2013.10.16 - Acquisitions

Antarctica 1800 A.D.E.

Necro was not exactly stable to begin with. Even back when she was still Sasha Alkaev. But the years had done strange things to her mind. What little humanity she possessed gradually erroded. In the process of trying to reclaim the universe she had constructed with her imagination as a girl, the ancient lich had stopped seeing it at all -- only seeing how much this 'reality' didn't match it. All rulers eventually fell to be replaced with another. She understood that. But she was different. She was better. She had to find a way. Some master stroke that would bring it all together at the right time. An ultimate weapon, a grand strategy, a mighty -- and completely loyal -- servant...

And that is how it happened. Gathering artifacts and items of power was important, as much to keep them out of the hands of others as to have them for herself. Gertrude was in charge of that, as well devising new magic and weaponry. Marcus Cranston was set to recruit new allies -- or to make minions of those who refused -- to infiltrate and sabotage enemies, and to gather information about the goings-on of the world. And Necro's newest lieutenant was former Russian military leader, now her chief warlord and tactical planner, Grigori Alexandrovich. He had taken to his new existence readily. There was no loss of loyalty like with Marcus. Loyalty, duty, and the mission he had been given were all that mattered to him. That and a little something else, but Necro preferred not to think about under what insanity had caused the ghastly pale undead man to fall in love with her.

It was time for Necro to peruse the recent acquisitions by Gertrude. A sarcophagus with some sort of deific plague sealed inside... The 'Eleventh Plague'. An 500 lbs book about other worlds and realms, written before writing itself had been invented on Earth, titled, 'History of the Worlds'. A glittering black diamond that Necro had felt the moment she entered the room, thanks to the power sealed within. A skeletal hand reached towards it to check the stability of the safety wards she had decreed should be standard when handling, transporting, or examining any unknown magical artifact. "What is its name?" Gertrude, rotting hands continuously dripping with slime that would then flow back into itself before touching the ground, perused the transcript. "The Heart of Darkness." Necro said the words aloud, with her tongueless mouth. "The Heart of Darkness. The time of man, forever eclipsed, hm? This one is dangerous. Put it in the restricted vault."

The lich's attention then fell upon the last of the acquisitions. "What is this?" As Gertrude finished having the bearers convey the prison for the former Angel of Vengeance away, she turned to find Necro's eyes ablaze with cyan light as she examined a splinter of bone as long and thick as a polestaff. "We do not know," Gertrude hissed and bubbled. "But it has a power behind it that I knew you would find fascinating." The would-be Empress, despite her own extremely paranoid safety precautions, took a risk and picked up the bone splinter in her hands. "This is not from here."

"No, my empress, we just brought it--" " NO." Necro interrupted. Gertrude went silent. "I mean... This is not FROM here. This is from another plane entirely... From... A god. A god of..." The light in Necro's eye sockets went out as she suddenly found herself in a fathomless void, staring into the incomprehensibly huge faces of the Gods of Undeath.

"...Ah." Necro uttered in the silence of a dead multiverse.

Her consciousness returned from that place, but her mind was never the same.