PART THREE: THE CRIMSON EMPEROR’S FALL
The Emperor bellowed a bold laugh before he mockingly quipped to Oracle Zuri, “Humor me, little Kenyan girl,”
Zuri stretched out her hands and the ground beneath their feet began to shake but just as the Emperor prepared an attack on her, she and her Protector were elevated several inches away from him by a large wooden structure carved out of Sacred Birch tree. The structure had the shapes reflected on the Oracle and her Protector’s modified ensembles and Brodus laughed upon realizing what the structure was.
“Aw, how cute of you to think that Totem Magick is any match for my power,” he quipped then he laughed hysterically, so much that he almost lost balance.
Zuri continued to conjure up more gigantic totems that rose from the ground up, and atop each one appeared a different caster, each bearing clothing reflecting their religious calling as Shamans. The Emperor paid the Shamans no mind, even as some of them began to play the wooden flutes in their hands, while others chanted in chorus, in tandem with the Gregorian chanting that had picked up steam and was louder and louder as more singers joined them. However, Brodus took the threat posed by the Shamans more seriously when light spirits began to enter the Dark World from the Paradise lands, taking on the dark spirits that served him.
Furthermore, powerful light Spirits known as Tutelary Spirits soon attached themselves to the Shamans, the Oracles, Savior and their collective Protectors forming protective shields around them while the Spirits drawn out from the Paradise lands that were subservient to the Shamans, known collectively as Syven, continued their fight against the dark Syven serving Brodus.
The light Syven drove their dark counterparts them into the gigantic totems Oracle Zuri had created, where they became trapped. The Emperor’s might diminished with each successive loss of a dark Syven serving him. More Totems periodically sprung up from the ground, with a different Shaman atop it continuing to attract different Tutelary and Syven spirits respectively and the light spirits protected them while engaging the Emperor’s dark spirits in battle and quickly defeating them.
Fearing the fate of the other dark spirits that had been trapped within Oracle Zuri’s totems, they caused Brodus to retreat back to his Royal Palace where he stayed locked behind doors in a dark circle as his troops engaged the joint armies Zuri had utilized before to aid in her cause that were of formidable might.
As more totems rose up from the ground, some dryads from the Island Country of Arcadius, in the Second Physical Plane of Existence, appeared and they worked in tandem to weaken the effect of the Mysterious red trees that were constantly generating the Crimson golems in droves and their actions caused the trees to quickly wither.
Furthermore, the Savior and Oracle Emica worked on eradicating the Dark Circle swirling in the skies above that was blocking out the Greek Fire Imani had used to destroy the golems before and their collective efforts aided by the Syven and Tutelary spirits bound to them, bore fruit and soon the skies opened up and reigned Greek fire on the Crimson golems which eventually gave way and perished in the fires. With the trees of their origin disappearing thanks to the Arcadian dryads efforts, the Crimson golems perished like their ordinary counterparts.
The Emperor’s troops sought reinforcements and aid from their homeland but a collective spell cast and maintained by all Travelers within the Dyson Sphere completely blocked off portals from and to the Emperor’s home Timeline thus isolating them further.
There was further chaos and confusion when the Dark World Generals in charge of the Emperor’s army in the Timeline mysteriously began to disappear and without their guidance, the troops fell into confusion and were unable to hold their own against the joint armies fighting against them.
Brodus thought that the events happening were simply just a nightmare. There was no way Zuri could ever defeat him, after all, a Dark Seer had shown him the possibility of controlling Zuri and using her as a pawn to not only maintain his power, but to expand his Empire. How then, could it be that his hold on the Dark World was slowly being eradicated? This must have been a nightmare.
The soldiers eventually retreated towards the Palace and defended it as best they could while the Emperor tried everything within his power to escape his doom. They fought valiantly but were unable to withstand the assault for longer, falling under the combined might of the joint armies. Soon, Emperor Brodus quivered as he observed the door to the room he was occupying get broken and flew straight off its hinges to the other side of the room and he was faced by Oracle Zuri herself.
Brodus shook his head in disbelief. This could not be happening to him. Surely, this was a nightmare. He just needed to wake up.
“Wake up!” he shouted in fear, cowering into a corner.
He tried calling out to General Ryna “Rancid” but like his Generals, she too had inexplicably gone missing.
Zuri raised her hands and the Syven helping her immediately began to engage the dark spirits still clinging onto Brodus.
“Stop it! If you take them away, I shall… No! I will not die like this. I am an Emperor! I will not have you take everything I worked so hard to build from me so easily-“
“You didn’t build anything. You are as you have always been, a frightened child hiding behind his mother’s coattails… It is time for you to let go, Brodus. It is time to face your justice,” Zuri countered.
“No! I expanded my mother’s Empire! I am the best ruler they have ever had… You- you foul wench, you will not defeat me so easily,” he stated. He was defiant to the end and used whatever magic he had left to try and attack Zuri in a desperate attempt to escape but Zuri adeptly countered every attack and the Emperor fell onto his knees, utterly defeated, his life-force almost entirely spent.
He shook his head and his lips quivered, muttering incomprehensibly. Zuri used her power of Confession to completely exorcise Brodus and what was left of him thanked her and then he contentedly and silently collapsed to the ground, a peaceful expression on his face and the ghost of a smile reflected across his face. He remained still for several moments.
Protector Jaali hastily rushed to check for signs of life from the Emperor and shook his head before stating, “He is gone.”
The confirmation of the Crimson Emperor’s demise was signaled by the troops that had invaded the Emperor’s Palace and the news spread across the Dark World’s Magical Realm and soon after the remainder of the Emperor’s troops had been defeated, the Shamans oversaw a major Exorcism Ritual that saw the entrapped dark spirits that had served the Emperor and others that had stuck around and roamed the Dark World returned to their respective Plane- the Hellish lands.
For the following ensuing month, the two Oracles and the Savior of the Dark World, worked in tandem with the Shamans Zuri had brought along with her from Siberia and from the West African tribes of Kontomble and Dagara who were renowned in the Shaman healing arts, as well as other respected spiritual leaders, to perform exorcism rituals across the Dark World.
The Shamans from the renowned tribes helped lead in performing Earth Healing Rituals across the Dark World (once the Exorcism Rituals were concluded) which were performed simultaneously across several lands beginning under the light of a Full Moon and involved saging areas and planting of the special birch trees provided to them by the Goldi Nanai people of Siberia.
The birch trees helped anchor good Non-Physical Familiars and light Syven whose presence helped maintain good energies and drive away any dark energies still lingering after the Rituals. Thus, the Syven became the genius loci of the Dark World, making the Dark World into the Redeemed Timeline. With the rituals complete, the peoples of the Dark World bid farewell to the Shamans that had been instrumental in exorcising their once irredeemable world and they turned to the Savior and Oracles Zuri and Emica to guide them.
However, it was then time for Zuri to bid goodbye to Emica and Imani but just before she left, she had one last thing to officiate; the joining together of Emica and Nobu in matrimony. Emica was hesitant at first but Zuri wisely informed her that in the newly Redeemed World, her actions would count a lot more than her words and in a world that was still uncertain of whether fair-folk and witch-folk and were-cats could coexist, their marriage would send a clear message of where Emica stood in the matter.
And so Emica and Nobu were finally joined together officially, their marriage witnessed by their friends and officiated by Oracle Zuri herself. The message was clear then to the peoples of the Redeemed Timeline- fair-folk and non-fair-folk could learn to co-exist and thrive by each others side.
THE END
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