The Philosopher's Forge

Posted on Wed Jan 16th, 2019 @ 6:10pm by Amare & Bomoor Thort & Thane & G2-O7

3,413 words; about a 17 minute read

Chapter: Chapter V: Unbound
Location: Unknown Sith Lord's hidden ritual chamber, Korriban
Timeline: 0130 Hours (Local Time), Day Two (After "Lady and the Beast")
Tags: Amare, Azoth, Archonus, Alyndra, terentatek, G2, sacrifice, rebirth

OLD

Barely able to roll the majority of her body to the side, Coda wasn't nimble enough to avoid a deep razor sharp slash through one of her head tendrils as the hulking predator made its thunderous impact point-blank next to her, lopping almost one-third of the sensory appendage's length clean off. It was like the slaver's shock whip all over again, only many times worse.

"Aaaaahhh!" she screamed with excruciating pain that was almost mind-numbing to her. There was no amount of adrenaline that could help her ignore losing a sensitive part of herself. Her vision instantly became blurry, distorted, and engulfed in halos of bio-electric light flickering from her optic nerves, and her situation was compounded with the triggering of her post-traumatic stress from the memory of the whip. She was completely at the terentatek's mercy, and she knew she would receive none. As the ground rumbled and cracked beneath them much more violently than it had before, she hoped the next strike from the claws would end her quickly.

Mother...father...Capo...I'm sorry...I couldn't--, was her last thought just as the floor gave out and Korriban's gravity snatched lady and beast alike roughly twenty feet down into the darkness below...

NEW

Zaracoda Wolph was already dead.

What breathing, shivering, and bleeding remnant of the aspirant Sith apprentice was left was just a broken amphibian instinctively escaping danger in spite of having almost no chance to live for much longer. The terentatek's poison started to seep perilously close to each of her hearts as she stumbled and dragged herself on one good foot blindly into the absolute pitch darkness in front her. She could hear the droid above bleating out its concern for her, shining a small light in an attempt to track her before it used its thruster jets to lower itself down to follow her into the gloom. She didn't notice the light, nor did she know whether the terentatek had survived the fall with her. All she knew was to just go forward until it was impossible to trek any further.

All hope, all memory, all feelings were fading and almost entirely absent. She struggled to remember her own name, lost awareness of where she was, or how she even got there. Her sight was failing her, her left leg was twisted and broken in a sharp angle with chitonous fibular bone jutting out through the skin, and both blood and bile began seeping up through her throat in a frothy acidic mixture forcing her to cough up what little fluids she had left in her.

Ahead, in the cold smoky din of the forgotten lair of murder and sacrifice, there was an overwhelming scent of volcanic ash intertwined with rotten flesh and fresh blood. There was a rapid sloshing sound, as if there was a body of water stirring, and there were two dull crimson lights spread over a dozen feet apart like a pair of demonic eyes welcoming their latest entry into Hell itself.

Sad...so wretched and pathetic...

It was the voice of Darth Archonus again. In this place, however, it wasn't limited to her mind; it came from all around her, and even G2 could pick up the words. Coda did not remember much of anything, but the name of the dark lord immediately returned to her. There was no mistaking the smooth, soothing masochistic baritone of the long-dead Sith Lord whom history had forgotten. He welcomed pain, thrilled in sharing it, and reveled in conquering it. For him, the lesson of pain was learning how to overcome it and break through the limits it imposed upon the potential of a true master of the Force. He believed pain was the primary test of mortals, a test to wrestle against, a constant never-ending exam designed to winnow the weak from the worthy. For a Sith...for his Sith to rise, they had to overcome the core problems of mortals, physical as well as mental. His goal was the evolution of a chosen individual to ascend to a new level of existence; to come one step closer to true dominion over the Force itself; to achieve immortality; to be nothing short of a god. It was one of the unholy grails of the ancient Sith, a quest in which he and all others of his kind had failed. It was a goal that he never gave up on, even in death.

My own beautiful daughter, the greatest of all my apprentices, torn, broken, and drowning in fear and your own blood.

The words were that of a memory playing out, the ghosts of the distant past speaking aloud, unabashed by what transpired in the present. Coda was entirely unaware that she was, by a cruel twist of fate, reenacting the exact situation in which another Sith apprentice from long ago, Archonus' only child, Alyndra, had endured.

You wish to beg my help, Alyndra? No? Good. You will receive none from me...but perhaps the Force shall grant you your reward. Consider its limitless power as the terentatek's poison works its way through you. Yessss...I can feel its grip upon your heart. The pain is exquisite. You are already as slain as a person in a state of radiation poisoning. Still able to move, barely, yet almost certainly dead. You cannot know life, my child, without knowing death. To embrace the full power of the Dark Force, you must know the feel of your own death. Only then will you have the opportunity to acquire mastery over it. If you can control your own fate, having no fear of death, you will have broken the heaviest shackle of all, and you will know greatness beyond which no Sith has ever experienced. You will know absolute power. Not even the Emperor himself would be able to stop you.

One of the Nautolan's hearts went into full cardiac arrest, and she, clutching at her chest, toppled to the floor. Still, the other hearts kept beating, and kept drawing the poison to them as well. The red auras of light grew brighter, illuminating her graying skin and an ornately carved circular pool of thick, shifting, bubbling sanguineous fluid, the source of all the stench in the ancient Sith sanctuary.

From behind the stone alter where it had taken refuge, her companion astromech scanned her life signals and they were failing. It wanted to rush out and attend to its mistress but was also picking up the clear but unstable life signs of the terentatek panting as it dug a huge claw into the far wall the steady itself.

Braving a peek with its optical sensor, G2 rolled forwards and now saw Coda lying against the cold stone floor, body twitching and breathing absent. Letting out a low warble of concern without processing the situation, the beast’s ears pricked up and it snarled across the chamber now looking directly at the droid. In its weary rage, it seemed to forget about its primary adversary and now began to limp swiftly over towards the Sith alter, nearly slicing Coda again with its sharp claws as it passed her.

The droid ducked back behind, but it was too late as a powerful talon reached behind the carved stone and clenched the metallic dome of G2-O7’s chassis, pulling it out from its hiding space and exposing the machine to the full horror of the beast’s savage maw. The droid’s wheels helplessly spun about and the motors around its round body went into overdrive, making it swing about in a panic. The terentakek was angered by the metal entity’s flailing and tossed him down to the ground with a resounding clatter, denting and breaking several external ports and plates.

Unable to suppress a flurry of error bleeps, G2 lay dazed for a moment, stuck registering the final electrical flares from his Nautolan companion’s brain as she was swept away from the organic world into the beyond. Perhaps it was due to one of the many internal processing errors now coursing through its system, but it felt the unfamiliar stone of the room become replaced with the humming, lively metal of the Red Raptor; G2’s home and constant companion throughout all its various memory iterations.

But all was not well: the droid was within one of the engine rooms; the emergency lighting was on and alarms were blaring. G2 immediately understood the error – a catastrophic failure of the hyperdrive’s electricity supply. Some damage must have severed the connection from the main engine to the hyperdrive and the ship was rapidly dying before his sensors. Finding his wheels were inoperable, G2 brought out its interface arm and dragged itself forward with all its might so that it was in close proximity to the damaged region of cable.

There was only one thing to do to breath life back into the ship, even if it only kept it going that little bit longer. G2 unlocked the protective insulation around its own core power cells and unleashed a furious discharge of electricity to the area around it. G2 lost all power immediately and faded away before it could see whether it had saved the ship it cared for. Whatever happened next, it had given all a droid ever could.

The poison in Coda was systemic, and two more hearts were about to shut down as she faded into unconsciousness. No longer sure what was real, or what was a dream, the weakened voice of Alyndra was heard, this time after having been fetched by her father from the sacrificial bath...

Fa...father...I...I c-couldn't...

Shh... Archonus gently set her at ease. You did what was expected of you, my child. You have fulfilled your destiny.

But...I...the...chrys--...couldn't...

I had hoped that you would exceed my expectations, but you were never as powerful as your infant sister. I sent you to fight the terentatek to prove your worthiness, but you only defeated its body. Many a Sith have perished to the poison. You are no exception. Take heart: your sacrifice will complete the azoth. When death comes for her, my next apprentice will feast upon its power. I have foreseen it.

You...you betrayed m-me...

Be still, Alyndra...be silent.

The unmistakably palpable sound of a neck snap was heard from the past, followed by a loud and powerful electrical surge in the present.

Conducted by the moisture on the floor and the thick humidity and dust particles in the air, G2's parting gift with a deafening pop as it struck everything within a twenty meter radius.

"Unnhaaaa!!" Coda screamed back into reality. Fidgeting, squirming, and hysterically hyperventilating aloud, she found herself having rolling onto her back near the blood-pool's edge. Her hearts were beating again, flush with a new surge of adrenaline just as her other vital organs began to break down. She had gained another thirty seconds or more of life, and had a stunned, but angry terentatek to her left, and a bubbling pool of foul ichor to the right. She had nowhere to go but down, and frantically pulled herself over the edge, desperately diving into the unholy red goo.

The monster released a low, troubled growl, unlike anything that had emanated from the beast's maw in the battles before. The burnt flesh across its side had entirely split open during the fall, bright, pus-filled flesh exposed to the elements and bleeding profusely.

Slow as it now was, favouring one side and ambling across the chamber one unsteady step at a time, the terentatek's gaze was still firmly set on its prey. Watching Zaracoda limply drag herself towards the pool, it flexed the claws of its hands, its long and jagged fingers spreading outwards towards the ailing Nautolan, still determined to end the Sith apprentice's existence.

I see you, beast... Archonus' disembodied voice spoke directly to the terentatek in multiple directions at once. I have observed your kind aimlessly stalk this valley for thousands of years. You have unwittingly become the instrument of my will, and you did well bringing her here. Alas, your usefulness, like my daughters, has expired.

The viscous liquid began churning and spinning slowly as tiny flashes and streaks of purple and white electrical bolts began surging at and below the surface as a protective field of red-orange energy blazed around the circumference of the pool. Coda struggled through the whirling slush up to the surface, thrashing and fearfully gasping for air having discovered it extremely difficult to breathe under the liquid, desperately reaching for the edge of the pool. The strange arcane properties and heat of the pool caused her outfit to melt and liquefy from her body. Even the tough material of her boots disintegrated under the dissolving touch of the Sith solvent, yet no harm came to her eyes or skin.

She swam with a look of terror when she had realized what she thought was a terrible mistake. It was already too late, however.

Archonus allowed himself a diabolical chuckle that was rumbling, full of smoldering brimstone, and ripe with sadism. I've been looking forward to this for so long. My patience has been rewarded. Scream, child. Beg for release. There is no escape from the azoth once the process has begun. Your emotions stir the cauldron; enhances its potency. You are the catalyst, the final ingredient, and soon to be the end product.

A bolt shot up at her chest, stunning her, and causing her to cry out with pain. Several pairs of "arms" quickly formed from the bloody goo and grasped at Coda's arms, shoulders, head tendrils, and face, and there was the feel of similar hands deep below snatching her bare ankles. Together, they swiftly pulled her back under, and for a dark, yet brief moment in time, there was silence.

The hovering spheres of light flanking the bloodpool flared like a pair of blazing white hot stars sending bolts of lightning to the pool as it became a whirling vortex with Coda trapped floating helpless in its eye, screaming as further bolts zapped her at a steady rhythm, stopping and restarting her hearts over and over. It was a rapid fire alternation of life and death playing out in the center of micro-storm, and the dark side's mockery of G2's last moment of heroism.

All of my sacrifices shall be vindicated through her... Archonus said as his spirit appeared semi-transparent next to the pool, a red-skinned pureblood Sith male dressed in the long ornate robes of an ancient Inquisitor, admiring with tremendous pride what his forge was creating. Through her, my bloodline shall be avenged. She will guide the human to his rightful place as the new Dark Lord of the Sith. Lady XoXaan...behold! The power of the azoth. Your ancient designs of ultimate healing through the dark side completed at long last. I dedicate this triumph to you!

The blood-soaked red storm began to shape and envelop itself around Coda into a spherical shape, and it slowly started to levitate up the cauldron that was now completely dry. All that remained below were the scattered and broken bones and skulls of Archonus' failed apprentices, his daughter Alyndra, and that of his stillborn infant daughter.

Rise, and embrace the unrivaled power of the dark side. Yes...good! That's it. Now, reach out with your feelings. Command the Force around you. Bind the azoth to your will and use it to form the chrysalis as I have trained you.

The blood sphere around Coda was spinning at a quickened pace, and its interior bathed her silhouette with intense amethyst light, but now the bolts of energy were no longer striking her body at random, but could be seen streaming continuously into her outstretched hands, as if she were gathering the power around her. Her head and her arms were arched back, as if suspended in a state of pure acceptance and ecstasy. She was caught within a globe of equilibrium existing somewhere between heightened awareness and unconsciousness. An avatar of the Force in love with its miracles, and a spiritual dreamer evoking her eldritch will upon reality from deep within the eternal abyss of her mind.

It was then that, from the pile of heavy fallen stones behind the terentatek, one by one they rose by telekinesis, and one by one they were hurled at the beast, bashing it ruthlessly with brutal impacts.

The beast tried in vain to knock back the stones with its claws, a gurgled hiss escaping its mandibled maw, accompanied by a satisfying crunch as one of its limbs finally broke under the telekinetic onslaught. A piercing roar of agony replaced the hiss, cut short just moments later by another chunk of debris smashing into its exposed fleshy wound, flinging the terentatek backwards into the far wall. Its crumpled form, still but still breathing, slipped to the ground, thick fluid still seeping from both its mouth and wounds.

What is thy name, apprentice? Archonus asked the floating form in the bubble that was shifting from an appearance of filth and blood to a cascading ball of purified water. What is thy true name?

Slowly, the sphere began to shrink and recede around the Nautolan, hugging around her body like a cocoon that solidified into a shall of soft crystal, and then it started to emulsify and absorb through into her exposed skin which had become a more pale shade of her once bright blue. Levitating with her eyes closed, she felt born again, her mouth slightly agape, overwhelmed by the intensity of all that she had just experienced. Every molecule of her body had been refreshed and renewed by the azoth bonding to her. All of her recent wounds had completely healed leaving only the faintest of scars, and the part of her head tail that had been cut off was starting to slowly grow back bit by tiny bit. Even the room itself had been cleansed, filled with the faint odors of the remaining dust, calcium, and the scent of clean ocean water.

Her outstretched hands were ablaze and surging with alternating streams of green-hued electrical energy that playfully danced between her lithe fingers. She slowly took in a breath through her nose, felt like it was the first breath she ever experienced, and opened her eyes that were now backlit with a distinctive reddish-orange glow, the swirls in them like tiny streaming patterns of hot molten iron drifting on dark seas of blood.

"I am..." she hesitated as she heard a woman's voice call out the name to her like a distant echo rippling up from across time and space from her own past, one she at first thought she never heard before, but the clarity of the name struck her as the single greatest truth she ever learned. It was her mother...her real mother. A former Jedi's first gift to her only future-Sith daughter; her true name from the Force itself.

With the gentlest declaration, one filled with feminine acceptance and the deepest sense of passion and overwhelming power she ever felt, she answered in the definitive, "...I am Amare."

From the rubble, strewn next to her belt that was lost from the fall, a lightsaber and shoto pair flung to the hands of their reborn owner. An amber and chartreuse blades flared to life. Upon grasping them, electrical energy danced along the lengths of the super-heated plasma blade, and with a blood-curdling banshee's scream, Amare flung herself into a somersault through the air to viciously bring death to the terentatek once and for all.

As if stirred by the Nautolan's sudden welling of power, the monster had dragged itself up from the ground, arm limp but vicious eyes filled with no less malice than before, even in the face of its certain and final doom. With its one working arm raised and ready for its final stand, the terentatek opened its mouth for a crowning roar, serenading the true and ultimate conclusion to its millennia of suffering and hate as twin blades descended upon it.

TBC

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