The Oblivion of Enlightenment

Chapter 5 The Tyranny of Divinity

                                                Chapter 5: The Tyranny of Divinity

Behold! Rust

erodes the mystic

sword of Michael

and the faithful

Archangel, deplumed,

drops into the void.

The thunderbolt lies frozen

in Jove's hand

Like pale meteors,

spent worlds,

the angels drop

from the firmament

...

You breathe, O Satan

in my verses,

when from my heart explodes

a challenge to the god

Of wicked pontiffs,

bloody kings;

and like lightning you

shock men's minds.

-Inno A Satana (Hymn to Satan)

by Giosue Carducci, 1865

There was a moment of stunned silence. The Mediators seemed not to comprehend what Satya had said. After a moment, they replied in a tone she all at once disliked:

"How do you propose to defeat him? He has begun to consume the souls of his remaining followers and grows ever more powerful with each victory. He has assumed the aspect of The Old Masters as a predator, gaining the strength and knowledge of each sentient he absorbs."

Satya paused and said, "Show me the path that Cydona walked upon Lacus. I wish to know the truth of her ascendancy."

The Mediators seemed to agree. As one they began to shimmer incandescently in the dark subterranean vault and again Satya's mind was flooded with visions.

This time she saw another Earth like world, but it had the pall of the tainted touch of the Old Ones upon it. She knew that she was seeing the past through the filter of her newfound Demon-sight, and not as the protagonists had seen it. Before her opened the vista of an army of bald-headed psi-adepts marching in regiments behind a hovering skiff flanked by levitating Psi-Pylons. The figures she saw on the skiff must be her mother Cydona and her then consort Granala. Satya saw her mother as a much different person, a young, proud and zealous commander, confident in her coming victory. She saw no trace of the bitter, world weariness she had known. It was exhilarating.

Cydona was resplendent in her battle-armour and cut a figure of inflexible authority. Satya welled with pride. She watched with rapt attention as Cydona signalled an all-out attack.

The Psi-Pylons crackled to life as the collective energies of the Psi-Regiments fueled them. Shaved heads bowed in concentration as the Psi-Regiments marched forth. Suddenly great beams of force blasted forth from the Pylons and toward the enemy, who she presumed were Thaxian warriors.

The ranks of heavily armoured footmen were atomized in rays of sweeping destruction. Seemingly drawing strength from their great numbers and unity of consciousness, the Psi-Regiments seemed to not even break their stride. Cydona smirked in satisfaction.

A voice drifted over the scene:

"The Psi-Lords of Lacus had tapped into the latent Psi-energy we the Mediators had infused your race with. The power we hoped to bequeath to you which had lain dormant and unrealised only appeared on Lacus. Cydona fully understood that it was the strength of communal energy that fuelled the true power behind Psi-techniques, just as ours does. Somehow a glimmer of hope had emerged on your mother's homeworld and the Old Ones had taken notice. But there was something more. It seemed that the repressed power of the humans of Lacus had made them more powerful than even we could have imagined. Cydona wielded power immense enough to destroy them. It would seem the spirit we had imbued your humankind with had finally ripened and matured. This was the beginning of our reawakening here in the Vault of Exile."