As they materialised from the portal, they collapsed to the ground, momentarily spent as the discharge turned them back into solid, physical forms.
They looked around them and immediately recognised that they had been transported to the Citadel of Sorrows. When they had been here before, the floating stronghold had been Una’s palace, but was now occupied by Adrian Eldrich. The citadel was a sprawling fortress and palace complex with hundreds of rooms as well as a labyrinth of dungeon networks extending far underground, but the portal had deposited them in the centre of the Netherworld’s power in what was once Una’s stronghold, in a large Audience Hall. If they remembered correctly, it was only a few rooms away from the Throne Room with its access to Una’s personal mirror-verse behind the throne itself.
They could feel the mystical energy that was all around them. That’s when they remembered that the whole structure had previously been ‘alarmed’ against the use of magic and it was highly likely that Adrian had reactivated the magical precautions to alert him to intruders. Akira couldn’t help notice that the background magic that surrounded them included an aura that was both dark and sinister.
Both Akira and Banshee could feel the defensive mystical wards in play, obviously intended to warn Adrian and his guards if magical or extradimensional beings arrived. Thankfully, their own arrival via a Nether Realm portal had meant that they hadn’t activated it – yet. Now they had to decide, should they try to deactivate the wards or avoid using any magic, which had to include using Banshee’s innate Sidhe powers such as turning them insubstantial and invisible.
Of course, they could just wait for (or initiate) discovery and subsequently be escorted into his presence, but somehow that felt… risky.
Paragon did wonder what had happened to the dragon they had discovered during their last visit when they had entered the Throne Room from the glass-lined viewing chamber. Perhaps it would be best to make their entrance via the main entrance this time and avoid any further draconic encounters?
Akira reached out with his mystical abilities and ‘felt’ the wards surrounding them as he began to deactivate them, plotting a course based on their prior knowledge of the palace between them and the Throne Room. He shunted the wards aside to create an unguarded path between themselves and that location, hoping that was where Adrian could be found. If he wasn’t there, then they would have to risk searching the Palace or allow themselves to be captured and hope the guards would inform Adrian.
Having neutralised all the mystical alarms in their path, they felt safe enough to use their magic, as long as they didn’t use it anywhere off their proposed route.
They had no more time to prepare. Beyond the doors that led to the corridor outside the audience chamber, they could hear a troop of guards marching towards them; the stamping of their feet was intermixed with the rubbing of armour against something hard and the soft whispering of orders issued in an inhuman, hissed language.
Banshee immediately turned both insubstantial and invisible even as Akira grabbed Paragon’s arm and turned them both invisible. He was just in time. A second later the great doors were flung open and a squad of alien-looking guards marched into the room. Beneath their armour, they were humanoids with large, chitin plates covering their skin and mantis-like pincers jutting from their mouths.
This was obviously part of some sort of ceremonial activity as they came to attention, spun round to face their commander as two of the troop split off from the squad and took up guard duty either side of the great doors.
Invisible, the three of them immediately slid in behind the rest of the squad as they marched out of the doors and then proceeded to head down the corridor, away from the throne room.
Sneaking away while remaining invisible, the three ‘intruders’ headed down the corridor in the opposite direction towards the Throne room and hopefully Adrian.
Several minutes later, they found the room they were looking for and slid in behind the retinue of court administrators exiting the chamber to go about their duties, leaving Adrian over by the picture window standing behind a grotesque pedestal, reading a massive tome.
He and his six demonic guards were now alone in the room.
The three infiltrators glanced around at the black marble pillars supporting the ceiling of this massive chamber. Violet-hued candles flickered from sconces on the walls, suffusing the room with a rosy light. At the far end of the chamber, a golden throne sat on a dais. Bones and twisted faces have been sculpted from the precious metal. A purple velvet cloth was puddled around the base of the throne, as if the abomination had been covered over and only recently revealed. Behind the throne hung a familiar large mirror in a golden frame.
They looked over at Adrian who was wearing sweeping, emerald green robes that had once decorated Una. The way his fingers twitched and the way he moved his head as he perused the pages of the leather-bound book immediately reminded them of Una herself, as though he had adopted some of her mannerisms. Akira felt sure that something was wrong with him, and felt sure he had ‘gone over to the dark side.’
It was clear that he was unaware of their presence, for the moment at least.
Sneaking away to one side of the chamber, behind the columns they tried to come up with a workable master plan. Paragon nudged Akira and whispered that they needed to look at Lord Adrian’s right hand, which was covered in sickly, green veins originating from a jade ring they had seen previously on Una’s hand, though she hadn’t had displayed the green veins. Something was clearly wrong with their ally.
Was this royal signet ring, a symbol of the Dark Lord’s office? Why else would Adrian wear such a malignant object? Akira immediately cast a detect magic spell which lit up almost everything in the room, but Lord Adrian’s ring stood out as a particularly bright object. Its radiance matched that of the portals, suggesting the magical energy came from the same source. They had been looking for something that was connected to the portals, possibly able to close them, hadn’t they?
Akira immediately muttered that they didn’t want to have to sever his hand, but they had to come up with a way to remove the ring and see what happens while they were still undetected.
Could Banshee manage to ghost it off his hand but that meant her turning physical first and alerting Adrian and his guards to their presence even as she tried to turn back with the ring though given it was on his finger would that risk turning all of Adrian insubstantial as well? Banshee was willing to try anyway.
Paragon suggested that another option was for Akira to transmute it into something else. Akira pointed out that would risk destroying it and rendering it mystically inert when it reverted. Given its apparent affinity to the portals it might just be the very thing they had come here to find.
Banshee got as close as she could before she turned substantial which immediately alerted Adrian and his guards when she materialised in front of him. She tried to grab his hand even as Akira activated the medallion around his neck in an attempt to prevent Adrian from summoning any supernatural allies to his defence.
Banshee grabbed the ring and felt a mystical backlash that caused her to drop to her knees in pain. She released her grip on the ring even as Adrian began to rise into the air and began to cast the Abjurations of Abbridon. His guards, realising that this was an attempt to attack their lord and master, started to rush forward.
Akira’s medallion glowed as it nullified Adrian’s summoning even as Paragon flew into Adrian at top speed. He could hear Akira scream, “Rip the finger off, if you have to.” He slammed into Adrian, knocking him into the window behind him (surprisingly it didn’t smash), grabbed the ring and yanked it off his finger with extreme prejudice. He suffered a massive shock from the ring but he held onto it. He was also surprised to see that he hadn’t removed Adrian’s ring finger in the process.
Akira laid down a series of Mystical blasts at the guards to keep them at bay. The first blast missed its target, but the next series of blasts either hit the other guards or caused them to dive for cover. They immediately responded but as Akira was still invisible, they had difficulty finding him as they returned fire using their power-staffs.
One of them sprayed a poisonous mist from glands on its neck in Akira’s direction but thankfully Akira had already moved locations. From his new location, Akira watched as Adrian also collapsed to the ground, dazed after losing the ring. He was clearly surprised and bewildered by the attack and the loss of the ring.
Akira unleashed a blast straight at what he assumed was the Guard’s Commander, which immediately knocked him unconscious. Another of the guards rushed over and spayed their poison towards Banshee but she managed to fly out of the way of the attack. Paragon flew across the room, dropped the ring in the far corner, away from everyone then spun round and unleashed an eye-blast towards the demon that had attacked Banshee. It missed but caused it to retreat, back towards its fellow guards.
Banshee unleashed a terrorising attack to demoralise them. One collapsed in fear with the others staggering back but still ready to defend their lord. That was when Adrian got to his feet and stared at the Balance in confusion for a second, and then his eyes widened in recognition. He muttered something about, ““Ah, for some reason I could only view you as false friends who were trying to keep me from true power as I wallowed, forgotten, on another world, but the veil has been swept from my eyes.”
As he finished speaking, he gestured and the medallion round Akira’s neck stopped shining, then he gestured again speaking the words of power that brought forth the Baleful Bindings of Bal’Hemoth. To their surprise, they materialising ribbons targeted and restrained his own guards. “Enough! Go, leave me and my friends to discuss how to best to resolve this threat.”
As the bindings vanished, his guards bowed and trooped out, he turned to the team and apologised, then said, “I see clearly now … now that the veil has actually been lifted, as my more melodramatic side would say. All this time I thought I had destroyed Una in order to save the Earth, but really I was just part of her ultimate plan. She tricked me into destroying her physical body to merge her spiritually with Earth’s magical energies. This whole time she stayed linked to me like a nightmare, manipulating me and using my power. I owe you plenty of apologies, but that will have to wait until after we stop Una.”
Akira reached over, “If you’ve fully recovered your senses, do you know what has been happening back on Earth and will this ring be of any use to us, Adrian?”
He nodded, “The mind link it created ran both ways. I saw the merger and felt their ascension. Combined, their power is overwhelming, but they still seem confused and in conflict with each other almost all the time. Three different minds combined against their wills and forced to act in unison. Mages can collaborate spiritually like this of course, but only with discipline and familiarity. These three are all but strangers: with different agendas, different strategies… It must be infuriating and frustrating.
We need a way of latching onto one of their spirits, preferably Una’s —a physical token, like Malador’s real Mask—so we could use it to shatter the bond. I believe the ring would be powerful enough to pull the Triune apart and leave them, her, momentarily vulnerable. When you use it, don’t wear it otherwise she might take control of you too. It should also be powerful enough to close down all the portals.”
“So the secret is not to wear it?” He nodded. “Otherwise it will be like when the three of them bonded to the Mask, it would help if you could destroy…” He paused and shook his head, “Unfortunately you can’t destroy the Mask but if you can remove it, the unity that is the Triune would collapse.”
Peter looked confused, “The mask? But if as you say it was destroyed we shouldn’t have this situation should we? Well, I destroyed the mask in Venice, I shattered it into pieces.”
Adrian sat down on the dais of the throne. “You destroyed a copy that is all. The real Mask had already vanished as soon as all three of them were unified into a deity. Did you think you could destroy the Mask?” Adrian smiled, “It’s funny that you thought you could destroy such an infernal item that had survivedfor millennia despite the best efforts of the World’s greatest mages. That’s so precious.”
Paragon looked annoyed, “How was I to know. I’m not a magic guy. None of you spotted it either.” He muttered something about “being a super or at least a cloned copy of one…”
Akira continued, “When you say to not wear the ring do you mean I can’t wear it on my finger? Could I wear it round my neck on a chain perhaps?”
“It would be better to just hold it. If it’s round your neck it could still bond with you, enslave you like it did me. Or even start a fight with that thing.” Adrian pointed towards the medallion. “It can get jealous you know?”
He pointed over at ring still lying in the corner of the Throne Room. “Una was a powerful Dark Lord for centuries. That ring… It’s a tool she used to help control the Netherworlds, but it also contains a link to her spirit. That’s how she got into my head after all. The link must go both ways, though. I think… I think I might have been influencing her as well, keeping her from just destroying you all as soon as she became part of that creature.”
He failed to notice Paragon shudder as he remembered his recent death at its hands.
“You can use the ring to pull Una out of Triune and leave her temporarily vulnerable. Then you can hopefully finish her, once and for all. It will probably only separate them for a few seconds, a minute at most though.
I must remain in the citadel to fulfil my role as Lord of the Netherworlds but once you return to Earth, I promise to shut down the portals funnelling energy into Triune, and stop any more of the troops from coming through, which is sure to attract her attention. You need to somehow touch the ring to them, which should temporarily separate them, though they will still be more powerful than they had been before the bonding.
Once you have your shot at Una, take it, and fast. All three of these wizards will still be bound to Malador’s Mask, and it’ll try and drag them all back together again pretty quickly. As I said you’ll have a minute at most, though you might be able to use powerful artefacts or allies to keep them from joining again too quickly—you must have picked up one or two magic-shaping friends over the years who could help. I could portal them to you and psychically guide them in a ritual to slow the Mask from binding the Triune back together, but it will only slow the process, not stop it permanently.”
Banshee muttered, “We did pick up a few contacts in Faerie – Thomas Rhymer comes to mind? How about Seven?”
Adrian nodded, “The medallion around your neck will also help. This is your only chance. If Una defeats you or Triune reforms, I don’t know that the ring will work a second time. And … well, I don’t have any influence left to keep them from turning you all into dust.”
They hunched together to consider who best to call to their aid in managing the ritual. Paragon initially suggested the man he’d been cloned from, the one calling himself Icarus, but as Akira pointed out they had no idea whether or not he had any magic. Paragon certainly didn’t have any and anyway they needed allies not potential enemies.
Banshee considered requesting CúChulainn who she had met when they had fought the Fomori during her last visit to Éire but given ‘he’ could revert into a little girl, did she really want to put her at risk? Banshee settled on suggesting Ruadán from the Aontacht Éire instead, in the hope that his mystical abilities might help sever the connection between Una and the Mask.
Paragon initially suggested requesting Abracadaver, who he had fought during the assault of the Nerian Nexus or possibly the alien, immortal Goddess they had encountered in Dakata, S’Khmet.
Akira joked that you had to be careful who you invite to a party, you needed to think who you placed together at the table, so in the end Paragon realised he needed someone he could trust to act as his personal anchor and requested Adrian summon his adopted mum, Thorn.
Akira suggested contacting the Library but it may not have survived Triune’s assault and he weren’t sure who to name. Madam O’Tando, the Voodoo high priestess from Venice was also added to the list for Adrian to contact and bring together with Rhymer and Seven.
Having selected their allies and agreed a plan, Adrian summoned a portal back to Wessex. Once there, it would be down to them to track down the Triune and disrupt its bonding even as Adrian closed the portals and summoned their allies to their side. Adrian gestured and a small hand mirror appeared in his hand, which he handed over to Akira. He busied himself calling up the portal then asked them to contact him via the mirror once they were ready to undertake the final assault.
They stepped through the portal and found themselves once more returned to Earth. The corruption they had seen earlier had grown worse, reshaping the planet into something resembling a Netherworld. The sky now glowed a virulent green, and enormous black vines covered with spikes slithered from the ground to entwine buildings, vehicles, and bodies. Twisted creatures covered in scaly hide, sporting razor-tipped claws from their fingers, prowled the streets. If the portals remained open much longer, it was clear that the Earth would be irrevocably altered.
All they had to do was get to the Triune who they could see in the distance, touch the ring to it then defeat Una while also staying alive, simple. Thankfully, that would also permanently close all the portals to Earth.
However, if the Triune regained her god-like powers all would be lost as it could just reopen them and finish her conquest of the Earth.
If they succeeded though, then Adrian had assured them that any of her demons still on Earth would no longer be ‘tolerated’. It would be like the St. Hughes shopping precinct several months before, when during the battle between the Terminus and Netherworld demons, the demons had all turned into clouds of black dust when forced into our dimension. The planet would again no longer tolerate their presence here.
They took a deep breath but before they could move towards her, a black portal manifested in front of them and six figures stepped out that they immediately recognised; an unusually quiet Sandstone, Dracula and the Factor Four, including what had to be a resurrected Pyre!
It seemed as though the triune had already been alerted as to their arrival and sent forth a welcome party. Fathom was the only one to speak and he merely did so to inform them that they were collectively the ‘Wings of Doom’.
It was clear that all of them had been enhanced by the Triune. Pyre in particular glowed like plasma rather than like flames. They all had glazed eyes and stood silent as though waiting for orders to attack. That’s when they saw that several of their incorporeal opponents had a shard of jade embedded inside their bodies. If they had this, then did all of them have it? Were they chosen because they each had the ability to survive having a control crystal plunged deep inside their chests?
Akira immediately began to summon the Occult Exorcism of Obroros, a powerful ban against outside mystic influences on the mind. He hoped that it would free them from the mind-controlling influence of the Triune. As he cast the spell, a terrible scream filled the streets as, for a moment, a double-terminated obelisk of gleaming black stone appeared between the two teams.
Akira hoped its summoning would nullify the influence of the crystals embedded in them. Dracula was the first to be liberated but was clearly dazed as the effect of the spell washed over him and the others even as it freed them, though Sylph immediately collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Dracula gazed at Akira and tried to take over his mind as though in response but the attempt failed, whether due to the lingering effects of Obroros or Akira’s own will being too strong, was anyone’s guess.
Paragon responded by flying forward, plunging his fist deep inside Sandstone’s chest and ripped the fragment of jade free, causing her to collapse to the ground unconscious before smashing into Granite with his ‘sleeping spell’ or what Akira jokingly referred to as his ‘light switch’ attack. His fist slammed into Granite’s face, staggering him back under the force of the onslaught.
Banshee unleashed a Wail that washed over all of them. Both Granite and Fathom were badly affected by the attack causing Granite to collapse paralysed and for Fathom to stagger backwards. Only Dracula seemed to be unaffected.
Akira unleashed another mystical blast at Dracula with a shout of “Bite me!” To his surprise, he failed to transform into something else and it hit, staggering him though he still tried to grab Akira, intending to bite him and he felt his icy breath as his teeth scraped his neck. “Get him off me!” he screamed as he tried to push the vampire away.
Paragon rushed in, pulled Dracula off his companion and slammed his head into the ground with all of his force. He turned into mist at the last second and disappeared into the night.
Banshee was left facing Fathom and Pyre; fire and water – both in their elemental state so she unleashed another wail at them both. Fathom collapsed as the scream washed over him but it didn’t stop Pyre who unleashed a deadly fiery blast at Paragon. The blast melted part of his costume but he managed to shelter behind Fathom’s body, which extinguished most of the flames.
Akira got to his feet, determined to start wearing a garlic necklace in future and mystically blasted Pyre as well as Fathom (just in case). Pyre flew out of the path of the blast while the other blast hit the ground next to Fathom who was trying to get onto his feet. Paragon hitting him with his eye beams put a stop to that and knocked him into Pyre.
Pyre flame-blasted Banshee who dodged the attack only for Fathom to flow towards Akira, intending to try to drown him. Akira flew up and out of the way as he responded with a series of mystical blasts at them both. They failed to hit but did cause them to delay their attacks.
Paragon responded by flying towards them again as fast as he could while slapping his hands together so hard that it created an aerial shockwave that blasted Fathom into Pyre, hard. Fathom was now unconscious on the ground having turned into steam while Pyre was still standing, but only just.
Banshee followed it up with another wail at the fiery male, which combined with all the other attacks he’d suffered was enough to force him to flee. So much for the Triune’s ‘Wings of Doom’!
Unfortunately, it had delayed them enough that the Triune had seen them and was now heading towards them itself.
Lord Adrian’s face appeared on their scrying mirror. He looked tense and worried, but there was firm determination in his eyes. “Get in position, as close as you can without letting the entity see you.” Akira smiled, a bit late for that now but no need to tell him that.
Adrian continued, “Remember, once you split them apart, you’ll have to take down Una as fast as possible. Once she’s out of the picture, the Triune won’t be able to reform and the portals should close permanently.”
Lord Adrian leant in closer to the surface of his mirror, his words coming quickly. “After the split, you should see an aura form where Triune once stood. That’s the magic energy that used to bind them together and it’s going to try to pull them back. I will send in your chosen allies who will use their magic to help disrupt that! That should hopefully give you enough time to confront Una. I’ll do my best to keep the Triune separated and the portals closed for as long as possible. Good luck and fight well. A lot of worlds are counting on you.” The image faded as mystical interference from the advancing titanic figure interfered with the transmission.
Akira pulled out the ring. Now to figure out how to get it to make sure it made direct contact. He was sure that using his Theurgical-Kinesis to transport the ring to it was the way to proceed rather than getting so close that he would have had no chance of survival.
The colossal figure of the Triune towered over the city. It extended a titanic arm toward the nearest building, as if intending to crush the structure barehanded. They could hear it shout, “I am exalted to godhood, so far beyond humanity that you are like bugs beneath my feet.”
The ring flew through the air and hit its outstretched arm. The Triune stopped, frozen in place for the briefest moment.
A soundless explosion of light ripped forth from the entity. Golden energy poured from their mouths and eyes. A glowing aura seemed to burn through its chest from the inside out.
A timeless instant later, the entity fragmented, splitting into formless light that quickly dissipated, save for a golden halo that bloomed in mid-air. Then they glimpsed three limp figures falling to the earth before the skyline obscured them. Now to find and take out Una at all cost.
They immediately headed towards the crash site as fast as possible while Akira warned Paragon to focus on attacking Una and not to get distracted by his ‘cousin’ Medea, reminded him to control his urge to mess around with her instead.
As they flew, they could see their allies standing on top of the building that the Triune had been stretching its arm towards before the ring had succeeded in separating them. They were busy enacting their ritual, led by Thomas Rhymer. Seven stood on the edge of the roof prepared to defend the others against attacks.
The Balance headed towards the ground and the three figures below.
Malador’s Golden Mask could now be seen hovering within the aura left behind by the split. Its magical energy was apparently trying to draw the Triune back together again, as if all three were still bound to the Mask. They knew they had only a limited time to defeat Una before the Triune reformed, though hopefully their allies on the roof above could extend that; working together to try and slow down the countdown clock.
They flew down to the three figures on the ground and before Una could recover, Akira blasted her with his mystic blast. He muttered under his breath that she’d already died once, this wouldn’t be murder as all he was doing was restoring the natural balance by hopefully and permanently returning her to that state.
The blast hit but she seemed to shrug it off. Clearly she was as tough as old nails. Instead, she gestured and two large glowing ovals of magical force flowed into existence> The disks began to orbit Una, interposing themselves between their mistress and them. Akira confirmed that they were mindless constructs; some form of guardian shields clearly designed to intercept their attacks.
Paragon flew straight at her but one of the disks flew into his path and tried to absorb the attack. Paragon piled through it causing it to blast apart and he flew through it to hit Una but again she seemed to absorb the attack.
On top of the building Seven blasted away at the remaining disk as Una tried to obscure herself in the shadows but failed, before summoning a teleportation Stepping Disk, seeking to switch positions to confuse them. Whatever the mystics were doing on high, it was clearly working as it immediately transported her back to the same spot she’d just tried to leave from. Confused she watched as Seven’s blast took out the other disk.
Malador was clearly intent on stopping the team and attacked Paragon from behind with a mystical blast to his back. He obviously retained at least some of the Triune’s power as it bloody hurt.
Banshee manifested her Bo Staff, turned insubstantial and headed straight at Una intending to stab with it while it was insubstantial before allowing it to materialise inside her but Una dodged at the last second as she again tried to manifest another stepping disk only for it to fail again.
She responded with an Iron Hand emerging from the ground, which tried to grasp hold of Banshee despite her being insubstantial. To her surprise Banshee felt its touch as it tried to close around her – it clearly could affect her even in this form. Realising the danger she flew out of the way at the last second only to realise that Medea was right behind her. She turned, expecting an attack.
To her surprise, Medea smiled and shrugged. “Not my battle. I just want to escape this mess.” She glanced up at the mask hovering inside the aura. “Don’t waste your time trying to grab the Mask. It might appear solid but it’s caught in an intangible astral state between dimensions. Focus on defeating Una instead.” To Banshee’s surprise, she twitched her fingers and a demonic bat appeared behind Malador, which flew into him knocking him to the ground before it vanished into thin air.
Akira saw Medea standing back and shrugged, he’d figure out which side she was on at some point her was sure, meanwhile… He unleashed another mystical blast at Una. She fell to her knees, dazed. She managed to respond by manifesting another two of her guardian disks revolving around her, protecting her.
Akira snarled and unleashed another blast shattering one of the mystical disks and managed to bruise Una on the shoulder. She screamed at them, calling them “impudent rodents” and “self-righteous worms” as she rambled about the glory she had witnessed with her mind spread across a thousand worlds and how dare they try to ‘limit’ her…
Paragon power-attacked her as Seven blasted at Malador, keeping him occupied while Paragon flew at and through the last guardian disk and continued his flight to slam into an unprepared Una. Again she staggered back, but still remained on her feet.
Malador tried to blast at Akira but was too distracted to aim properly as Banshee grabbed Una and stabbed at her again with her staff before letting go of it and allowed it to materialise inside her body. Una gave out a final, agonised shriek and collapsed to the ground, apparently dead for the final time. The golden aura above them flared brightly before detonating in a soundless explosion. The shredded light flickered and faded from sight, and the bilious green glow in the sky faded, replaced by a familiar blue.
All around them, writhing vines withered and shrivelled, releasing buildings, cars, and the bodies of people. As the sun emerged from behind a cloud, a faint shimmer appeared over Una’s body as her physical form dissolved back into magical energy. Her spirit form shrivelled in response and writhed under the sunlight and then vanished.
The earth was saved and Una the Unrelenting was no more. And yet, they can’t help but wonder if the battle has truly ended. Perhaps one day her spirit would return, seeking vengeance on those who had thwarted her attempt to seize dominance over one thousand worlds.
The golden aura faded but the Triune does not reform. Malador shrieked angrily and teleported away. Paragon looked around but Medea had vanished. Akira didn’t notice, He was too busy watching as the Mask of Malador was jettisoned upward at great speed before vanishing from view.
Malador himself could not persist long without his mask; he was little more than a wraith possessing whatever dupe donned the artefact. Unfortunately, Malador’s spirit would remain tightly bound to Earth, and the mask would inevitably find its way back they were sure.
Thankfully, with Una’s defeat, the portals connecting the thousand worlds would not reopen and all of her demonic troops were already turning into dust, unable to survive in physical form without the protection and godly influence of the Triune to protect them.
“As Albert Einstein said, Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it could only be changed from one form to another.” The energy that empowered the Triune had to go somewhere and unfortunately, the Balance were standing between it and its final destination, presumably somewhere deep within the Nether Realms.
There was a momentary backlash of mystical energy and the three of them now formed their own Triune god formed round the Medallion, three entities sharing a single, crowded mind with access to the power of a God and Creator.
Without Netherworld energy pouring between planets, Earth would gradually revert to its original form, but buildings and landmarks remained destroyed, and the dead remained dead.
Nuclear missiles from several other countries were again targeting the UK and Europe, believing the demonic invasion was still ongoing, The UK and Europe were facing missile attacks from the USA, Russia and China – all willing to sacrifice Europe to save their own countries – France had already retaliated, and the UK might be preparing to do the same.
The Balance could see the threads and strands of reality and could ‘cut’ and move events through time, space and dimensions, but doing so will leave a gap in reality and as nature abhors a vacuum something might move into the gap before both ends of reality can join up.
They couldn’t just go back in time and change the events that were played out without risking creating a separate parallel timeline or leaving Una out there still waiting for a chance to conquer the Earth.
An image of a mirror behind a throne came to mind and they ‘remembered’ the mirror-verse that existed inside its reflection. Mirror-verses were shadow, illusionary pocket universes similar to Elysium that did not continue to exist once the magic forming them was played out.
Mirror Dimensions were ever-present but undetected. The real world wasn’t affected by what happened there. The mirror-verse contained a multitude of parallel dimensions that mimicked Earth’s plane of existence. It was complete with the same surroundings and inhabitants though, accessible only by users of magic and could be reshaped and manipulated freely without fear of adversely impacting the natural order of the ‘real’ world.
They could go back to Venice, to the very instant when the Triune was formed and shunt it and themselves into a mirror-verse, while allowing everything to unfurl unchanged as it had in the real world. The nuclear response would also only exist in that same dimension since the events that prompted it no longer happened here.
If The Triune and her troops were shunted into a Mirror-verse, everyone back on Earth would ‘forget’ the events but it would result in a collective nightmare affecting all of humanity though without anyone actually remembering the specific events. However, there would still be hundreds of people around the world who would die from stress-related heart attacks.
This seemed to be their preferred option, everything would still happen as it had, but it wouldn’t physically happen on Earth. They willed it into existence and spun the threads of reality to make it so. The Triune was completely unaware of their actions, and everything played out without change as it had previously. It was hard though to let her kill so many of the mirror population in mimicry of her actions in the ‘real’ world.
It had to be so, they could not risk any changes to the ensuing events that might splinter off into a separate timeline under the Triune’s own god-like powers. With her subsequent destruction and their own, admittedly temporary exaltation, they returned to their own existence.
Next, they enhanced the merged Banshee-Mary aspect of themselves as she played a tune that calmed everyone down and nullified the collective nightmare, leaving the events that afflicted their collective souls unremembered.
It was several months later, when world statistics were compiled, checked and double-checked, that it was discovered that a small miracle had been played out in that not a single soul around the world had died that day. A statistical anomaly, they claimed. Not all deaths around the world are recorded, they said.
Finally, to keep everything balanced they felt Paragon’s ‘suggestion’ that they should enhance themselves was worthy, not to make them godlike, just more powerful and better prepared for the future. Admittedly it was a selfish desire but one that was both deserved and justifiable. As they completed their wish, the power of the Triune washed out of them, and they returned to a world where only they and their allies on high ‘remembered’ what had happened. That they had moved a fragment of reality into another dimension, including the subsequent nuclear apocalypse, which now never happened as the mirror-verse was dissipated before the missiles landed.
Later
Lord Adrian elected to remain master of the Nether Realms and continue his efforts to rehabilitate the Netherworld and Una’s extradimensional empire into functioning, independent realms.
Without Una’s presence, the magical energies of Earth reverted to their normal, chaotic state rather than the swelling darkness the Dark Lord had fomented. Many villains still retained the enhanced abilities and boons they had gained under Una’s tenure, however, and were now free to act without the Dark Lord’s phantom guiding them. The Balance might yet have many great dangers to face.
Without a Master Mage it was now for the mages around the world to decide who should be Earth’s champion and whether he liked it or not Akira was now a contender.
Meanwhile, the Balance needed to rebuild a mystical shield around the world and needed to find artefacts to house that shield before anything else came knocking for as Nietzsche said, “if you gaze (for too) long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 