Delve (a RP mod)

 

"Nonbelievers have no respect for the dead. Who will care for them when they are gone?”

The Empress spoke painfully as she stared outside her chamber window. The sight of undead walking outside the palace grounds scarred her heart. They were echelonians who have long passed their wisdom to their descendants, and whose memories were simply preserved by their graves. As the sky turned dark and was engulfed by the gloom that the necromancer had brought upon Sahure, the spiritual realm began to pulse and the ground began to quake. The spiritual streams of water that channeled around the globe began to light the darkness and the citizens of Sahure began to disappear. Every temple and house had a stream of the spiritual water channel through the structures, and with the use of their echelons they transferred their bodies and souls to Tarqa, which was the nearest planet to Sahure; after the previous attack by the Mystic Empire and House Satori, the echelonians had became prepared for the worst. The water channel was tied with the spiritual plane, and it allowed any echelonian to use it as a means of transportation between worlds. Those who remained were in the Imperial Palace, awaiting an order from Ruby Kalahari.

“This is the first time that I have sensed such a powerful necromancer.” Inneslutte released himself from the scimitar on Ruby’s hip and into his barely visible astral form.

“That heretic will be disposed of soon enough.” Ruby turned away from the window.

The royal servants of the Empress entirely surrounded her and began to undress her. They made certain not to eye the black and white attachment even though they knew it existed there. Within a minute, she was fully dressed in her ritualist clothing which consisted of a white hip scarf and a shawl that crossed around her neck and over her breasts. The rest of her body was exposed, displaying the light blue echelons that covered her body from head to toe. Only her face was not fully marked even though the echelons cupped her cheeks and down her neck. Both of her biceps held gold bracers of different design and on her wrists were three gold rings to match the hoop earrings that dangled from her ear lobes. On her forehead was the gold band that represented her royal blood and her status as ruler of the Imperium with the three jewels that dangled from the center. Ritual charms were attached to the bottom of her hip scarf, each of them were soulless, and were only representations of animals and members of the royal house. Ruby’s long brown hair was kept loose, instead of tied at the ends against her back.

Eden bowed before the Empress as a request for an order. Her dark complexion blended well with the ominous haze of the chamber. The glass beads that were strung at the ends of her fully braided strands of hair began to sound off as she raised her head. On her forehead was the golden band that represented her royal blood and was bare of any jewels. Only descendants of the ruling family were allowed to wear royal bands with jewels on them. The attire she wore was similar to the Empress’ which represented the Royal House of the Imperium. Eden wore a gold plate around her neck that overlapped her shoulders with the royal bloodline engraved on the plate and a red jewel at the center which contained a Kalahari’s soul. A similar plate was worn around both of her wrists. Underneath the neck plate, she wore a white halter top that tied around her neck with the hem was cut off at her waist. A long skirt hung from her lower waist line and exposed her abdomen, the slits at the side of her skirt revealed her knee high strapped sandals.

“Send out the Sentries of the Rite first.” The Empress looked towards her cousin.

Eden nodded in response and turned to leave.

“Be careful…this time,” Ruby spoke, almost in a whisper, “Wait. Take this with you.”

Ruby held a mirror out for Eden to take. It was one of the sacred treasures of House Kalahari, an ancient mirror with the ability to purify any person or object corrupted by evil energy that the mirror reflected. Echelons were engraved on the frame of the mirror, which allowed for spiritual energy to pass through and activate the function of the mirror known as Ren. Eden flinched slightly, recalling her last encounter with the object. It took her quite a while to recover, but being mute made it easier to keep her feelings to herself. She stopped in her tracks to acknowledge her cousin’s blessings and took Ren from the Empress’s hands. She proceeded down the spiraling steps that lead her to the main imperial living quarter hall. Eden Kalahari met with the Sentries of the Rite, each of them exerting an aura of the same violet hue. The intense rays of light disrupted the dark haze from surrounding them. Their spiritual energy was unique as it was pure, they were gifted with echelons that belonged to ritualists in the past including the echelons of Kalahari ritualist ancestors. Every ritualist was dressed in white robes with ritual charms attached at the hem of the clothing in rows. each of the charms were of different shapes and sizes that represented a three dimensional echelon. Within each charm was a soul that belonged to the echelon it represented. In addition to the soul charms, were the echelons that covered their faces and limbs. The marks were the same violet color as their individual auras which transferred over to adjacent Sentries and their staves. The staves were hollow with carved out holes in a column across the length of it, much like an instrument for the special purpose of performing rituals through sound, a long practiced technique that was as fast as it was painless under the right rhythm; if the rhythm was fast and high pitched enough, the sound waves could harm the physical body of their target and help perform the ritual quickly.

By averting her star struck eyes, Eden motioned for the Sentries to follow her outside of the imperial palace. The smell of death and decay alarmed their senses, but it was not enough to stop them in their tracks. They followed the dead to the source where they all gathered and stopped the moment that they turned around. It was apparent that the dead would be their enemies. They were soulless, their burial grounds were disrupted, and the spirit realm was not at ease.

The Sentries of the Rite began their duty by activating the ritual circles that long existed under the earth for centuries; not only was the entire globe surrounded by water channels, it was covered in ritual circles that had been engraved deep into the surface for thousands of years. As the violet aura that surrounded the Sentries dispersed the haze and channeled the ritual circles beneath them, they began to chant as they spun their staves to a unified rhythm, the sound of the revolving staves raised the violet spiritual aura from the circles. The tendrils of violet light began to surround each undead and bring them to a halt. The echelons on the undead bodies were bound by the spiritual energy that surrounded them, the effect was not as strong as it would be had they been alive--the power of the necromancer’s influence was evident as the undead struggled to walk. Half of the sentries stopped rotating their staves and began to pull out long rolls of parchment within their robes and with the use of their individual spiritual energy secreted from the echelons on their bodies, they wrapped the undead with the parchment and activated the echelon markings on them, channeling their own spiritual energy in order to seal the decaying bodies. Once sealed, they would be under the command of the ritualists and were bounded from any movement; the same type of seals that the royal House used upon Ixidar long ago.

Eden traced a dark figure in the haze as she walked through it, the black echelons on her body only made her blend even more with the haze even though none of it touched her. The spritual aura that protected her was already black and was not visible within the haze. The Kalahari descendant could only stare at the cloaked figure. It was a wasted life if she had ever sensed one, and it was coming to an end--but to her knowledge it would only make him a stronger necromancer devoid of life. The figure’s soul was far from salvation even within the premises of Sahure. With Ren at hand, the black spiritual energy that surrounded her began to expand until it reached within the perimeter of the cloaked figure. Holding the mirror, she angled it towards Gauth. A white ray of light shot out from the mirror, illuminating the darkness and reflecting the figure’s form in the mirror in a second. The effects of the mirror would only cause a reversal of Gauth’s decaying body, its influence was determined by the evil of his existence whether he was alive or dead. Eden’s mother, Kiriana, and father, Garrison Kalahari, released themselves from the echelons on their daughter’s body and held Ren on opposite sides in their astral forms, channeling their own spiritual energy into the mirror.