Company and Calamity

"Hedrons. Opening the top will display the entire conquest visually or if you flip it over and open it, you can read the statistics to get the short version. Each hedron represents a different conquesting campaign. They are organized into four groups based on the strategy used. Ones are a blitz attack. Twos are more coordinated invasions. Threes are slow, territorial take overs. And fours are in the way way back." A hedron manifests on a shelf label with a one. "And there's another. It seems Mytrus will be returning shortly."

They all inspect one, Kyuubi takes a look at the newest one and displays the image, he begins to think to himself "how big is this place? And this entire room is dedicated to conquests? How many invasions have...are...will happen?" Kyuubi glances around him for a quick second at all the other shapes.

The AntiHyrax gets bored and goes far down the halway to the threes and begins to poke at hedrons. It occasionally opens up one to watch before switching to a different hedron.

Kyuubi looks down the hallway, all the way down, everyone was looking at different numbers. Life looked shocked, almost scared of what he was looking at, Sky looked almost angry and yet it looked as if he might be crying, Shade looked disappointed and would close his eyes, shake his head and look at the ground, Desire put her hands over her mouth, the Hollow, that showed little emotion at all, looked almost interested. Kyuubi slowly walked down the hall, looking at different invasions, some ones, a few twos, and a bit of threes, he was slowly marketing his way to the fours. Every time he watched one he became more and more disappointment in Hyrax until it slowly mounted into anger.

The AntiHyrax kept looking at hedrons and not paying attention to Kyuubi or the others. Kyuubi reaches the section of fours. It was smaller and lacked both shelves and hedrons. There were pedestals without label. Suspended just above each was a tiny crumbling orb. It seems unusual. Some were practically floating bits of rock. Then it dawned on Kyuubi. These were the remains of worlds, minimized to fit into the hall, and displayed. What kind of creature could possess such power capable of ripping holes through entire worlds?

Kyuubi was more than shocked to realize this and he stood for a moment, frozen. He slowly read about one of the invasion fours as he asked himself several more questions that disturbed him...

The AntiHyrax finally grows so bored it spins around in circles. Upon seeing Kyuubi at the fours, it freezes. It forgot to warn them that the hall wasn't for the faint of heart and the fours especially were hard to witness. Luckily the conquest couldn't be veiwed nor could the statistics be seen, but seeing an entire world on display like a trophy could make anyone sick.

Kyuubi, for the most part, just stood there looking at the renains of worlds. Kyuubi turned around and marched back to the rest of the group. Life is sitting on the ground, hugging his legs, "w-why..." he asks, his voice shaking "Why does he do it?" he looked at Kyuubi, "so many worlds..." Sky looks further down the hall where Kyuubi had come from, "so many people..." Sky's face had tears rolling down both his cheeks. Desire looked away from the one she was looking at "no more...I don't want to see any more." Desire walked away from the object marked with a two. Shade and the Hollow noticed the others and stepped over to them "I don't see why he does it." Shade crosses his arms and shakes his head. Kyuubi turned to antiHyrax and, almost forgetting that it wasn't Hyrax, said angrily "why do y-...he do this? What does he have to gain from this?" he then remembered Hyrax telling him about how he got his grand status, by conquering worlds....Kyuubi realized, "this is what Hyrax always does, isn't it. This is what he has, this is what hi is, and this is what he will do. Am I wrong bout that?" Kyuubi closed his hands into fists. He holds his hand out to Life and pulls him off of the floor.

"It is true that Hyrax achieved GrandStatus by conquering. I..." A tear forms in the copy's eyes. "I will take you to him. It will be best." The copy wipes the tear away and exits the room. It stumbles before regaining its footing. The copy hesitates before looking back. "I feel you all would receive a better explanation from the source rather than a mere scion."

They all turn to the copy and started walking after him. They followed him out of conquest hall, all of them with different emotions on their faces. Sky wiped the tears off of his face and sniffed.

The aspect leads the group to a staircase near the entrance. the climb for a bit before the stairs curve and spiral into impossible angles. They don't seem to have any problem moving, but the view is disorienting. They eventually find themselves walking upside-down through a library. Shelves seemed to extend endlessly above and below them. A copy of "Cooking with Vikings" can be seen on a shelf nearby. The copy stops and stares at a shadow on the wall. It motions it forward and the group starts to chase it. They eventually stop at a turn in the path leading out of the library and right-side-up. "Fancy seeing you here." The shadow swirls on the wall. "Fine then. Be that way." The aspect chuckles. The shadow on the wall seems alive. Two blank eyes form in the center of the mass. "Fair enough. Well good seeing you again." The shadow seems to chuckle before disappearing completely. The aspect continues down the hall. "Almost there. I can even see the entrance." The group passes a medium room. Upon gazing inside, one can see a very injured Hyrax laying in a bed. Perhaps this was a hospital... In a castle... The aspect pays no attention and continues to walk past.

Desire looks at the Hyrax as they pass by "that was the other Hyrax wasn't it?the one from the other dimension right?" Desire gestures back to the hospital room where the wounded Hyrax was as they kept walking.

The copy stops before a door. "He's inside. Good luck." The copy seems to sprint off. Unusual, but then again, this was a copy of Hyrax to some degree. The room was larger than most. Large windows lined the walls. Light somehow managed to pour through despite this room being in the center of the castle. Pillars lined the walls. It seemed the pillars were large enough to provide cover should things get out of hand. Seated in a throne capable of making a dragon mildly impressed, was the HyraxColossus. It slept soundly, resting its head on a fist and holding its ax in the other. Strangely enough, the light that would usually come from its core was not shining through. Waking it is risky, but calculated caution comes with high rewards.

Kyuubi looks at this new Hyrax, he begins to think about how different he looks when he has changed his form. Kyuubi and the rest of the group approach slowly, what were they gonna say? They wondered to themselves how they should start, clearly angering Hyrax in this stage could have dire consequences but what they had witnessed in conquest hall was monstrous and horrific. Kyuubi and Sky stand slightly ahead and behind of one another but they are the closest to the front. Sky paused for a second to think about how this will go, he sniffed again and then looked up at Hyrax and called out his name "Hyrax?". Although he meant to say his name it sounded a little more like a question but that could have been because of the shakeyness of his voice. They all slowly looked up to see Hyrax and awaited his response, Kyuubi looked around at the group before looking up to look at Hyrax. His gaze slowed down around the place where there should have been a glowing spot but then continued.

The Hyrax shifts. Its head moves from its hand and crashes into the armrest. The light does not turn on, yet Hyrax is moving. It yawns, though its voice is strange. It was small and barely audible. Hyrax scratches its shoulder, but the metal hand scraping the metal shoulder makes a most unpleasant noise. "..." Hyrax shifts again before rising to its feet. "Is... Is someone there?" Hyrax grips his ax, but it's obviously shaking. It also seems Hyrax can't see the group. Unfortunately, it starts to move forward, albeit slowly. It nearly stomps on the group.

"Hyrax!" the Hollow says walking in front of Sky and Kyuubi. Kyuubi looks up at Hyrax's comeing foot, "Hyrax. Whoa! Hay Hyrax!" Kyuubi holds his hands up with his palms faceing Hyrax "Hyrax Down here!" Kyuubi shouts up to him, the group backs up and some of them turn and leap out of range of Hyrax's stomping range, all except the Hollow who seemed just as happy to see the underside of Hyrax's shoe as it would be to see his face. It remained looking up at the bottom of his foot which was directly above it.

Hyrax stops and slowly lowers its foot to the floor, away from any of the smaller creatures. "W-who's there?" Hyrax seems nervous. "You'll have to c-come closer. I can't s-see very well." Hyrax crouches down to see better, but is facing the wrong way.

Kyuubi runs towards Hyrax "Hyrax OVER HERE!" he shouts cupping his hands in front of his mouth to amplify the sound. The Hollow bumps his head affectionately against Hyrax's foot and it says his name again. The group had backed quite a distance away from Hyrax and a couple of them were hideing behind some of the pillars as cover. Kyuubi shouted again "OVER HERE!"

Hyrax scoots over to the group. He's very close now. Many details of the suit can be seen. Like how damaged it is. Or that there is nothing in the gaps between each piece of armor. This was indeed Hyrax, but it was empty. Did Hyrax never actually have a body inside these suits? The only thing inside the suit was the core, but it still did not shine. "Oh hello." Hyrax giggled. "You all look funny. What's your name?" Hyrax's voice is still small. It sounds young even, contrary to the deep, booming voice normally heard.

"Hyrax!" the Hollow shouted up to him and it came to stand with the rest of the group in front of Hyrax. Kyuubi and the group looked confused, but Kyuubi the most, "Hyrax, it's me. Kyuubi. You don't remember me?" Kyuubi tilted his head. Shade stepped up next to him "he sounds like a child. he said quietly "Um...Are you all right?" Sky asked looking up and down Hyrax, studying him. The group slowly approach.

"A bit tired, but then anyone would if they've been asleep for the past millennia." Hyrax sits on the floor. "I don't seem to recall meeting you all, but you all see to be very familiar to me." Hyrax chuckles. "What have you been up to?" Hyrax seems to have spoken to itself. "Never mind that. You all seem to have come here with a purpose. How might I help?"

They look at each other in confusion and back at Hyrax, "first, do you know anything about...conquest...hall?" it almost seemed painfull for him to say it's name, it was hard to be angry when you were this confused. Sky wanted to be sure that this Hyrax had actually had any knolage of where he was.

"Yeah that's..." Hyrax mutters to himself and waves his hand around. "That way." Hyrax points in the direction where the group entered the throne room. "Of course then you have to go through a library and up and down some stairs and the trip isn't very exciting."

"We've been there" Desire said looking at the ground. Life looks up at Hyrax and his voice shakes slightly "w-why, why d-do you do it?" Life asked and wondered weather Hyrax knew what he was talking about "all those people..." he said looking down and closing his eyes.

"It's... Complicated..." Hyrax sighs. "Simply put it: to create peace." Hyrax chuckles. "I know what you're thinking: 'You can't make peace through war!'. I designed four invasion plans to force worlds to united together. Plans one through three are simple in design. The fourth plan was one I did not think I would ever have to resort to, but a world which cannot know peace, must simply be removed." What sounds like soft cries echoes from Hyrax. "I am not opposed to treaties and tribute. In fact, I have made a push for that. However, the well being of my kin must come first."