DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 20: The Gravity Wave
The Gravity Wave
The Emperor stood atop the Black Fortress’ keep looking westward. Once again, strange lights illuminated the ash clouds of the Fornax and Tartarus. Rage boiled in his black soul as he watched the phenomena, knowing something ill was in the wind. A thunderous explosion from Mt. Ragnarok drew his attention away from the ominous light show to the west. Seconds later, the entire City of the Damned shook from the blast. Turning to the volcano, the Emperor saw a category 5 eruption that sent pyroclastic flows down the mountain’s flanks in all directions along with a torrent of lava. The ash cloud rose to the ceiling of the caverns while two thousand cubit lava fountains rose from the overflowing crater. A heavy rain of ash and pumice fell on the City of the Damned like a gritty snowstorm. The Emperor felt the shockwave from the eruption, making him flinch with the noise while rattling his bones. “Rage on, foul mountain,” he growled. “You will not stay my vengeance. No force in this universe can stop me this time.”
Another distant rumble and a sinking feeling in his core caused the Emperor to turn back to the west and the strange phenomena there. His eyes narrowed as he saw a brilliant yellowish-orange flash in the direction of Tartarus. A growl escaped his lips as he sensed not just Hannibal’s distress call, but also the brief intense pulse of ancient hatred and malice of Grimm. It made his dark heart go icy with fear. In the same instant, he noticed a wave of distortion moving towards him at great speed. It made the world look stretched and out of shape as it approached.
“Oh, shit,” he hissed as the wave of distortion hit and passed through him before he could blink. The Black Fortress seemed to flow like a liquid for a moment with the passing of the wave. When it hit him, the distortion immediately dropped the Emperor to his knees as he briefly lost all equilibrium. The world seemed to spin around him and his body felt stretched and pulled out of shape for just a moment. All sense of direction vanished in that instant, making him nauseous. The wave moved on as quickly as it came without damaging anything except the Emperor’s equilibrium. When he got his wits back, he cursed while standing back up and staggering briefly. “Shit,” he snarled, looking to the west again, seeing the phenomena gone along with the sinking feeling in his gut. “That’s all I need: another fucking warp. That was obviously a gravity wave released by a collapsing warp. This is the third one inside two weeks. Something is definitely trying to break into our reality.”
One of the Emperor’s personal Cadre wizards rushed up to him and bowed. “Milord Emperor, are you okay?” he asked with sincere concern. “We felt the wave and it knocked out all but the strongest of us. As soon as I got my wits, I came to check on you.”
“I’m fine, Azeroth,” the Emperor stated icily. “It’ll take more than a gravity wave to knock me down.”
“Is that what that was?” Azeroth queried.
“It was,” the Emperor stated gruffly. “Even though it didn’t seem to damage anything as it passed by, I want everything checked. I also want the source of the wave investigated. It came from the west where I saw an electromagnetic storm raging a few minutes ago. I want all data on it, and the other two storms. We need to see if there’s a correlation between them and the Rising.”
“Of course, milord Emperor,” Azeroth replied. “I will get on it right away. By the way, we were monitoring that storm you spoke of through our uplink to Kartoom when the wave hit and interrupted our communications with Lord Zeus. Before we lost the link, they said the storm was a class 7 electromagnetic storm in the southern Sea of Calui that was one hundred fifty leagues across. They were measuring large-scale fluctuations in the gravimetric, temporal, and electromagnetic spectrum. They were concentrated in the center of the storm, but seemed to collapse before they could coalesce into a single point warp. That’s when we lost contact with Kartoom.”
“That’s worthy of my attention,” the Emperor replied darkly. “Reestablish contact with Kartoom and get them to send all data on this storm to me. I also want Lord Zeus and the rest of the Cadre to start monitoring the whole of Amacia for more of these anomalous storms that seem to be trying to generate warps. If the storms are generating warps, we must determine what kind of warps they are. Then we must find a way to disrupt their formation. Unforeseen and unexplained warps were a serious problem in the 1st Age. They brought disaster and enemies every time they opened. I’ll not have these warps opening unless I’m the one doing it. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, milord Emperor,” Azeroth replied, bowing in the ash fall. “I will put a rush priority on it. If we can find out what these storms are, we may be able to dispel them or even control them to our benefit. An electromagnetic storm can be a powerful weapon.”
“That it would,” the Emperor agreed, “But don’t fool yourself if you think we can control these storms with our tech and sorcery. Even the Dark Gods shied away from trying to make them into a weapon. If we can keep them from generating a warp, I will be satisfied. Now, get going. The clock is ticking. If these storms are associated with the Rising as I believe, our time is at hand. We must be ready to strike at the planet when this grave is opened.”
“I’ll send the message myself,” Azeroth answered, coughing softly from the ash. “Please don’t stay out too long in this ash fall, milord. It could be dangerous.”
“Not as dangerous as you telling me what to do,” the Emperor snapped viciously. “Get out of my sight, Azeroth, and never tell me what to do again. You know better.”
“That I do,” Azeroth said with a bow. “It was just a suggestion, milord. After all, as grand wizard of your personal Cadre, it’s my job to make sure you finish what you started. Please, forgive my impudence.”
“Go, now!” the Emperor snarled, moving menacingly towards Azeroth.
“I go, milord Emperor,” Azeroth stated, moving quickly away from the Emperor. “I shall let you know when we reestablish contact with Kartoom.”
“Do that,” the Emperor replied in a stony tone as Azeroth fled his presence. When Azeroth had gone, the Emperor looked back at Mt. Ragnarok for a moment. “My time is running out,” he admitted. “I must have my forces ready and Beowulf’s mutant bitch head on the wall before the Rising. I cannot be delayed any longer by her or her pestilent maggot friends.” Starting to feel the grit in his mouth and the smell of sulfur dioxide in the air, the Emperor went back into the shelter of the Black Fortress.