few hundred years before Krios' or Arkantos' time, and thus Arkantos was forced to bid us farewell after showing us the locations we should settle in. However, he specifically pulled me out and talked to me personally.
"Krios doesn't want to lose you. Although you must stay here and found the Brotherhood now, in the Ancients' home, upon your death he will resurrect you in his time period. Your brotherhood will have prospered by that time, and unfortunately, none of your current friends will be around. It's a great service, resurrection. Usually it is only reserved for our greatest leaders; this is the first time that it's going to be done on a non-Ancient."
"I'll keep that in mind..." I then set off with the rest of my group to set up our fortress.
A new beginning... again.
CH XII -- FOUNDATION (TIME BETWEEN TJRP 1.0 and 2.0)4
Throughout the rest of my life we were called upon by the Ancients to aid them in their terrible war against the Varg. From our mountain fortress we sent out legions of automaton warriors. In their fortresses we built diabolical deathtraps unlike any others ever seen. Thankfully, it was not really a time of conflict for us, for the Varg's sole target was the Ancients. Throughout the period, although I didn't keep history (We had a historian to do that), I did write most of our scientific books. We discovered a new race, the terrifying Emergents. The Emergents were fungus-infected humanoid monsters that strictly obeyed their masters and had a well-defined hierarchy. They were inhumanly strong and fast; but we were capable of defending ourselves against them.
The guarantee of a second life changed the way I lived. I was always reminded that I would be able to see the results of everything I did. That I would be able to read my own books, five centuries after they were written. I wondered how the Crimson Brotherhood would be that far in the future. I wouldn't know any of the members. The amount of new discoveries would likely be astonishing. So I planned, to some degree, for the future. I wrote a creed of sorts, closer to a code of conduct than anything else, that was supposed to survive my absence.
As I grew old, I let one of the younger members of the Brotherhood take charge. I told them that someday, I would return, although I didn't explain why nor how; the people who would be there when I returned would have it explained to them by Arkantos.
Eventually, however, it was my time, and I died in my sleep.
CH XIII -- RESURRECTION (TJRP 2.0)
Except I didn't.
I woke up in the exact same place, in a youthful body. Arkantos was standing over me.
"Welcome back, friend. I've technically been waiting five hundred years to see you again."
I looked over at our calendar. He wasn't kidding.
<Insert TJRP 2.0 Here>
Serinas goes into the Tower of Thardus after losing his Serinite powers and doesn't come out for weeks. When Arkantos / Billy / Whoever goes in to try and find him, the Tower is abandoned. All the research machines are running with extremely self-sufficient programming (even speaking to those that arrive) but nobody is to be found.
Nobody knows where he went (hint: here), but it wasn't through the front door or the Nether portal (there are records of travels through those, and they're blank for that time period).
FOOTNOTES
1) If this membership should be changed, just tell me.
2) Krios is actually the member in the labs, but he's also somehow a Time Lord (TM) who orders Arkantos back in time to save the origins of the Crimson Brotherhood from being destroyed in the cataclysm. Krios is Serinas' long time friend, and he, not Arkantos, resurrects Serinas. Arkantos is the Ancient, and he builds the warp temple which moves everyone to the Ancients' homeland (but not through time).
3) I'm using a somewhat different interpretation of the transition. I think this one makes the most sense and should become the official one.
4) Of course, the time period between TJRP 1.0 and 2.0 will not be performed on the server. However, the effects of it will be set up (the cities, etc.) before the server is opened to the public. I hope. Whether or not this is done legitimately is up in the air.
