Life and Death

Both exist.

Life and Death

Dalton spent many an evening on the high cliffs watching the suns fire melt sadly into the distant horizon. It was always as if the skyline yearned to hold on, felt its world end with the subsiding light, and Dalton felt at one with this feeling each day, each evening, focusing on the moments of a days end with quiet acceptance.

Dalton was the last of the Great Plants, existing atop a peak so high as to also witness the slow, blooming ease into life of the eastern sunrise, and to be ever exposed to that great light as it moved through its daily path. Only in this way had it survived, atop the self proclaimed Daltons peak, able to observe the world.

Belvedere could see the last Great Plant Dalton from miles below. The last source of wisdom and life on the planet, a mass of concentrated plant life so great as to protect this entire island. Belvedere may well have taken it down, wrecked it with fire, but as a Lich the sheer ghastliness of vitality, of oxygen and purity, had prevented Belvederes ascent for 237 years.

He sighed, breathing fumes into his own personal pocket of suffocated air. A dark brown dome, maintained by his own pollution and hate, kept his rotten, cantankerous skeletal form safe from overexposure to the 'poisonous' purity of the air at Dalton peak. There was a reason Belvedere had kept this vista for his last conquest, why his subordinates would not be allowed to join him. Even his most powerful magic only slowed the transmution, he could feel his bones growing, solidifying, flesh almost forming at the joints.

He would have to be as quick as he could.

Shouting an incantation from where he stood now, a quarter of the way up Dalton peak, a roaring pulse of light smashed and shrieked through the mountainside, crashing to its core. Startled wildlife erupted through the surrounding forests as the dust settled, revealing a fresh tunnel straight to the core. "Close" Belvedere remarked with satisfaction "..if not enough to damage the roots."

He made his way quickly into the dull green waning light of the new cave, intensifying his protective magic as he progressed. There would not be much time.

The cave expanded to the innermost roots of the Great Plant Dalton, as predicted. There the creature sustained itself with its own magic, drawn through the life in the soil, but not expunged as at the surface. It was, relatively, a safer point of entry for Belvederes confrontation. He reached the centre, and couldn't help but marvel at the sight. Within a hollowed pocket of the mountain and spreading to and beyond the very peak, towering and impenetrable trunks gathered in a fortress of strength, intertwined, emitting the same green glow of life.

This Great Plant spoke with a single booming tone, as from all around: "Belvedere, I assume. The Great Lich. I should consider it an honour to meet you. Why do you trouble my lands so? Why can life not flourish here in peace, even if it must be so that the greater continents have fallen to death and ashes? Have we plants and creations not the right to exist?"

Belvedere stood defiant, maintaining composure "Creature, your so called life leaves all those who encounter it vulnerable, exposed to pain, to the torture of a finite existence. We are the natural state, the state of death. We require no maintenance, have no limits, and have neither beginning nor end. In spreading your toxic 'life' to us, you strip us of our freedoms, and our consciousness is forever stuck in your cycle of fear, pain and reincarnation."

He took a step forward, towards Daltons then-writhing roots.

"We asked to be left alone, but you refused, claiming the beauty of the circle of life was sufficient..."

"Belvedere!" Dalton boomed in reply, shaking the cave "We made no such attacks on your kind. None of the Great Plants could move, and you burned us. The gentle creatures kept to themselves and you made them your unwilling undead. You know not the beauties of life, Belvedere, but they are not your 'toxins' if you do not wish them. We could have lived in peace, apart, life and death, as..."

"...A balance? Enough."

Belvedere felt his energies shift, the world changing in intensity. "I will end this..."

"I'm afraid not. Look around you."

Belvedere span around. Hordes of bears, wild dogs, birds, humans, many creatures had sidled into the cave during their conflict, guarding the entrance. The light shining in appeared to be intensifying...

"We are at mid-day, you fool. Witness us all at full power..."

The earth itself trembled, as Dalton shone and flashed a powerful light, summoning more creatures to attack. With relative ease, Belvedere hurriedly blasted them aside, and gathering what remained of his energy in a desperate act, he lunged forth at the fibrous, ancient core of the final Great Plant.

In a furtive struggle, roots burned ferociously, but withered and grew to overcome the assault, breathing screaming life into Belvederes rotten frame, bones gave way, snapping and sprouting roots...he screamed as his shielding magic gave way...so too did Dalton roar as its roots were near destroyed by a fatal blast, nearly all connection lost with the earth...

---

"That's how it ends, they say..." Tamon recounted sadly to his boys Arandil and Big Dave. 

It was clear that Big Dave hadn't really been listening. He was probably hungry as usual. But Arandil was sharp enough to be inquisitive.

"...but then, who won?"

Tamon looked up "Neither side. What happened is what we have now. Look around us, the land flourishes. In fact with Daltons last efforts under the mid-day sun, and Belveres fate, many liches lost power. Unfortunately as a result of Belvederes influence, there is no more reincarnation. Our souls cannot pass through any Great Plant and be reborn. Once we had Dalton, but Belvedere consigns any soul to permanent death. We are still unsure about further liches. They have been strangely rare these last hundred years. Perhaps there is too much life in the air."

"...creepy.."

"It's a horrible story. Come on boys. We'll pay our respects at the top."