Chapter 2 The Council

      The room was large and lined with pale stone columns. In front sat The Mauw Of Nine cloaked in red robes and armor, each adorned a mask that was attached to their face in one way or another.
      In a large U sat a collection of Xenos. On the far right sat a pair with bright vibrant blue skin and slit in the middle of their face where their nose should have been. A side ways galea helm sat atop their head. These were Sire'breum, a special Xenos that share a brain between two bodies. Next to them sat a large muscular figure, Thor-an. His armor was more war torn than any of the other members. Seated beside him, Larfezzel, a man of iridescent orange skin who had several thorns sticking from his skull. Kur’luac a massive nine foot figure with long tendrils that hung from the sides of its face and beginning of his beak.
     The feminine Xenos, Andorran, was dressed in red yet her symbol and attire was out of place compared to the others. Tendrils that stuck out at the base of her skull had strange piercings and tribal symbols running up and down them. One of the eldest and most easily irritated of the council, Taramas, was a stubby scaly figure that seemed to have both masculine and feminine qualities. Its bottom jaw hung out farther than most of its body and several glowing stars hung limp above his head being suspend just above the jaw itself. Morbus, a tall slender figure with light purple skin, a tall blue Mohawk made of feathers, and bits of crimson metal. and in the center, on a higher throne than anyone sat a shadowy figure.
      A black mask lined the chins of each member and created and artificial visor broken up into a smybol.
      Carved within the columns were masks which mimicked the ones of the council. They were constructed with an alien material which was green with moving black swirls. They dimly glowed the same pale yellow light, light that was artificial, almost divine, and it helped create the eerie tension that was in the room.
      A murmur reputed from The Mauws Of Nine council, each Member trying to get their own two cents into the complication at hand.
      “We can't let him live, he knows too much about us: what we do, where we’re located, and more importantly who we are!'' Thor-an’s voice rose above the rest.
      “Well we can’t kill him.” Stated Andorran, “He’s a founding member, our best and brightest, and also our friend.”
      “Regardless he has broken our rules!” as he said this his voice steadily rose in anger to the point of screaming.
     “Don't take your frustrations out on me Thor-an  it was your job not ours, you should have trained him better.”
     “I-” but Thor-an was interrupted.
    “Andorran you know that isn't just. It could happen to any of us.” interjected Larfezzel. He set his jaw as he finished his statement, his thorns tingling slightly.
     A pair of voices speaking at the same time, stated “But it didn't. It happened to Thor-an and he should also be held accountable.”
     Taramas spoke in a rush and flustered tone “Oh can't we just bring him in already. We known Thor-an had no part in this matter.”
     On cue the “he” the council had be speaking of made himself apparent in the room. He was being dragged in by two guards wearing a similar but more war fashioned red garb as the council. His mask wasn't on like the rest, revealing  his features to all shaming him, leaving him naked. His robes and armor were tattered, spotted with sear marks. He had clearly put up a fight and lost. He dare not speak, though not that he could, he was chained and gagged but he thrashed around in his binds, his dirty purple tresses becoming even more disheveled than before. He looked up coldly at Thor-an sending daggers with his eyes daggers so sharp they would run through Thor-an and the colostrum behind him.
     “You'd do well to wipe that filth from your disgusting mug before -” Thor-an spat at him.
     “Now now lets be civil theirs no need for this.” Morbus sassed, disrupting Thor-an's insults “Regardless of his charges the Abyssal code forbids us from killing one of our own.”
     The council began to argue over the fate of this young Mauw, each set on making valid points but never making coherent arguments. Finally a figure so large his shadow was the stuff of nightmares, his name struck terror so strong even the hardest of criminals would call for their birth givers, spoke. Abyss: His mask was more ornate and elegant than anyone others. His robes finer, his armor stronger sleeker, shinier, and when he spoke it sounded as series of fluid and resonant growls that changed in pitch to signify vowels. When translated it spoke with an air of authority that demeaned obedience, respect, and attention.
     “Mauw Nova,” Abyss’s voice thundered throughout the Colosseum, “you will not be sentenced to death, instead on the charges of high treason, your memory will be wiped, proof of existence eliminated and your body will rot in the Stryxis prison.”
     With the declaration of Nova’s fate, two guards entered the Colosseum hooked him by his elbows and dragged him out. He made no noise, whether it be out of spite or just pure unrelieved hatred. The only sound that was heard was the clinking of armor as Nova was dragged to a fate worse than death.
     The Ichor cuffs buzzed over Nova’s wrists sealing his fate.
     “Guards stop this! I am the Mauw of Terminarch,you Will release me This instant!”
     “You don’t have to do this!” Nova cried, he struggled and thrashed against his bindings but to no avail, not even a small stretch.
      The Guards refused to take orders from a damned Xenos. The guards ignored his pleas and threats and continued to set up the cold hard machine, now hanging above his face.
     “I will obliterate you! I'll slaughter you all! You hear me; you will be the putrid vile I wipe off my boots!”
     Nova spasm-ed against his bindings. The guards knew they wouldn't hold long; they had to hurry. They lowered the needle close to Novas skull and flipped it on. A Midnight blue Ichor surrounded Nova’ cranium, and began creating small arcs of lightning into his brain.
     His screams of agony filled the room.
     With his final bout of strength, he jerked his hand up, ripping the very mechanism that held the cuffs to the table. whirling the broken cuff into the machine, ceasing the agonizing lightning to his mind. With a fluid flick of the wrist he tore free the other hand and swung them in the directions of the stunned guards, sending his divine power into the faces of his victims. Plasma coated the masks and seared their faces. Novas cold vengeance filled kaleidoscopic colored eyes were the last thing they would ever see.
     Using his sonar and multi-sighted eyes (cycling through his various visions) to locate the council room knowing they all would still be there, he pursued his targets. His mind set on eliminating the ones who dared disgrace,demean, and humiliate him.
     “How dare they after all he had done!?”
     Nova tore through guards as they tried the very best to halt his slaughter. All along the corridors were the remnants of Nova’s frenzy, molten plasma dripped from the Ebony walls and crimson faces of guards. Broken weapons scattered on the floor or were shoved into the guards. Nova stormed the final corridor his anger fueling his weakened body; he thrust his hands forward, melting the doors that stood between him and his prey.
    “Barbaric insentient mud dwellers!” he roared “How dare you condemn me to this?!
The head of every Mauw snapped to the raging Xenos before them. Nova had grabbed even Abyss's attention.
     “Do you forget who I am?” Nova's voice had taken on a guttural growl. It echoed through the columns that kept the building structural sound.
     “I am Nova...The Mauw of Terminarch! I brought peace to this world! Why would I plunge it into chaos?”
     Nova bellowed on, his pride and anger making way into his words.
     “I will strip the flesh from your bones and scorch the earth of each and every one of your planets so your people will beg for mercy from an Immortal who's to pathetic to provide life to them!
     Nova sauntered forward, plasma dripping from his open palms onto the tiled floor, searing and warping it into small malformed domes.
     “I will wipe you from this world, and rule in your place! I will succeed where you have failed!” Nova stared directly at Abyss, his emotionless mask staring back. Nova continued his advance forward, but Abyss turned and proceeded to leave as if nothing had even occurred. As if and the vile words Nova spewed had never even left his mouth.
     “You dare ignore me!?” Nova demand. Abyss continued to go about his business, paying no mind to tantrum of the young Mauw before him.
     “I will scorch you where you stand.” As the final words left Nova’s throat he leap forward, his eyes dead set on Abyss.
     The rest of the Mauws were in utter shock and denial that Nova had tore through all of the guards and dared to challenge THE Immortal. The first being of existence. The being that created all life.
     Nova closed in on abyss arms at the ready but he never made it. Everything had happened so fast his beyond intelligent mind could barely process it. His body was in the rubble of the shattered podium, black metal in shards all around him. Looming over him was a figure so massive his very presence would crush the wind from your airway.
Abyss, his cloak now lay on the floor, his full form finally realized. A massive figure whose skin was so flawless, so sleek that light dare not touch it. The very cosmos lay across his form. Ichor seemed to float around him as he held Nova with one of his form arms pinning him to the rubble.
     “The better question is, how dare you an insignificant worm, have the courage ,the gall to stand before the creator of your very life and say you will take his place?”
Abyss spoke, calm and smooth never changing his pitch. “Your ignorance will condemn you, you barely understand the power I possess, and even if you could comprehend it your puny mind would leak from your ears.”
     Nova tried to gurgle out words but Abyss merely tightened his grip, his spindly fingers elongating around Nova’s throat. Abyss watched as Nova squirmed, the same way a Ki-achu watches its prey slowly die from the toxins it emits from its pores.
     “The thing that amuses me the most” Abyss proceed to add insult to injury “Is the fact that you find yourself worthy of my equal, let alone a threat. You are so below me I wouldn't even bother watching you waste away.
     Nova flung his arm in front of Abyss's face in terror crying, hot tears streaming down his face.
     “Die!....Diediedie!”
     He continued to force plasma into the creature of terror above him only to see it slowly meld into Abyss's face.
     “You call yourself The Mauw of Terminarch, YET you forget who deemed you worthy of that title."
     Abyss took a moment and mulled over his words
     “It was I who merely glanced upon your race as they crawled through the mud. I made you and I will take your arrogance away!” Abyss took one of his free arms and placed it upon the center of Nova’s forehead.
     “I, Abyss now remove the divine Ichor bestowed upon Mauw Nova and strip it from his body.”
     “No! You cant. Stop!” Nova cried.
     “I hereby remove the title of Mauw from Nova” Abyss continued over Novas pleas, as if he wasn't even speaking.
     “No! Stop!” Nova screamed in fear, fear that his very being would wiped from exsistance. Ichor slowly ebbed from his body as Abyss's words were spoken. when he had finished, all divine Ichor had left from Novas body, he was no longer special, no longer powerful.
No longer a Mauw.