Lux Locus: Fractured Family

Tzinma sneaked around columns of law enforcement running down the streets and discus flying through the air. He might be an incredibly powerful magus, but even he didn't want to face the odds alone. He had more important things to attend to than his ego. Followers of Blumarak would cross his path occasionally but were quickly disposed of, but the amount became more and more numerous, and members from the two other 'factions' were following the pattern.

In a partially destroyed mall, Tzinma came across a three-way exchange between law enforcers caught in a crossfire, followers of Mumbass on the other side using collapsed pathways from the five floors as cover, and the one's closest to the the magus of Mumbass. Cultists of the god of marrow were reveling in the burning ruins of armored vehicles. One, having crashed into a wall, still had some of its machine guns firing at both opposing parties.

Fights were occurring on every level of the shopping complex, with shouts and bullet exchanges happening above, giving an impression of a particularly realistic 'entertainment show'. The magus attempted to stealthily wade his way around the debris and narrowly dodged a falling sign attached by only a few cables dislodged from the walls. His attempts to link up with the followers of Mumbass and lead everyone to the factory, but a rather distracted cultist of the bone god spotted Tzinma.

"Hey look! It's Tzinma, one of Mumbass' prized magus!" he yelled.

"Let's kill him!" another cultist shouted. "If we can bring his bones to Blumarak, we'll accumulate much favor!" she added.

Several of them pointed their stolen guns at the armored magus. Tzinma's only reaction was fatigue.

"I wantedt o get through this without tiring myself or using any mana. Pfeh."

The bullets bounced off a barrier of blue mana protecting the magus' body while he pulled an orb of mana out of his staff, creating a simulacrum of lightning tethering between them. He throw the orb at the attackers. There was no explosion, but the mana entered their bodies and caused their bodies to twist and morph, turning them into savage beasts famished for everything. Their stomachs ripped apart to reveal a new mouth they used to attack all their fellow cultists, hunger being their only reasoning for this. Said sentiment made them push on even when limbs were shot and hacked off.

Far above, on the third floor, a potted plant was kicked off the ledge and landed on two followers of the fat god. It was a magus of Blumarak. Her body was covered with dense crystals of red blood and iron armor. Her head was encased in a helmet of red crystal surrounded by more iron, creating a blocky shape with two large horns protruding into the air.

"Enough of this!" she bellowed. "I'm bringing in the Blood Rippers!"

Using the two, freshly made bodies of the two cultists, she used their blood to create a portal next to Tzinma. Out of it came two massive creatures twice the size of a man, and fource their muscle mass, if not more. Their skin was a very dark blue, almost black, with hints of red. Their bodies were covered in hastily fused bits of metal, creating an atrocious amalgamation of shades. And their upper jaw protruded forward, accompanied by longer teeth from the lower.

"WE'ZE BLEHD RIPPEHS!" one of them shouted.

The other pointed at the magus and yelled as well. "We'z gen crump yeh, cuz yeh's a gump!"

The first puwandese pulled out a flail with crystallized blood as sharp points to the ball and started swinging it about. Tzinma found his shield shattered and his body being fully impacted and jettisoned through a support pillar and through a wall further away. The cultists of Blumarak cheered in victory.

"Ey, thought 'e wez gon' be hehrder teh foyt!" the puwandese sighed.

He found himself thrown high through several floors above by an explosive ball left by Tzinma. Said magus waddled out of the debris, stunned by the impact and force. He held his head up with a hand and used his staff to keep himself upright until he could regain his bearings.

"I have to admit, that I was not expecting Blumarak to have puwandese. I thought we had the monopoly on that."

The remaining followers laughed whole-heartedly. "Demz is wehk puwandese. Cen't even tell theh difference frem sem gump who's troyin' teh use 'em. Dis Red Bone iz best fer crumpin' gumps!"

From a large quiver on his back, the second puwandese pulled out several javelins tipped with polished red crystal and threw them at Tzinma. The magus, boosting his abilities with mana, rushed towards the giant, dodging behind cover before the projectiles could hit.

"Damnable red beasts! If I get hit by one of those it might pierce my armor."

Using another spell, the magus teleported himself silently across a short distance, tricking the giant into going to his first hiding spot. Tzinma took the opportunity to sneak behind him and, adding a tremendous amount of manage to the butt his sword's hilt, creating a very dangerous weapon.

"Not sure how this will work the puwandese..." he whispered to himself. "BEAST!" he shouted. "I care not for your master of fluids!"

The giant should not have turned, as the blade's hilt found itself impacting the puwandese's stomach, creating a shockwave that destroyed what was left of the windows on the other side of the area. The giant clutched his stomach and keeled over, incapable of standing or breathing anymore. The magus pulled out his sword, and with one fell stroke, decapitated the alien.

"You'll have to do better than that to kill me, fools," the magus stated.

"Yeh fergot about me?!" the first giant shouted from above.

Tzinma looked up and cracked his joints, limbering up.

"No, I didn't."

Meanwhile, Zenith was watching everything from above. He and a regimentary were using a communications screen on the vyrde to evaluate incoming messages and information relating to the situation when a call came in for the prosecutor.

"Yes?" he answered.

A small window appeared with only a sound wave evaluator and a name above it.

"This is Ehry Frumshes, calling Prosecutor Zenith Canka."

"That is me," Zenith replied.

"Good. The portals are growing in size and number. We need you to close them."

"Wh-what?! Are you insane?!"

"You can do it, can't you?!"

"Yes, but without stopping the creation of more, I can't do anything! And this isn't some kind of book where I can solve all of these in just a few hours worth of chapters without some kind of divine intervention!"

"W-we have no ch-choice!" Ehry stammered. "There's more oni bursting across the city, and we even have word of some puwandese waltzing about, although they look strange." The sound of paper shuffling replaced her voice for a moment. "...If these...reports are anything to go by."

"Puwandese?" Zenith repeated quizzically. He opened the door to the cockpit and spoke to the pilot. "How long until we reach the factory?"

"A few more minutes, but there's a lot of carnage down below!" the pilot answered.

"Yes. I can see that. Just get us as close as possible to the roof of it or the ground, and we'll go on from there."

"Yes, sir."