The Fall of Brood
Brood Blood-Kyn slithered through the streets of Drat'n Metkrah, porcelain skin shedding like paper under the pulsating growth of veins of black Selschaeus. Her face blistered with eyes that opened and exploded like pustules under the same gunfire which tore open her gut to reveal a throng of sickly-yellow tendrils and tentacles. It rose among the buildings, limbs spreading and sticking and holding like the webs of a spider, catching bystanders, soldiers, and vehicles alike on impaling points that injected Selschaeus into their bodies with such force that they ruptured, corrupted into monstrous forms that howled in unison:
Brood poured herself into the garden district and grew in the direction of Anthem's tower, the home of her Engine Core. In her way stood an ad hoc army of Rapt Audient and the projected image of Warden. [...] The battle only waged for 5 minutes but it felt like an eternity. With Warden coordinating everyone over their Comms they held Brood at bay with gun, spell, trap, and diversion, but it was clear they were fighting a losing battle. They knew they were bound to lose—the corpses of Mero and Hierus lay in their wake, and even Emperor Khandea had been forced to retreat and heal. Each minute they held her back was a miracle. They traded one miracle for another. At last, they felt the earth rumble beneath them as the power grid started back up. Wisps of color swirled through the air. Flickers and fragments. In kaleidoscope fashion, and with a beautiful song on her lips, Anthem manifested once more, emboldened by the victorious whoops of the surviving audient.
She towered over Brood, all color and vibrance pressing back against the oppressive shadow and slime of a creature who hardly seemed Faeo anymore save for the bruised, pallid dot of a face stretched out over a too-large space. Anthem absorbed the information fo all that had happened in her absence, and for the first (and reportedly only) time in her existence her face contorted into utter rage and sorrow. Her Thrum screamed out, and Brood's entire mass recoiled from the sound. Glass shattered, noses bled, ears went deaf. Brood's massive corpulence solidified and fractured, breaking off in clumps and ash. The canons of the hovercraft, which had ceased their firing once Warden realized her body was just absorbing all their attacks, lit up all at once, burying her in a volley after volley of missiles, munitions, and lasers that made ears pop from blocks away. Spells followed close after, among them the thundering reports of Emperor Khandea's blasting holes meters wide clean through her. Brood's mouth split from her lips and down her body, exposing a maw some hundred meters long and lined with the heads of those she'd absorbed. They screamed, and as they did a burning light burned at the back of her gullet, glowing brighter and brighter and bringing with it such a serene sound....
The creature was singing her own dirge. The Emperor cemented its fate as his hovercraft paused directly over her. A brilliant column of light burst from his palm, reducing her to nothing but ash and crater. An eerie silence fell. In the crater glowed a light. Some said it was the last glow of his spell, some claimed it to be humanoid in shape. It either faded or slipped out of sight in the undercity tunnels, and was gone.
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