>>5198359“I sensed a DISTUBANCE, and knew YOU would come to defend it. To PROP up its continued, OFFENSIVE existence.” Behemoth continues with a snort. “EVERYTHING about this cycle is WRONG.”
“How so?” You reply, trying to keep your voice as level as you can.
“It’s gone on too LONG. Amalgams are THINKING. Not doing their JOBS. Daughters are SETTLING. Not moving for the CORD. Even the DISSASSOCIATED. Power enough to snap the CORD in TWO, and they want to ESCAPE? It’s ALL so WRONG.” Behemoth growls. “YOU have amassed FRAGMENTS of my FATHER. Another is STUCK in the middle of this ROCKET you speak of. Even holding ONE in prior cycles was enough to give a DAUGHTER the POWER to FINISH this. But YOU? You WASTE my Father’s TIME. You are an EMBLEM of this cycle’s DISORDER. A THING that shouldn’t EXIST. A thing that gives others HOPE that there can be something MORE. Something OTHER than what the Crucibles were MADE for.”
“You would have the Crucibles continue?”
“They WILL continue. This Crucible WILL serve my Father’s PURPOSE. WE will go HOME. HE will be FREED. And he will SEE what I have DONE. He will see that it is GOOD…and I will SHOW him my WORTH. So it has BEEN. So it will BE.” The mountain grumbles with finality, every syllable like the foreshocks of an earthquake that has yet to reach its crescendo. “Now, I am no SCHEMER like Leviathan, whose STENCH clings to you like SCAVENGERS to a CORPSE. I prefer SIMPLICITY.”
Behemoth’s neck extends bringing its head as close as possible to the ground as it sightlessly leers at you and your companions. “I OFFER you a CHOICE. Climb the CORD. AND. FINISH. THIS. NOW.”
“…Or?” You prompt, coldly.
“Or I GRIND you to DUST.” He bites. “See? SIMPLE.”
“IS THIS TRULY WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO, BROTHER?”
It’s a gust of wind that heralds Ziz’s arrival, Behemoth’s sibling crashing down behind you and flanking your group with all seven of her wings.
“Ziz…” Behemoth murmurs, momentarily taken aback. “I understand your FONDNESS for the Daughters, much like LEVY’S curiosity…but this CROSSES the LINE. FATHER would be FURIOUS.”
“Father isn’t here, Behemoth. You don’t have to do this.” Ziz pleads. “There’s no threat here, Shu least of-!“
“ENOUGH! You. Know. NOTHING.”
Behemoth’s rebuttal makes Ziz flinch, four of her seven heads cowing in the face of her brother’s cruel dismissal, the very ground quaking under the force of his words…but the water is, for the first time since you arrived, calm.
The water’s so very still, despite the land titan’s growing anger—as if waiting to see which way the tide will turn.
“So, DEFIANT.” Behemoth intones, turning back to you with a three-hooved stomp. “You have before you TWO options. CONCLUSION…or DESTRUCTION.”
His voice then bellows out a single word, an ultimatum with all the subtlety of a natural disaster.
“CHOOSE.”
>>FIFTIETH VEIN: CLOSED 