Work Text:
Death might have been the one who took the longest to accept her own end. Despite knowing her own domain and that things die, they rot, and find new paths beyond the pale following their golden threads of fate... She had only been here for not even 300 years.
She was so young for a God among all the others who have been an existence for longer than even she could comprehend, no matter that she had joined their ranks, taking the place of the one she eliminated. The Matron could simply not understand what it was like before the Gods came to Exandria.
To stare down the barrel of a gun made her feel like her unbeating heart had jumped back into commission, simply to strike life back into her right before her existence would find its end.
Maybe it was because she was one of the first that went that she just could not accept it.
The first that fell was the Dawn Himself, pushing past His sisters to the front to protect those who had been wounded before, dust and ash nothing against the light emitting from His crown.
Yet even staring the sun into the eyes, the mages of Aeor did not flinch.
Unravelling like a Counterspell, the energy was released from the core of the city which they could not see until their last moments, looking into the face of reality, something they had done before, just as painfully, just as mortified.
The spear of undone magic broke His armour, the sun upon His shoulders shook, light flickering. For the first time in His life,
Aru
Pelor cast a shadow upon the world that stretched far as He fell to a knee and doubled over. A gigantuan, golden blade sunk into the floor as He leaned upon it.
Aeor watched a God crumble and gasp for air.
The Everlight rushed to Her brother’s aid, flames rushing around Her form as She knelt at His side, attempting to cure what had brought Him down. Wings resting over His back as if to protect Him from any more harm.
“It has no use!” A female voice boomed from behind, fending off sky ships with spells of her wand.
“You don’t know that—” A scream cut through as even She was hit in Her side. To feel as though something starts to rip at your very essence, it left Her breathless, gasping but receiving no air to sustain Herself even though She had never needed air to begin with, suddenly it felt like the only thing keeping Her alive.
Whatever it was, it was eating Her alive.
“Luz—” She had never heard Him croak before.
Aru
reached out for Her just as His hand fell into nothing.
The Matron had killed a God before, yet now to feel one of her own die was a heartbreak she had never experienced. Over the decades, she had gotten used to it, what it was like to feel a soul pass onto the other side in your very core. Each and every one, be it humane or monster, she knew of each one. Some she felt more than others, depending on how much weight the thread carried in the domain of Fate.
But this … This was different. She staggered in her movements, that is how much the force of a soul that powerful leaving their world shook her in her very being as the overseer of Death.
And then her own dull light went dark.
She scoffed as her head severed from her body. Well done .
What removing the Goddess of Death meant for killing the rest is something the Aeorians did not worry about. They needed to take every chance of distraction when another blast was ready that they had. Time was of the essence, they had to remove as many of them as possible because when else would they have the opportunity to remove this invasive species from their home.
One by one, the Gods fell. The battle did not end that day, both sides lost a significant amount to death.
Ioun wracked Her brain to find another way to maybe return an attack, to still have a chance against these foolish children of theirs… They had lost five of their midst, everyone was grieving, even if some said they weren’t, She could see it in the ways they talked.
Even the Spider Queen was restless and Her vicious quips of untruths were nowhere to be heard, only quiet murmuring of anger. One thing She shared with a few of the others, bubbling wrath against the mortals that had taken so much from them so quickly.
Some sat and seethed in silence, while others had run off to cool down in their own ways.
Torog did not return from His outrage. The sixth had fallen.
They were all reminded of that fateful day back in their home, far and even farther away from this planet that had gained the name Exandria. Outside of time, away from space, off of the weaves of reality. They missed it. It was gone.
Something back then had ripped into the very fabric that their home had been, the magic that had destroyed their kin during those weeks of on and off battle was not too different. Oddly reminiscent and none of them liked it.
Gruumsh in His rage attempted to bring down the city with him, the device bore a hole through His chest as He clawed at the Latimus Princeps which had kept them away for decades.
Erathis and Melora ceased while holding each other. Wilderness and Order conjoined as one for a last and final time.
Like Corellon and Sehanine before, Catha in the sky already darkening, Avandra lost Her head first, body falling into nothingness beneath Her and hair dissipating in the winds that always carried it.
Bahamut, Kord and Tiamat were pulled from the skies, crashing into the ground and leaving craters upon the surface of the earth that would remain for centuries to come.
With Asmodeus long gone, Lolth, Zehir and Bane quickly followed in death, none very heroic but fighting nonetheless.
Ioun was left to witness all Her siblings die before She too met Her end.
In the end, the Aeorians stood upon disintegrating corpses of immortal divinity as the victors.
To imagine that Gods could be killed was hubris just months ago. They did it despite the uproar below upon Exandria, they managed it despite all odds theoretically against them. They killed their creators and freed their home of tyranny from the divine.
The Age of Arcanum was to continue as the world recovered, it was not over, it was not done, there was so much more to explore.
The Gods hoped their children would not meet the same fate when nothingness came for Exandria one day.