Nyarlathotep

The scars from Grendel’s revolution still covered the Empty City, in the ruins and rubble from the fighting. The Black Dog stalked through the streets, as the Intrusion’s thousands of insects swarmed around its feet. The Rake watched from inside the skyscrapers, patiently waiting. They all knew that I-330’s path of destruction would eventually take here there. All they needed to do was wait.

They had not accounted for her expecting their presence. As the Rake walked down a twisted hallway, I-330 appeared next to it. It barely managed to step aside before her fist went by its head. Instead she struck the wall behind it, smashing it and the air around it into a hole of emptiness.

The Rake fled, leaping out a window onto the streets. I-330 followed it, jumping out seconds after. Halfway through the jump she regretted the choice, as she looked at the horde of insects below. Her arm became a tentacle and lashed down, shattering the street and scattering the bugs. The Rake had already begun bounding away when she landed, and I-330 attempted to pursue. But when she took a step, her feet sunk into the asphalt streets like quicksand. She smashed the ground to free her foot, but with each further step her feet sank again, slowing her progress. The Rake turned into an alley and was lost from sight, but the Intrusion remained. The swarm had recovered from I-330’s attack, and was racing at her like a black cloud. There were too many to scatter like before, and the sucking asphalt made dodging impossible.

She closed her eyes, and felt everything around her. The air. The atoms spinning and bouncing. Energy moving between them. She focused on that energy, moved it into new forms, then snapped her fingers….

An explosion ripped through the swarm, crushing and burning the bugs. The blast was larger than I-330 had anticipated, and she was picked up and thrown several feet. When she got back up, the City was shifting. Buildings move and streets twisted before her eyes, into alien shapes and forms. As the towers moved, one skyscraper tilted, and began to fall toward I-330. She started to run, but walls grew from the streets around her, cutting off any escape. The building was almost on top of her; no time to think, just react. She held up a hand, and the moment the building touched, she shifted all the kinetic energy from its impact away. It’s landing felt lighter than a feather on her hand, but now she was stuck holding up a massive skyscraper with one hand, and a massive amount of energy looking for an outlet.

A howl echoed through the City, and the Black Dog leapt over the walls, looking to take advantage of I-330’s trapped position. As it came close, I-330 closed her eyes again, raised her free hand toward the Dog, and pointed a finger at it, miming a gun. Just as it pounced, she released all the energy from the skyscraper falling out of the finger. All that energy, focused on a single, tiny point, struck the Dog, and sent if flying. Its body broke through one of the walls, and kept going down the street, without any sign of slowing. The road cracked and windows shattered at the speed of its passing, until it slammed into another building at the end of the road. The whole tower came crashing down on the Dog, creating a cloud of debris that billowed over I-330.

It took some time, but the cloud of dust settled. I-330 had gotten out from under the building she’d been holding, and was coughing heavily. She took several deep breaths, which only caused her to cough more. Now the only question was, had it done any actual damage. It had certainly looked impressive, but….

The rubble flew off, and the Dog emerged, completely unharmed. It growled with a deep sound that shook the dust off it, and ran down the street so fast it looked to I-330 like a black blur. She just had time to mutter, “Oh shit,” before it was on her, teeth flashing. She raised her left arm to protect herself, and the Dog bit through and tore the limb off. Pipes burst from under the street and wrapped around I-330’s neck, dragging and pinning her to the ground. The Dog’s mouth went for her head, so she closed her eyes and started frantically moving as many air molecules as she could. A gust of wind hit the Black Dog and carried it down the street, buying I-330 time for her arm to recover. She broke apart the pipe holding her and got back up, preparing to meet the Dog’s second charge.

The ground shook slightly as the City shifted again. Buildings were sliding aside, creating a grand avenue. I-330 couldn’t understand the purpose behind the change, until she saw what was at the end of the avenue. At first, she thought she was looking at a black wall. When it moved, she realized it was a horde of insects, larger than any she’d ever thought could exist. The Empty City was moving to make way for the entirety of the Intrusion’s swarm to fall upon I-330.

The Swarm from one end of the street, and the Black Dog charging from the other. The City kept shifting, closing off alleys or other escape routes I-330 could take. She would have to stand and fight there. Her mind raced, trying to figure out her options, attempting to narrow down to the best one….

She punched her tentacles through the street, and started to spread them under the road. A sound came over the City, the sound of concrete and metal screaming. The Dog and Intrusion kept coming at I-330, ignoring the sound. I-330 didn’t react to them, keeping her attention focused entirely on the ground. The two were only a few feet away from her before she moved. Dozens of black tentacles broke out from beneath the street, ripping apart a hole in reality larger than the entire City block. The Black Dog and Intrusion were caught in the hole, and the sound of the Dog howling and thousands of insects dying shrieked over the City as both were consumed by nothingness.

As their dying screams faded, everything became quiet. I-330 barely dared breath, expecting the Black Dog or Intrusion to suddenly reappear and resume their attack. Nothing of the sort occurred. Even the City had stopped moving. The two Fears really had been destroyed.

That last attack had pushed I-330 to near her limit. It took most of her remaining energy to move the molecules in the remaining streets to create a bridge she could walk on to get out of the circle of emptiness she’d made. When she reached the end of the bridge, she nearly collapsed. Manipulating matter and energy was hard. But at least the fight was over….

The Rake appeared behind I-330, and stabbed it’s claws through her stomach.

W-what is… what just… happened….

The Rake dropped her body, and brought down its claws at her face, tearing out her left eye and leaving her blinded. She started to scream, but the sound was cut off when the Rake’s teeth tore into her throat.

I can’t breathe… why can’t I breathe….

The Rake’s claws cut across I-330 over and over, mutilating her body. She made no motion to fight back, only laying still as her flesh was torn open.

I’m tired… I just… want… to… sleep….

It was an interesting experience for I-330, watching herself die. She felt her lungs stop puling in air and her heart beat its last time as if they were outside events that had no connection to her. She saw the last few brain waves dying away, and her body becoming nothing but inert, lifeless meat. And the moment her body died, her conscious broke free.

Kill them all.

Nyarlathotep moved her hand so fast that the bone in her arm snapped under the pressure, hitting the Rake in the face and throwing it off her. Her body rose up, not standing up, but lifted up as if by a string. Her mouth opened, and she roared with the fury of a supernova. Black tentacles burst from her back, then more out of her arms, face, all over her body. Her skin slid away, revealing a twisted, chaotic mass of shadows, covered in bright red eyes and roaring mouths. The Crawling Chaos grew in size, rising above the skyscrapers of the Empty City. The fires of chaos grew around Nyarlathotep, then exploded out over the City, destroying everything in its way. The Rake was struck and burned away in an instant. The wall of fire quickly covered the entire City, leaving only oblivion in its wake.

When nothing remained in the universe that had once been the Empty City, Nyarlathotep’s body compressed into human form. She looked similar to how I-330 had, or rather, how I-330 had seen herself in the desert lake’s reflection. All the signs of her old injuries were gone, including her eye patch. Two bright red eyes illuminated her face, outlined by heavy Egyptian eyeliner. Her black suit and coat remained, but they had been joined by a golden circlet crowing her head. Her hair was dark as the emptiness of space, and it floated behind her in ways which seemed to pay no heed to gravity. When she smiled, teeth sharp as blades shone out. The shadows and tentacles that had been her left arm were gone, replaced by what appeared a human limb. But under her skin, darkness writhed.

The fires which had destroyed the City came back to Nyarlathotep, condensing into a sword of fire. She grabbed the burning hilt, and with a single swing, tore open a path to the next universe she would destroy.