Chapter XV: Once More into Hell

While an abandoned power plant would have been ideal, Sunset did not know how to operate one.  Had she possessed the Mana, she lacked the knowledge of Forces to generate electricity at any large and consistent level.  Instead, they were using a warehouse that was temporarily shuttered.  The power was still flowing, though Sunset and Midnight would have to find the circuit breaker and reconnect it.

The Created had promised to be ready when they did.  Provided the Banishers did not manage to rip the building to pieces immediately, the battle would not take long.  If they did, it was more a coin toss as to whether most of them would survive.  There was always a chance Sunset's master would use his god-like power to protect her, but she did not want to rely on that.  The Exarch had already shown a distinct lack of appreciation for her friends' safety.  If that being acted to keep her alive, there was no guarantee that protection would extend to her team.

One of the Created had been listening at the stairs and called, "They gave up on the front door.  I can hear them moving around the building."

"They'll be checking for traps or wards and probably looking for another door.  Everyone into position.  Pinkie, our guests should come from the main entrance."

The young Changeling nodded, dashing into a hallway where she vanished into thorny shrubbery that disappeared an instant after she did.  The Created to witness her departure looked surprised.

"Does she always do that?"

"One of the Lost's abilities.  You get used to it."

Once they had directions to the offices, Sunset and Midnight left their allies to their task.  The warehouse had two breakers, both of which needed to be enabled to get power flowing.  One was in one of the offices and the second was the primary emergency shut-off on the floor.  The Created would handle that one.  Lazarus claimed they would know when Sunset took care of hers.

The Mages had forgotten to ask where exactly the breaker was.  With the building mostly empty and no tags or plates on the doors, they had no clue to which of the offices was likely to be in charge of such a thing.  Most of the rooms had machinery and panels, which did not help to narrow the choices.

"Midnight, can you use Fate to look for it?"

"I'm trying, but something's interfering.  I think one of the Banishers is using a counterspell or an interdiction."

"Of course they are.  Just start breaking into everything until you find it."

They took different rooms and began yanking at every panel, display, and counter, looking for a larger version of a household circuit breaker or anything with switches on it.  Sunset's mobile began vibrating as she moved into another room.  She pulled it from her pocket as saw Bon Bon's name on the screen.  She answered while continuing her search.

"Hey, we're here.  Where do you need us?"

"Pinkie's going to meet you."

"So we need to avoid the group that's pulling what looks like a mortar out of a van?"

"What?"

The call disconnected.  Sunset called the mobile she had given the Created.  Lazarus answered.

"They're doing something outside," Sunset said.  "Where's the circuit breaker?"

"When you get to the offices, take the second door on the left and look for what looks like a broom closet.  It's an electrician's office.  The panel is inside a locked-" another voice said something, then he corrected, "an unlocked cabinet."

Retracing her steps, Sunset found the room described.  She and Midnight had been moving from the back to front; they would not have found the space until near the end of their search.  The unlocked cabinet was not so much unlocked as someone had torn the door from the front.  Apparently wanting to be absolutely certain the panel would be accessible, that person had also ripped the top and sides of the cabinet from the wall, even taking the time to create pseudo-origami from the sheets of metal.  She thought the green cranes would make excellent trophies later if they survived.

The panel was open, its cover also pulled from the hinges.  Sunset checked the switches and found all were turned to the off position.  She grasped the largest and tried to move it.  The circuit would not engage, seemingly locked into place.

She began cursing at it, a few seconds of words that she tried to not to use in front of children interrupted by a voice from the mobile.  She had not disconnected and one of the Created was speaking.

"What was that?"

"There's probably a lock-out system.  Look for a button or another switch next to it or a keyhole."

A quick survey showed two buttons similar to the ones she usually saw on outlets.  She pressed the upper one, hearing a click.  The circuit flipped itself.

"It's on."

A roar from the parking zone drowned any reply in concussive noise.  The building shook from a boom that hit one of the walls.  Midnight was shouting for Sunset.  When she found the older Mage, she said, "They're using magick on the explosives."

"Explosives," Sunset shouted into the speaker.  "Are you ready?"

"The power's not flowing.  Flip every circuit on that panel now."

Both women went to task, though the primary circuit disengaged itself when they were only halfway down the rows.  Sunset repeated what had happened.

"Safety override.  Turn them off and do one at a time.  We'll distract them."

Even from the offices and over the explosive mortar rounds, Sunset could hear the clatter as the Created moved the barricade.  She felt five of them flooding with their power and moving away from the building.  The mortar fell silent, though her ears were ringing too loudly to hear much of anything else beyond vague shouts.  They had a panicky tone, one she hoped was coming from the Banishers rather than the Created.

After pressing the button and re-engaging the main circuit, she began flipping the switches one at a time, giving a couple seconds of pause between each.  The lights around her slowly began to flicker before fully shining.  As her hearing returned, she heard machinery creaking and groaning into life, though some of the noise may have been structural damage to the building.

Sunset's mobile was out of power, so she had no idea if the sixth Created she assumed had remained at the emergency breaker was able to use it.  When there was nothing else to do upstairs, the two Mages left the panel and the metal cranes to join the fight.

They arrived to chaos.  The Created had wrapped themselves in electrical wire, rerouting the current into themselves.  Lazarus had stated during the meeting that it would heal them and provide some level of protection during the fight.  While Sunset could not tell if they were taking injuries from the Banishers, she could see the effects of electricity on their bodies.  Their normal human guises seemed to be akin to Pinkie's mien that hid her fox ears, tail, and fur.  The power coursing through them caused it to vanish, revealing the hideous monstrosities they really were.

Even having seen it briefly once, Sunset was not prepared for the revulsion that was rapidly overwhelming her.  She wanted to flee from those terrible abominations.  Even using her magick to maintain rational thought was difficult, as her instincts cried for her to destroy the warped beings.

Were it not for the Banishers attempting to do the same, she may have obeyed the primal fear.  Instead, she was able to gain enough control to observe as they wove desperate attack spells in an attempt to destroy the Created that were currently pursuing them across the grounds.  Two of them, the women, carried the van while Lazarus held the car.

Two of the Banishers were weaving Forces, one to manipulate the weather as the other altered the flow of electricity in the wires wrapped about the Created.  He reversed it, causing a small explosion somewhere in the building as the power went out.  Sunset would not have been surprised to learn the fuses had completely fried.  That may have been a problem except that the other Banisher promptly used the storm to strike at the Created with lightning.

"Wait, seriously?"  Sunset glanced at Midnight.  "Is he not paying any attention whatsoever?"

The teen shrugged.  "To be fair, even I'm having a hard time being around here, and they aren't even targeting me."

Sunset looked back to the battle.  The opportunity to study such a rare type of magick was appealing.

One of the male Created stood behind the others.  Something akin to the flame that comprised their souls travelled from him to the others.  Though it licked at their skin and clothes like a fire, it did not burn them.  Instead, it acted as a shield to protect them from physical assault; when one of the Banishers used the Telekinesis rote to throw several large stones, they bounced off the shields harmlessly.

Beneath the flames protecting his skin, another of the Created appeared to be covered in a greenish oily substance.  He allowed it to pool in his hands and threw it in globules at a Banisher.  She used Fate and Space to dodge; everything the substance touched where she had been standing sizzled and popped as though covered in a powerful acid.

Another struck at the Banishers with lances of the flames that represented their souls.  Whenever it hit a target, the burning lance scorched flesh and clothing alike.

'This is going better than I thought.'

'Come on, Sunny, we're missing out.  Don't you want to feel their hot blood running down your arms?  I thought we'd be ripping their still-beating hearts from their chests.'

'All in good time.  We'll have our fun.  The Created won't kill all of them.'

The Banishers' spells were not cooperating.  Sunset could feel the Paradox, which they were releasing instead of containing as Midnight had predicted.  There were three common causes of Paradox; Sunset guessed all of them were in play at the moment.  With the Sleeper witnessing the Willworking and the utter terror of the Created preventing real concentration, she was surprised they were able to do anything.  On top of that, they had dropped using subtle magick to embrace vulgar spells that automatically included Paradox risks.  The last case was easy to avoid if the Awakened did not attempt to Reach too far as she had during her single poker game against Midnight, and if the spell caster maintained a clear mind to focus on the magick.

When Paradox hit, the results were unpredictable.  Even powerful Witches were completely unable to foresee what would happen.  Perhaps the spell would work but hit a different target, or it would reach the intended focus and not have the effect desired.  While those were the most common results, Sunset was beginning to realise she had once again not thought all the way through her master plan.

Powerful spells, especially vulgar ones, cast repeatedly with concurrent Paradox effects would attract attention that was not of any natural plane of existence.  It was especially dangerous in an area where the fabric of reality was already strained.  When two more spells failed, a crack appeared.  Unlike those Midnight Sparkle had created, it did not open to a relatively peaceful alternate world.

The raw power of the Abyss flowed into the Material Plane, one of its residents taking advantage of the seam to slither from something the human mind could only perceive as darkness.  The relatively tiny Aberrance remained open, the un-being's tendrils only slowly leaving its home as it surveyed the scene of battle.

"Fall back," Sunset screamed to the Created.  They threw the vehicles at the monster before retreating as quickly as they could into the warehouse.  The van and the car floated when they drew close to the thing before imploding.

"Midnight, how do we fight that?"

"It's a Gulmoth, and it's corporeal.  They're similar to spirits.  I'm only an Initiate.  You're a Disciple, you'll have to lead.  Be careful; I'm guessing it's roughly equivalent to an Incarna, probably about Rank 5."

"Gods fucking damn it.  Cover me."

Sunset checked her Mana reserve and found it was too low to combat the thing.  She reached for her Pattern, the metaphysical representation of herself that she perceived as a crystal, and Scoured it twice.  She wanted more, but she lacked the overall understanding of magick to fray it any further.  The effect was immediate, parts of the crystal shattering as something inside her burnt with pain.  Her legs wobbled, whatever power had allowed her to use her damaged knee for so long finally losing energy.  She felt weaker, as though her muscles had atrophied slightly.  For all that, she was refreshed with Mana, ready to combat the horror at her doorstep.

The abomination must have sensed what she had done, because it turned its attention to her and dropped a Banisher who promptly scrambled from it.  Creatures of the Abyss were known to pursue sources of Mana, targeting the largest and moving down the list.

The fact it was drawn to her should have been terrifying.  If the Gulmoth killed her, she would meet the same fate as her friends:  To be dissolved into the Abyss.  Sunset instead felt exhilaration; she could do whatever she wanted in her goal of stopping it without anyone questioning or judging her.  Creatures of the Abyss were powerful and dangerous, the perfect opponent to vent her anger.

"What should we do?" one of the Created asked, smacking a fist into her palm.  They had shed the power cables for the moment, though all six crackled on the ground at their feet, ready for use.

"Gulmoth corrupt the fundamental laws of reality," Midnight replied.  "Stay back and let Sparky make a plan."

The ground beneath the thing was becoming a quagmire of matter that had never existed in the history of the world.  Insects with too many mouths lifted from the muck, though they were not yet able to fly.  Trying to look directly at the thing was like attempting to look at the sun, complete with scorching the eyes.

"Come and get me," Sunset murmured.  She cycled through what Spirit rote spells she knew, deciding to start with a simple one.  Picturing the Imago called Know Spirit, she demanded information from the beast, wanting to know its ban.

The spell failed as it resisted her.  Sunset only grinned wildly as the beast drew closer to her.

'This is going to be a challenge.'

'Are you trying to get us killed?'

'Of course not.  I just want to have a little fun.'

'I don't know if those things can even feel pain.  Let's save our bloodlust for the Banishers.'

'Now who's being spooked?'

'Yes, I am.  I don't want us to cease to be.'

Sunset modified the spell and cast it again, putting more Mana into her second attempt.  She could feel her magick breaking through the barriers of whatever passed for the Gulmoth's mind and allowed her consciousness to enter.  It continued to fight her, throwing images of its parent Annunaki as a warning of what she was fighting.  The scene of battle faded as she sank deeper into the spider's web.  A great beast with a maw encompassing a universe awaited her.  She pulled its dreams into her own as it tried to swallow her mind.

The area in which she found herself was similar to a painting of a staircase that circled back upon itself while still managing to move up.  Nothing was to scale, the angles impossible.  Five walls formed a perfect square about a garden full of unusual yet recognisable colours.

Bubblegum pink grass crunched under her boots as royal purple trees waved in the breeze.  The branches of the trees reached up to the touch the sky, but so did their roots.  The trees did not touch the ground, yet they were not curved in any manner she could detect with her eyes.  Strange shapes formed the leaves of the trees.  They were triangles, but the sums of their angles added to some number other than 180 degrees.  A strong wind dislodged several that floated past her and into the inky darkness of the sky.

"I don't have time to enjoy your garden," she called in High Speech.  "Show yourself."

"If that is your wish," a quiet voice replied.  It was masculine and surprisingly frail, as though the speaker were an old man.  "Pass through the door."

Sunset had noticed one previously, but another glance at the walls showed an exit.  Like everything else, there was something very odd about its shape, seeming as though to be both sideways and upright at the same time.  The right angles were not exactly correct, yet they still formed straight, perfectly even lines that looked like a normal rectangle.

"Is that the best you have?" she asked as she reached for the knob.  "Alien geometry?  I thought the Annunaki were supposed to be all mysterious and dangerous."

The door opened to reveal the interior of a dilapidated shack.  Sunset entered, closing the door behind herself.  An old man stood in the corner, leaning on a cane made of a child's spine.  He smirked to show a mouth of yellowed, rotten teeth.  A small bed occupied the space behind him, all the rest of the walls taken by large shelves.  One bookcase housed hearts and other organs floating in jars of dark liquid that seemed to be falling up as it flowed down.  There were names written on slips of paper, small blackboards, tree bark, and various other surfaces within another set of shelves.  Despite the limited space of the tiny abode, the shelves held far more trinkets and tokens than conventional bookcases would.  A fire pit occupied the middle of the floor, but there was no flame and nothing to cook upon it.

There was a strong wind blowing outside the door and rattling the cabin.  Sunset opened it again to check what was on the other side.  Instead of the strange garden, she saw a vast ocean of pitch black.  Sand formed a beach encircling it as far as the eye could see.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you brought me to the Ocean Oroboros.  You must be the Old Man of the Abyss."

"That's what they call me, anyway.  So kind of you to visit."  He hobbled around the cabin to stand beside Sunset.  "Have you brought me something?

Sunset placed a hand on her hip and fixed the Old Man with a glare.  "Why would I offer a gift to the Abyss?"

"It seems to be rather popular.  Just look at my collection."  The Old Man gestured with arms made of glass shards to the shelves.

"The only thing I want is a way to beat back that Gulmoth."

"Why didn't you say so?"  The Old Man tilted his head, the bones of his neck popping as though he had not moved for some time.  He ignored Sunset as he crossed to his shelves.  The items were similar to the collection of names, but the papers had far more text on them and were frequently in stacks or bundles.  A moment of rummaging ended in him taking a small notebook from the back.

"I can give you the answer."  He proffered it with one hand, the fingers made of stone with nails of obsidian.  "What will you give me in return?"

"How about I give you the souls of those Banishers once I'm done with them?"

"Tempting, but they aren't that valuable."  He scratched his chin with his other hand, upon which were fingernails of stainless steel, then placed a hand on Sunset's shoulder.  "I would accept a piece of you.  Your liver, I think."

"No."  She pushed his hand away.  "Would you be open to a game?  If you win, I'll give you any two gifts you want.  If I win, you give me the answer I want for free."

He guffawed, slapping his knee with his cane of interwoven animals' tails.

"You're a silly one.  Why would I bother to gamble?  You want something I have, something you can't get elsewhere.  I'll be setting the price, thank you very much."

"Then keep it.  Send me back to the strange garden.  I'll solve this puzzle myself."

"So be it, pony girl."  The Old Man opened his door to show the garden again then shoved her through it.

By the time Sunset collected herself, the door of her ingress was gone.  The time she had spent at the Ocean Oroboros had cleared her thoughts to some extent; she noticed a distinct pressure in her mind.  The sensation was not that of her other self trying to take control again, instead being something external.  That alien mind was much grander than her own, a vast intellect encompassing a universe of never-was.

Sunset felt it consuming any pieces of her it could.  She tried to place a Mind barrier against it, but her power was nothing compared to an anti-god.  The Annunaki tore down her defences as though they were wet cardboard and it had the force of a star going nova.  Her memories vanished as her opponent consumed them for its own.

'I might have been a little optimistic about this endeavour.'

'Gee, you think?'  More of Sunset's mind collapsed against the overwhelming force.  She could feel her anger and sorrow vanish as she lost her emotions to the alien mind.  'It's almost to me now.  Been fun trying to corrupt you.'

Sunset began analysing what she had seen of the Annunaki while her reasoning and critical thinking remained.  She was not sure why it had started with the parts that made her Sunset Shimmer, but she hoped that oversight would give her time.

'What is its weakness?' she asked herself.  No other voice answered; she was no longer clear on why she had expected one.

Each of the Annunaki was said to be defined by what it lacked.  The thought came from somewhere, but the young woman could not remember where she had heard it.  She thought of the strange shapes she could see, walls that ran straight and formed gentle slopes.  The leaves looked strange, almost like a shape she should know.  The pink grass brought a flickering image of bouncy curls that faded quickly.

'Why do I have red hair?'

'What is "red?"'

The entity once called Sunset Shimmer was fading.  Only one piece of her remained, something she could no longer understand.  It was called a 'Sparky.'

The one known as Sparky came into existence beside her.  It looked much like the person next to it except that its skin and hair glowed faintly.  Sparky touched her other self's face and shivered from the cold, plastic feel of her skin.

"I'm part of you, too," she whispered.  "Let me help."

She grabbed one of the leaves fluttering into the sky and began to fold it.  When she was done, it formed a normal square.

"What is this?" she asked, holding before her other self's eyes.

There was no response.  Sparky held the leaf a moment longer before tossing it aside with a shrug.  She pulled at her magick and formed a shimmering triangle made of pale yellow light.

"I know you know this one.  Can't you see what it is?"

The other figure's eyes held a glimmer of recognition.  Her lips moved without sound.

"Now we're getting somewhere."  Sparky manipulated the light to form a circle.  "Try this one."

"Circle."  The response was quiet, not even a whisper.

"Great.  Let's try another."

They passed through several more shapes.  Sparky created one each of pentagon, diamond, square, triangle, and five-pointed star before shifting to three dimensions:  Cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder.

"Let's try something fun."  She turned her light into a flat string that she twisted before uniting the ends.

"Möbius strip," Sunset replied.  She blinked and shook her head to clear the cobwebs.  "Sparky?  I thought we merged."

"I've been part of you ever since you Awakened.  You just stopped trying to keep me separate.  I'm not as loud as that other one, though, so I'm not surprised you didn't notice me."

"How are you here?"

Sparky giggled.  "You broke me away from you before the Annunaki could devour me."

"I don't remember that."

"You put that thought in me along with the secret to its weakness so it wouldn't know what you were doing.  Even here, we had hoped the Annunaki wouldn't be omniscient."

Sunset wanted to drop to the grass.  She was exhausted, her body in pain.  As appealing as the idea was, she knew it was not time for that yet.

"I don't know if this will work.  As soon as it notices, it'll come back for us."

"You've always been an all-or-nothing competitor."

"Yeah, but the stakes usually don't involve losing everything of myself to the Abyss."  Sunset felt a tear trickling down her cheek.  "I'd never wish that on anyone, but my friends-"

"Our friends may be lost.  We don't know yet, but that's no reason to let that other one control you."

"Even if they escaped, I'll never forgive the bastards who murdered Pixie."

"I didn't say we have to forgive them," Sparky replied.  She took Sunset's hands, allowing a little of her own warmth to enter Sunset's body.  "You can decide what to do about them later.  For now, we have a Gulmoth to defeat."

"You're right."  Sunset pulled Sparky into a hug and absorbed her.  When they were again one, she pushed Mana from herself.  It was not visible, but she became a glowing beacon of magick.

"I'm back," she called in a sing-song tone.

That alien mind pushed at hers again, but Sunset was ready for it.  She imagined normal geometric shapes, causing them to materialise about herself like shields.  The outside presence recoiled.

"Yeah, that's what I thought.  Hey, you unholy offspring of Discord and the Smooze, what happens if I start changing the shapes around here to something normal?"

She used what she knew of Matter, an Arcanum she had learnt from Sweetie Belle, to modify as many leaves as she could into a variety of flat shapes.  More magick, this time Forces, sent them flying in a small twister.  Wherever they touched, the scenery vanished.  The Annunaki began pushing her from its mind.

"Tell me your Name," she demanded.

She fed it the equation to form a circle.  When the mind crowding hers recoiled again, she smiled deviously and began envisioning similar equations.  Her continued assault caused the aborted universe to expel her.  She was able to seize the information she had wanted as her soul rejoined her body.  She was once again back in the warehouse with her allies, the Gulmoth bearing down on them.  She may as well have been gone a fraction of a second during her contest against the Annunaki.

"Its ban is geometric shapes," Sunset declared.  "Find or make them and bring them to me.  I'll try to hold it back."

She created a Spirit barrier to hold the Gulmoth, giving it as little power as she could.  Though they lacked paper, the Created were perfectly capable of bending metal with their bare hands.  They only needed a few seconds to create the shapes of triangles, squares, and rectangles.  Sunset gave a little Mana to each.

"Throw those at it as hard as you can.  Midnight, help their aim."

She could only enchant five of the them while having sufficient power for the next step.  When the shapes flew at speeds that nearly broke the sound barrier, she spoke the beast's Name to them.  The word burnt her throat and left her light-headed, but she could see the Gulmoth recoiling.  Each geometric bit of metal struck it, its Physics-defying abilities ineffective against its ban.  The kinetic force they released on impact shattered the thing's form, forcing it to discorporate.  With the last of her power, Sunset pushed it into the Aberrance and started closing the breach.  Unlike the one that had consumed the Great Hall, this one lacked the anchors to be permanent.

Midnight poured Mana into Sunset, allowing her to strengthen the spell and seal the place of never-was back into the nightmare of the Annunaki overlord that created it.  Without the Abyssal energy flowing into the world, the insectoid abominations and the marsh-like land returned to normal.

When it was done, Sunset collapsed.  Her body, pushed too far beyond its limits, would not obey her brain's orders.  She could now feel the drain to her soul of fighting the Annunaki.  Her mind had not recovered from the loss of self as it struggled against the shock of so many small and great agonies.  Her heart's beats grew erratic while her body and soul fought to recover.  Her vision faded to black as her heart slowed and stopped.