Northyros: March of the Death-Mammoths

[Calefrun]

As a response to Samantha's question, Welkin whipped around and continued to slash at her, teleport hacks be damned. "WHAT DO I SAY? I SAY... I SAY YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO ME! YOU'LL CHANGE ME BACK? SO WHAT! WOULD YOU ALSO AGREE TO CEASE YOUR EXPERIMENTS? TO RETURN THE MAMMOTHS TO THEIR ORIGINAL POWER? TO REPENT FOR THE CRIMES YOU'VE COMMITTED - THE LIVES YOU'VE TAKEN? NO... YOUR EVIL CANNOT BE SUFFERED TO LIVE ANY LONGER! NOW HOLD STILL SO I CAN DESTROY YOU!"

"Dammit!" Dorrei threw her weapon on the ground, embedding it slightly in a mound of snow. "What's wrong with this thing? Everyone keeps just dodging my shots or just ignoring them outright!"

"Have you ever considered using like... an actual gun? Like, with bullets?" Zento asked, having apparently succeeded in pushing his existential crisis aside in favor of his usual charming demeanor. "Oh, or better yet, some explosives! Maybe the Shrimpers wouldn't be such a problem if you people weren't trying to fight them with crossbows and pitchforks."

"Tridents" she corrected. "And I'd thank you not to make light of the monsters threatening to destroy underwater life as we know it. Also, who are you to lecture someone else about weapon choice? You have a freaking sword."

He shrugged. "I must kill fast, and bullets are too slow." Looking back at the fight, he added, "Actually, that kinda makes me think. She's manipulating the space around her using some kind of device, right? Don't those have a finite speed?"

"Err... technically, yes. Why...?"

"Well then, I've just gotta go faster than it can keep up with. As long as she's relying on her creations rather than her own power, she should be easy to beat!"

Before she could argue, the teenager had already bolted over to where Samantha and Welkin were having their exchange and joined in the attack. Each time he swung his sword her automatic evasion would kick in, and each time she jumped he would increase his speed. After a few moments, they were already moving so quickly as to be practically invisible to everyone else present.

[Mizagium]

After a more-or-less reasonable amount of time, Samantha thrust a hastily concocted line of worldcode into the immediate area. Zento stopped suddenly, suspended in place by, well, nothing really. The very space around him seemed to hold him in place. After she was satisfied it had worked, she duplicated it until everyone before her was similarly held in place. She was sure Magnus would break out soon, so she spoke fast.

“On second thought. No. I’ll take back my offer. You’ll all cause far too much trouble. Even you, Vi’irinox. Sorry. I liked you, kid, but you just didn’t learn.”

“Master?” his voice strained from the effort of trying to move.

“I was trying to teach you,” she said, exasperated. “I was trying to get you to put your prejudices aside. If you wanted to be truly great, a true master of the world like I was going to make you, you had to forget your hatred of the Death-Mammoths.”

“Never. They killed - “

“Yes, yes.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Revenge. Justice. All that. It’s limiting. It clouds your judgement. Your reason. Knowledge must be pursued purely for the sake of learning.”

“Is that what you’re doing?”

She ignored him, bored already. “What about you, Jeff? You’ve been more quiet than usual.”

Jeff hadn’t raised a hand against Samantha, hadn’t moved when the others had, hadn’t struggled against the invisible bonds that held him. “What about me?” he asked, eyes downcast.

“Don’t you have anything to say here?”

“No.”

Samantha wrinkled her face. “Pathetic. Thought you had more in you, kid. Guess I was wrong.”

She paced around, studying each of them in turn. A cold wind swept through, bringing the harsh chill of the far northern mountains down and into them, right into their bones. “We’ll meet again, you all, after I’ve finished my research. In the meantime, why don’t you finish your quest, huh?” She held up fingers as she counted off. “You’ve found Dominion, Passion. Technically you found Innovation, but I’m not ready to part with it. Go chase Tenacity in the desert for a bit. Maybe you’ll learn something.”

A great rift opened in the air around them. Hot, arid wind leaked out and clashed with the cold; moisture beaded on the skins, only to evaporate moments later. For her part, Samantha removed her OCD glasses, and discarded her MANHANDS and TOUCAN. “You know, Magnus, I always hoped you and I could – well, anyway. You’re all just too good for me, and that’s saying something because you aren’t that good, Magnus. Still.”

The captive audience shuddered in the air and were pulled back into the rift. Running one hand through her hair to get it out of her face, she said, “Until next time, kids.”

The rift in space swallowed them all like a giant’s mouth. Samantha lingered long enough to stomp on her old devices until they were useless scrap. A second maw opened and swallowed her up, leaving only permafrost and a low, distant trumpeting.