Attack on Sylica

[Ebiris]

Alicia shakes her head. "No, we allowed a section of the defenders to retreat before the Silent Mist descended. I don't expect Seira or Chan were very quiet about things either."

[Anastasia]

"Mm." Syala lets it go at that.

Meanwhile Sulia merely waves her hand, "Regardless, another win is another win. Plus, such things I'm hearing out of the Cauldron, too. My, you've been busy!"

[Ebiris]

Alicia's own smile widens. "So you haven't heard the latest news of Antenora's ascension, then?"

[Anastasia]

A delicate gasp, "Antenora ascended? I have not! What happened?" Sulia asks, "I didn't think she would take that risk, and she succeeded? Marvelous!"

[Ebiris]

"It's only a nascant divinity, but it's there," Alicia says with evident pride. "I don't think it'll take long for her to grow to match Syala and I."

[Anastasia]

"Still, remarkable," Sulia says, smiling widely. "I did not think she would even try! Yet there she is!"

[Ebiris]

"Nor did we, really," Alicia admits. "But it was precipitated by a meeting with Eblis. The devil Gathgorian has also freshly ascended and we saw him studying under Eblis. We garnered enough information from it for Antenora to make her own attempt, which was successful. Right now she's consolidating herself in Sylica to get a grip on her new power."

[Anastasia]

"What?" Sulia leans forward, "Gathgorian has ascended?! That monster rises? And from that you found a way to ascend?" Her voice is tight, "Details, Alicia, details!"

[Ebiris]

"It comes down to how Eblis did it himself, so long ago," Alicia explains. "He was angry at Antenora's presence and demanded to know what she'd seen, why she'd risen. So I showed him, our experiences together that led to her forsaking Hell, and something must have gotten through. He showed me his own revelation, of when he stood outside Creation and... hmm, it's hard to explain. He became One, in essence, his own nature realising itself in the Beyond and becoming more. That somehow translates as divinity in the terms we understand, but that profound realisation of his own inner nature was also what caused his fall from the heavens. Perhaps there was something rotten in there all along, or perhaps his way of becoming One was so innately self absorbed it led to hatred for all others? Honestly there's still a lot of mysteries about the whole thing. He explained that Asmodeus is elevating three others in the same manner - Gathgorian and one other have already happened, with a third to be chosen."

She pauses to have a sip of tea and refresh her throat, a pause to digest all that before she concludes, "It gave us enough information to make our own attempt. Antenora's convictions were strong enough that she wished to provide her own answer to what One is, to ascend as an example to Eblis that his own rage and hate are ultimately futile. So the three of us stepped out of Creation, Syala and I guarding Antenora from what dwells there while she found her own answer. In the end it happened surprisingly swiftly."

[Anastasia]

Sulia takes that all in, hands gripping the rests of her chair. She stays leaning forward the entire time, "Unbelievable. You went to Beyond and found divinity. Madness. That sounds...Was the Incarnation of Chaos involved at all?"

[Ebiris]

Alicia shakes her head. "Because it occurred outside of Creation, she was not subject to Ao's judgement. It raises a lot of questions on the nature of just what gods are and where the Incarnations got the concept from when they made everything."

[Anastasia]

"That...Gods..." Sulia is silent, stunned. "Without Ao's - do you know what you have, Alicia?" Leaning forward, "You have a golden arrow in the fight against Shar! Ao's judgment is the one limiting factor keeping us from ascending so many more, for forging an army to strike her down!"

[Ebiris]

"I hadn't really thought of it in those terms," Alicia admits, because the concept of gods as a bunch of cannon fodder to be thrown at Shar until she crumbles under sheer weight of numbers isn't really something that would occur to her. "I don't think just anyone could manage it though. Both Eblis and Antenora are extraordinary individuals."

[Anastasia]

"Conceded," Sulia says, sitting back now. A long sigh, "How do you bring about something so impossible and talk about it as if it was mundane?"

"She's good at that. Ask Triel," Syala pipes up at that, a hand to your arm. "Or anyone she's beaten to a pulp. She's also good at THAT."

[Ebiris]

She flexes her arm at Syala's touch, a firming of muscles under her sleeve. "Well we are three newly risen deities, isn't it our job to bring about impossible miracles so we don't get overshadowed by our elders?" she asks, smiling.