With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

'The things I cut off...'

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Maybe 'ever so'
'a reasonable'
'strand'

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Thank you, corrected.

Maybe 'pray to you'

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[Zig]

I have no idea what's happening here? Did Melmoth just make himself into a superzombie? Why is he acting like that's impressive in some way? He'll never be as dapper as Sir Solomon Grundy!

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From context he didn't make himself into a zombie, he made am extremely powerful zombie minion, probably on the level of power of a new god.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

5th May
03:05 GMT -5

I send filaments down ahead of me, though not as far ahead as a truly cautious approach would involve. I am trying to rescue these people alive, and I'm far more survivable than they are.

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Joy of having to rush into a rescue mission. Other people tend to be squishier than heroes.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Nothing much, nothing, there! I grab the Columbian thrall and pin their arms to prevent the Spine Rider controlling them from using their magic. Then I loop filaments around their neck-. Got you!

The Columbian man stiffens at once, his heart racing and his breathing erratic. His pupils are dilated and aren't really focusing on anything. Ring, quick health check… Nothing he won't recover from on his own, but with a little power ring I can make that now.

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Joy of having your nervous system interrupted by something else. Quite a shock when you're suddenly freed.

"Sir?"

"B-by God Almighty-!"

"Sir, you've been taken by a Spine Rider. I've killed it, but your coworkers are still being held. If you can remember anything about what it told you to do, that would be very helpful. Otherwise, please head up the stairs and stay close to my colleague Canis."

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He's definitely going to need a moment after this. Or a stiff drink. Do Columbians indulge?

"I-" He sits up, his right hand going to the back of his neck. I closed the wound when I treated him, but I use a filaments to pick up the Spine Rider's sword from the ground and hold it out to him. He sees it and nods. "No, good sir. I saw little of their attack before I was… T-taken, and then it was… As if I was in a dream, compelled to walk ever onwards with no sense of my own self. I-I have no idea what they plan for us, but I pray you, destroy these devils. Save my friends."

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At least he knows well enough to realise what happened to him, terrifying as it was... And he's reacting just about as well as you'd expect an ordinary person to...

"I'll do my best. Up, now." I give him a hand and he pulls himself to his feet. "Canis has a large dog with him. He's a little strange, but he knows his business."

He nods jerkily and then darts up the stairs.

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As strange as that may sound, it's still better than what he's running from.

There's no one else in range of my filaments, but the magic here is either making them fade out or preventing me from getting feedback.

Or… Thinking about the feedback-.

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Something's occurred to him, has it?

I check my spell eater, but it's still in place and at a reasonable temperature. Not cold; there's been enough magic thrown around to get it a little heated. But it should still be working.

For one entirely inappropriate moment I'm reminded of when I started watching anime. It was completely different to any of the tropes I was all too familiar with from western animation, and I mistook that difference for originality. Here, I don't know if the Sheeda are being truly clever or if they simply use arcane attacks that happen to be different to the ones I'm used to guarding against.

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Huh, that's honestly a concern. It makes sense, too. Magic would change in the millions of years between the Spell-Eater's construction and the Sheeda's time. At least it's working.

Not that it makes much difference; I'm here with the equipment I have now and I have to deal with them.

I fly downwards. Not much dust, but my rings every-so-helpfully point out the disturbances in the dust on the steps and the walls. Not walking lockstep in the way that star conqueror victims tend to. No spell snares, but I suppose that if a random group of tannery overseers are capable of using magics which could harm me then they certainly couldn't do so quickly.

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Unless one of them was a retired Witch Hunter, I doubt they'd be anywhere near that good.

There's an opening up ahead, and a chamber beyond it. The ongoing sensor dampening magic is making me consider simply feeding on the magic… But I don't want to risk harm to the hostages unless to reasonable alternative presents itself.

And…

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Since Hungry is still largely indiscriminate. One more thing for his to-do list.

Huh.

The Columbians are kneeling in ranks before… Some sort of multi-headed mosquito… Thing. Most are collapsed, and as I watch the mosquito finishes draining the last few and withdraws its heads. I can see the blood running through its translucent body and into… A… It's vast body, bloated and fat.

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Man, the Sheeda-creatures just get weirder and weirder. Why would you need all that blood?

A construct blade severs the heads. Filaments annihilate the Spine Riders and mend the Columbians. Other than the shortage of blood, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them. Was that… It? The Spine Riders brought them here to feed this.. thing? I restore their bodies as best I can and then deposit them by the door. Working out what the heck Melmoth was trying to do needs to be my priority.

Or… Does it? Can I think of a single non-evil thing that Melmoth might be doing with thirty pints of type-unmatched Columbian blood? No, no I can't.

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Yeah, nothing good can come of that much blood. And 'Melmoth' and 'Good' don't belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence.

Thick bands of orange light connect me to the still… Aliveish? Mosquito-thing, as I have a crack at assimilating it. I things I cut off… Yes, they had mouths and eyes but I don't think they were actually 'heads' in any conventional-

"Still alive, Lantern?"

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Fuuu-... What, does this guy have one of those omniscient surveillance systems you see in bad stories? ...Well, probably, Yeah. Magic and all... But Goddamn he's annoying.

-sense.

The creature is resisting, glowing runes all over its carapace making it hard to make contact. But that's fine; I'm trying to kill it anyway.

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Sooner it's dead, sooner you can exfiltrate the captives, Canis and Brut. And then maybe dump a few billion tons of concrete into this place.

I ignore Melmoth's voice and form a railgun, load mage slayer rounds and fire at the most important-looking cluster. The first round strikes him without difficulty, and this time it actually works.

"How are you doing that? Some sort of leaching spell?"

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Interesting that he can't identify the cause. He hasn't noticed the railgun rounds flying? Or are they so anti-magic they don't show up on his 'cameras'?

The runes near the impact site stop glowing, and some sort of feedback causes the carapace nearby to crack up and the runes there fail as well. Immediately I follow up with an orange strand and attempt to assimilate it. The strange connects, and the creature turns to dust.

Mostly.. turns to dust.

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Huh, something left behind? That... Can't be good. Ready more mageslayers.

"Ah. Curious. That particular redundancy wasn't created with Lanterns in mind."

There's a pile of.. tissue, or.. organic material. I assume that it isn't 'Sheeda' enough to have been included in the disintegration effect. It's.. like spider web: cream in colour, strong, slightly sticky in places and… It looks like it's cocooning… Someone or something. Columbian blood that hadn't percolated far enough through the system splats to the ground as I generate crumbler constructs and start… Pruning it back.

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Is that such a good idea? You have no clue what's in there. For all you know, it's a frigging zombie hulk.

"Other than you wanting to be as evil as you can, what is any of this about?"

"Oh, this isn't about 'being as evil as I can'. There are far more ways to be evil than I currently indulge in."

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Good grief, this guy. Why don't you go back to kicking puppies and leave the rest of us alone? No, wait, go hump rocks, see if you can make golems. Don't want puppies getting hurt.

"So when you claimed that you 'really like hurting people'-?"

"Oh, I do. But unlike some of my kind I know when to practice restraint."

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...A Sheeda.. with restraint? No, sorry, that's such an oxymoron. I can't process it...

"You just prefer to live-" Behind me the recovering Columbians begin making a retreat. "-in a situation which doesn't require you to."

"When I ruled these people I enforced my own laws in a completely fair and even-handed manner. I just didn't subject myself to them. What's the point of being king if you can't be king?"

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What a spoilt brat of an arse. I'm guessing he was never told 'no' as a child...

"To create the greatest and strongest realm you can, with the most prosperous and capable people, as a testament to the rightness of your rule."

"Well…"

"But I suppose that's not for everyone. Particularly if this is all you've managed since the last Harrowing, you malignant incompetent."

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Blimey, OL. That's pretty strong language for you. Good to see that philosophy coming through again, though..

The shape is humanoid, though I can't see anything that suggests that they're alive. But… This civilisation if rife with necromancy, and there are humanoid species with decidedly non-standard vital signs. I wouldn't want to kill an intelligent undead creature that hadn't done anything wrong.

"You know, I had considered keeping you on with your facilities intact. Now, I think I'll let you watch everyone you know and love die screaming before I turn you into a gibbering pet."

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You seem to think you have any kind of say in matters. It's amusing.

"Melmoth, if your threats worried me I wouldn't bother talking to you."

"I suppose you have acquitted yourself reasonably well so far. But I rather think that's about to change. You see, after I was deposed and abandoned after our pervious harrowing, I had the complete run of a dead civilisation. Access to all manner of interesting things. All sorts of interesting people. And their corpses. The main drawback of replacing my blood is that I don't have any Sheeda blood in me any longer, but my seed is still Sheeda seed, and my descendants have me in their blood."

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...Uh-oh.

"And it doesn't take a lot of blood to make a grundygod."

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Well, that doesn't sound pleasant at all. At best, we have another Solomon Grundy. At worst... Undead New God.

Yeah, this is getting worrying. OL might definitely want to get some distance between him and that cocoon. And then maybe start obliterating it. I have the feeling whatever's coming out of it is going to be very, very angry. And getting in reach of a big, angry, strong guy... Well, we saw what happened to Loki in the Avengers.

Some sort of leaching spell?"

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Some sort of leeching spell?"

...abandoned after our pervious harrowing...

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...abandoned after our previous harrowing...

 

[Vaermina]

Or… Does it? Can I think of a single non-evil thing that Melmoth might be doing with thirty pints of type-unmatched Columbian blood? No, no I can't.

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I can think of several.

"And it doesn't take a lot of blood to make a grundygod."

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Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday.

 

[Agent Orange]

Yeah, nothing good can come of that much blood. And 'Melmoth' and 'Good' don't belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence.

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'Melmoth is very Good at being Bad/Evil/Incompetent.'

What, does this guy have one of those omniscient surveillance systems you see in bad stories?

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They all do. The closer they are to 'Orcus On His Throne' trope the better the resolution is. Of course they are also contractually obligated to only use the information they get this way to make extremely vague and open-ended ominous statements that must be capped with some variant of 'All according to plan'.

OL might definitely want to get some distance between him and that cocoon. And then maybe start obliterating it.

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Or he could try to assimilate it before it stats moving. That's still an option, right? I mean we all know it will mysteriously fail to work but it's an option.

 

[Prince Charon]

Maybe 'pray to you'

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I don't see who you would think that?

 

[Darko]

I don't see who you would think that?

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Because the guy was asking him to save his friends and was desperate.

 

[Prince Charon]

Because the guy was asking him to save his friends and was desperate.

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Then he might say 'I pray that you,' or because he's talking the way those characters really do talk, he might shorten it to 'I pray you,' like he did in the fic, but he certainly wouldn't say 'I pray to you.' That's what confuses me about your post.

EDIT: He doesn't think that Paul is his god, after all.

 

[Darko]

Then he might say 'I pray that you,' or because he's talking the way those characters really do talk, he might shorten it to 'I pray you,' like he did in the fic, but he certainly wouldn't say 'I pray to you.' That's what confuses me about your post.

EDIT: He doesn't think that Paul is his god, after all.

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Yeah, but desperation can make people do some odd things.

 

[Agent Orange]

Yeah, but desperation can make people do some odd things.

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Would you pray to an orange glowing, spandex wearing Brit, no matter how desperate you were?
I don't know about you but he doesn't scream trustworthy to me. He doesn't even like tea! How do you trust a person like that?

 

[Darko]

Would you pray to an orange glowing, spandex wearing Brit, no matter how desperate you were?
I don't know about you but he doesn't scream trustworthy to me. He doesn't even like tea! How do you trust a person like that?

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Well if he saved me from being controlled by a monster, then yes.

He's certainly more trustworthy that the evil fairy guy.

And that guy didn't know he doesn't like tea, hell he may not care that he dislikes tea.

Paul also doesn't wear spandex.

He either wears power armour or ordinary body armour.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

'Melmoth is very Good at being Bad/Evil/Incompetent.'

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You know what I meant...

They all do. The closer they are to 'Orcus On His Throne' trope the better the resolution is. Of course they are also contractually obligated to only use the information they get this way to make extremely vague and open-ended ominous statements that must be capped with some variant of 'All according to plan'.

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True, true. It's practically in the contract for the system, after all. And you do not want to break that contract. Of course, there's always the "I'll get you next time, [Hero name here]... Next time!" variant.

Or he could try to assimilate it before it stats moving. That's still an option, right? I mean we all know it will mysteriously fail to work but it's an option.

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Eh, he's probably considering the likelihood of it disintegrating, exploding or waking up early if he tries it. If not various combinations of any or all three.

 

[Agent Orange]

Paul also doesn't wear spandex.

He either wears power armour or ordinary body armour.

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Details! He is still scandalously dressed by local standards. They are a society of proud magic users, only meatshields warriors wear heavy armor and only rogues wear light body armour so I doubt it earned him any points with them. Also you saw how shamelessly he propositioned that poor Warlock woman.

 

[Darko]

Details! He is still scandalously dressed by local standards. They are a society of proud magic users, only meatshields warriors wear heavy armor and only rogues wear light body armour so I doubt it earned him any points with them. Also you saw how shamelessly he propositioned that poor Warlock woman.

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I know you're joking, but I still feel the need to make these statements.

I don't think they'd care that he's wearing armor, even if they don't use it that much, which is doubtful, they may still see it as practical thing to do, but may not do it because the magic they put on their clothes is more than enough protection.

This guy also doesn't know about the warlock woman and he just offered to alter them.

 

[Agent Orange]

Eh, he's probably considering the likelihood of it disintegrating, exploding or waking up early if he tries it. If not various combinations of any or all three.

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Not to mention that actually succeeding would short-circuit the miniboss fight and we can't have that!

 

[Lysis]

The Sword may also not do anything to him if he's not an arcane entity, but just a magic user, but I could be wrong.

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It messed up Captain Marvel pretty bad, so I don't think it's just restricted to angels, demons and gods.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'This civilisation is rife'

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Thank you, corrected.

What a spoilt brat of an arse. I'm guessing he was never told 'no' as a child...

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Spoiler: Not exactly

Some sort of leeching spell?"
...abandoned after our previous harrowing...

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Stsword]

I have no idea what's happening here? Did Melmoth just make himself into a superzombie? Why is he acting like that's impressive in some way? He'll never be as dapper as Sir Solomon Grundy!

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No, he did what any necromancer in Dnd would do-find the best corpses to make a superminion out of.

A Kryptonian? A Martian? A New God? A Maltusian? An Elemental (some elementals, like Sprout/Tefe, have bodies instead of being made out of their element like Swampy)? An Almeraci? A Trommian?

If he was really industrious, he could have stitched together a corpse with the benefits of several species.

 

[Agent Orange]

If he was really industrious, he could have stitched together a corpse with the benefits of several species.

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And somehow the resulting Frankenstein's Melmoth's Monster would have all the benefits but none of the downsides of all of it parts. You know, this makes an even better case for OL at least attempting to assimilate it. Stealing a fruit of Melmoth's efforts right under his nose would feel even better than destroying it. And OL could really use a new superpowered slave. He either lost or forgot all his earlier ones.

 

[NightmareWarden]

And somehow the resulting Frankenstein's Melmoth's Monster would have all the benefits but none of the downsides of all of it parts. You know, this makes an even better case for OL at least attempting to assimilate it. Stealing a fruit of Melmoth's efforts right under his nose would feel even better than destroying it. And OL could really use a new superpowered slave. He either lost or forgot all his earlier ones.

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Normally I'd agree, but I have a soft spot for intelligent undead (and flesh golems) after reading about Quilt in Dominic Deegan. So let's try Paul's social-first, before the situation escalates to "purge everything."

 

[Darko]

No, he did what any necromancer in Dnd would do-find the best corpses to make a superminion out of.

A Kryptonian? A Martian? A New God? A Maltusian? An Elemental (some elementals, like Sprout/Tefe, have bodies instead of being made out of their element like Swampy)? An Almeraci? A Trommian?

If he was really industrious, he could have stitched together a corpse with the benefits of several species.

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My bet is on a New God, or maybe even Aurekle.

If he was uplifted by New Gods then maybe they also made him into a New God, or at least made him a bit more powerful on a metaphysical level than your average person.

Still it is possible that Melmoth traveled to other planets and took some people from there, or kidnapped aliens that came to Earth.

Trommian

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Do you mean Element Lad's species from Legion of Superheroes?

If so then that's probably one of the most godlike species out there, given what he was able to do when he went insanе.

 

[Agent Orange]

So let's try Paul's social-first, before the situation escalates to "purge everything."

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I'm pretty sure the situation escalated to "purge everything" the moment they found out about Melmoth's attempt at arcane bionano grey goo getting activated. Summoning Ophi-chan and telling her to go nuts should've been his immediate reaction but whatever, we'll see where this mess goes.

On another note, what's up with Melmoth here? Is he dead dead? Only mostly dead? Pulling a Zola? Were they talking with a VI? I don't know if I'm just having a reading comprehension failure or if the characters themselves don't know?

 

[Darko]

I'm pretty sure the situation escalated to "purge everything" the moment they found out about Melmoth's attempt at arcane bionano grey goo getting activated. Summoning Ophi-chan and telling her to go nuts should've been his immediate reaction but whatever, we'll see where this mess goes.

On another note, what's up with Melmoth here? Is he dead dead? Only mostly dead? Pulling a Zola? Were they talking with a VI? I don't know if I'm just having a reading comprehension failure or if the characters themselves don't know?

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My bet is either on that Zola thing, or Melmoth survived somehow and is now in some kind of bunker hiding.

 

[Agent Orange]

or Melmoth survived somehow and is now in some kind of bunker hiding.

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Like Mr House huh? I could see it.

 

[lancelot]

"And it doesn't take a lot of blood to make a grundygod."

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Are you gonna have to break out the Ophidian now?

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More then likely not. Despite ignoring or out right pissing on a number of stupid tropes, Zoat has a serious problem with having Paul Sandbag until the last possible moment even when he has no possible reason to hold back against someone like this asshole and every reason to end this as quickly as possible.

 

[Darko]

It messed up Captain Marvel pretty bad, so I don't think it's just restricted to angels, demons and gods.

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Billy was blessed by a number of gods however.

Though you could be right.

 

[BlueMangoAdea]

Isn't the two most fundamental things the Sword of the Fallen do prevent magical healing and reincarnate the killed target as vanilla mortal? So theoretically, Melmoth would be turned into a "vanilla" Sheeda(is there such a thing?), I think? Not that Paragon has the Sword anymore.

 

[Darko]

Isn't the two most fundamental things the Sword of the Fallen do prevent magical healing and reincarnate the killed target as vanilla mortal? So theoretically, Melmoth would be turned into a "vanilla" Sheeda(is there such a thing?), I think? Not that Paragon has the Sword anymore.

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The only ones that it's turned into ordinary mortals after killing them have been arcane being like the First, and Lord of Chaos.

Angels are still able to use magic after they get turned, but only mortal magic.

The Sheeda may not be able to heal after they are stabbed by the Sword, but whether or not it makes them into ordinary mortals is unknown since they appear to be just a race that uses magic and not say a full on arcane life form.

The only thing we can do at this point is speculate.

 

[Darko]

He's definitely going to need a moment after this. Or a stiff drink. Do Columbians indulge?

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I know that back when the Puritans were kidnapped they used to give alcohol to children, but that was because it was safer than the water.

Now they may have some device or magic that allows them to clean the water, but whether they drink booze is anyone's guess.

Man, the Sheeda-creatures just get weirder and weirder. Why would you need all that blood?

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Red Tornado Abridged already answered this question.

RT Abridged: Because magic you fucking potato.

Fuuu-... What, does this guy have one of those omniscient surveillance systems you see in bad stories? ...Well, probably, Yeah. Magic and all... But Goddamn he's annoying.

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OL is in his lair.

Interesting that he can't identify the cause. He hasn't noticed the railgun rounds flying? Or are they so anti-magic they don't show up on his 'cameras'?

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He may be able to see the rounds, but doesn't know how they work.

Even if they can't be seen by magic the Sheeda do have ordinary non magical tech around and the rounds don't block that.

...A Sheeda.. with restraint? No, sorry, that's such an oxymoron. I can't process it...

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It's fairly simple to process actually.

While an ordinary Sheeda would whip you with a flaming whip a hundred times Melmoth would do it just 99 times.

I recommend you watch that Nuremberg TV movie with Alec Baldwin and see one of the Nazis on trial say how he revolutionized the death camps so as to not be cruel.

Or watch the Waltz episode of DS9 where Dukat gives justifications of how he was a better and more fair tyrant than those who came before him.

Well, we saw what happened to Loki in the Avengers.

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OL is a British guy and if I remember correctly I think that Zoat once mentioned that Paul sounds kinda like a young Tom Hiddleston.

Now I'm imagining Thor from the MCU mistaking that version of Paul for his brother.

"Loki why are wearing so much orange instead of green, and why are you more muscular"

 

[Darko]

Yeah, nothing good can come of that much blood. And 'Melmoth' and 'Good' don't belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence.

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Oh I disagree.

Here's a good example of those two working in a sentence:

"...and when the fiend Melmoth died by having a bomb shoved up his ass a good day was had by all"