The Invasion
Dominaria was shaken to its core.
An ancient enemy once thought destroyed seemingly manifested from beyond, ready to exact vengeance for the sins of the past. The halls of history itself had reached out, angry and upset, voraciously taking souls that were initially spared when victory was declared.
A feathered wing brushed past duct-clogged tomes on a bookcase, hurriedly rushing to the other end of the vast library. The sound of her wings carrying her through aisles of shelves paled in comparison to the explosions that rocked the building, a sensation that would have staggered her, were not for being above the ground.
Eccelia called out, "All students to the eastmost classroom on the ground floor!" Whether her cry reached the ears of any survivors was of no import, at least, not now. The students here were capable enough to hold their own, at least until a professor could help dispatch any academy raiders. The most valuable action she could take now would be to go and protect the student body.
As she approached a shattered window, she saw with avian vision the force that had started to come down upon the school. Various amalgams of flesh and metal, contorted in ways that turned the gut and bristled the neck. One figure, a hulking, sickle-handed brute with no eyes drooled as it lumbered on. Another, a small goblinoid, had a mass of ooze and pus on its back, and scurried along the ground on all fours towards its target. No matter the build however, all of them had one goal: to breach the east wall of the Academy.
Opposing them was a set of formidable figures in robes similar to hers. Fellow professors, going through many of the same emotions as she did those two short years ago.
Fear. Anguish. Despair.
Back then it binded her. Crippled her. Brought her low, forcing her to rebuild what it had left of her life. She survived, but just barely. As her eyes fixed upon a younger student of hers, she wondered if they would be meet the same fate she had, or be consumed by disaster.
No. To deign to these thoughts would be to forsake the lives of all these people. She glided towards the front of the group, whizzing by all manner of teachers and students.
Eccelia landed firmly on the ground, and retold the story of the ancient times, when the ground of Dominaria was tainted by Phyrexia for the second time. Perhaps somehow, these vile creatures would remember the cold sting of being bested that their progenitors had felt.
As the various arcs of light from her rune manifested, frost crawled along the ground, towards the invading army.
-
Frost crawled along the ground, towards the invading army, entangling themselves in their legs, pseudopods, and other limbs. As their metallic bodies stiffened, groups of Keldons came forward, driving all manner of clubs and axes, spears and swords, flails and maces, into their targets. It was an effective plan, one that preyed on both the weakness of the Phyrexian constitution, as well as the Keldon passion to beat anything facing them into a fine mist. At this rate, the battle would over and done just in time to eat.
Of course, Solfrid would hardly be able to eat anything after this, not even the greens that she preferred. Even thinking of how the Kelds would messily devour their colos meat afterward gave her a sick stomach. It honestly wasn't unlike how the Tuskeri of her birth home would feast after their daring acts of "heroism," an event she witnessed once too many times.
As the various figures around her either were shattering their foes to pieces or were in turn shattered, Solfrid set her eyes on Riese, an elven woman who was presently beating a poor Phyrexian with its own arms. For most, including Solfrid, seeing someone performing that act would be offputting to say the least. But Riese wasn't just someone. For starters, describing her act of sadistic cruelty as a performance was no err, as her every movement exuded grace. Not in the large ways that most people show themselves, but rather in the small ones. The rhythm of how she rended steel with her bare hands, wound up with the torn-off appendage, and reacquainted it with its owner was a melody all of its own, the patterns and formulae of her violence as symmetrical and though-out as a snowflake gliding to the ground, resting upon a lone blade of grass.
Put together, these minute steps strung all together connected into the perfect storm of ligaments, brackets, and whatever else held together these foes. A crescendoing blizzard of brutality, an avalanche of animosity, carved a path along the battlefield in a way that no-one else could.
As she was thinking of the warrior in front of her a stray phyrexian raptor began a dive for her. But no sooner did she turn around and see a shock of feathers, as the subject of her thoughts grabbed it from the air and slammed it against the frozen earth with a cheeky wink in her direction.
As a lone, oil-slicked feather drifted in front of her, she blushed, the dawning realization slowly flushing her cheeks. It was the same reason that compelled her to stay amongst the atmosphere of violence around her.
She couldn't deny her feelings any longer, she was completely and totally smitten.
-
She was completely and totally smitten. Mea had never seen a cuter animal than the one in front of her. Its narrow, eyeless head looked up at her and tilted. It has a long, serpentine body, and two forelimbs that ended in semi-sharp blades. Based on the size of it, it was only just hatched.
Unfortunately for it, its existence couldn't have been timed any worse.
As the ichor-stained beast tromped on behind her, she looked back, watching as it split through the trees as it walked. She was unsure exactly what it was, but for now she didn't care. She just needed to run.
In a flash, she scooped up the newborn and started sprinting again. There wasn't a moment to waste. Her aquatic form helped her greatly as she passed through vines and roots unhindered, splitting chunks of her just for a moment before reconglomerating with her limbs.
She had to think of a plan. What could she do to try and stop this... whatever it was from getting her, the forest, and perhaps all of Otaria under it's giant stinky feet?
With a snappy hand movement she sculpted a nearby lizard that was scrambling into its burrow into a primordial energy that looked strikingly similar to her form. With a flick of her finger it raced towards her pursuer, shattering on its exterior.
Welp, that wasn't going to work.
If she had more time, she could try and concoct something bigger to fight it with. Maybe a piercing bolt of lightning, or a giant kraken to drag it into the depths of the ocean. But that kind of transmogrification took preparation, and this was meant to be a simple exploratory mission.
Suddenly, she broke through the treeline, before nearly stepping off of the cliff face. Miles below her there were sharp, jagged rocks that broke the waves crashing upon them, much like what would happen to her body if she fell atop them.
It wasn't a pleasant thought.
She turned around, and saw the fanged maw of the beast chasing them, it's unnatural pallor sloughing off of it every few seconds, leaving a mess of ink in its wake that was spreading out from the place it dropped. This was no ordinary beast, and it was making sure that she would die either way.
It was then the newborn, semi-slimy creature, began to vibrate, letting off a braying noise much louder than it should have been. It was then that Mea's gaze fell upon the isle far out from the coast, with a weird, domed structure long since ruined.
It was then the ground shook. Or, shook more than usual for a beast that was of the caliber chasing the odd duo.
A large bladed appendage about three times the height of the building burst from the top of the ruin, and dug into the ground. Another did the same, before dragging a gargantuan creature out of the old ruin that looked strikingly similar to the newborn that Mea held.
After a pregnant pause, the giant-baby brayed back, a sound that staggered the beast coming behind them. As it did, the newborn in Mea's arms began to grow, and it wasn't long until she got the idea, and did what any sane and rational person dealing with a rapidly expanding lizard-snake-insect would do.
She threw it.
As it left her grasp, it grew to half the size of the invading beast, before piercing what turned out to be a solid metal hull. As whatever mutation that had overtook it continued, the sound of steel tearing and bending filled the air, before the only thing left was a few thirds of what had previously been knocking down trees while chasing them. In its place stood the same being that Mea had happened upon just a few moments prior, sized up to gigantic proportions, its head now barely looking over the same split trees. As it settled, it gave a long look down to the amorphous researcher and tilted its head in the same cutesy way it had prior.
Mea had found a breakthrough in her research. And Dominaria shook to its core.
