Legend of the Five Gears idea exploration (Name Pending)
Fall of House Promethea; Yuujin's lament.
House Promethea would cease to exist in year 1337 of their calender. The great war against the hive had turned disastrous. Already a dozen of the most powerful Saints had been consumed. Their spirits joined the host of flesh, extolling the virtues of their unholy union. And Hivenode Charon moved it's attention to the once grand House Promethea. Demanding surrender of the Saint in exchange for the lives of the peasants and servants within. Those who would resist would be consumed, their flesh joining the host of flesh as their spirits are wholly consumed. Needless to say the fortress quaked in fear, except for Yuujin, last Saint of Promethea.
Once House Promethea was one of the most powerful in the tribe of Rabbits. Joining the Northern house as a bastion of power and one of the secret gatherers of Heavenstone. Though as most would later call it, Hellstone. The curse upon the foul rocks sickening those who would be near it, and it was only through much sacrifice that Sakura Promethea broke it's secrets. The dangers of the Creator Child's curse found to be atomic energy, not the leftover power of her divine creation. But it was still a deadly close, and the once proud and strong scions grew weak and sickly in it's radiation.
Yuujin was the last remaining Scion, who was either blessed by the creator child herself, or powerful work from the Wood Guild had been done to keep him so healthy. A handsome rabbit who's lean, tall stature was known for breaking the heart of many a girl. His Saintliness was legendary too. Breaking many of the secrets of HavenStone and creating powerful steam turbines that would run for years without needing fuel or belching smoke. Although it's byproduct could be just as deadly, careful new storage techniques made it safer than ever. The area around his stronghold grew powerful with the divine energy of his reactors.
As summer's heat baked the lands and Hivenode Charon made it's threats, Yuujin calmly made his moves. He ordered his lands evacuated. His armies to protect his citizens. His most trusted advisors to carry out the information of his research. Especially that of unleashing celestial fire. Although it was not complete, he hoped another powerful saint could complete his work. Himself he set out in the most powerful fugue his forces had seen, creating a towering creation of metal and weapons. Powered by a compact HeavenStone reactor to let it fight for days at a time. He was determined to keep the fight between just between him and the hivequeen, as he was all it wanted.
Yuujin's Gambit; Battle of Hivenode Charon
Yuujin stepped into the powered suit. Soon towering in his armor like one of the old knights of legend. Dials turning as the reactor hummed to life, hissing proudly as steam powered actuators soon burst to life. Before him lied Hivenode Charon. The bug-like monstrosities blanketing the ground across all of the horizon. In his head the horrible mingling of voices, familiar and twisted alien by the hivemind's psychic link. "Yuujin, you stubborn fool. Abandon your attempts at resistance and all will be forgiven. Battle us and we will drag your torn and broken body to our queen, where you will join us none the less. Surrender now and we will keep things painless."
Yuujin growled his distaste, and answered his reply in a less subtle manner. Lifting the 13 barreled Gatling cannon towards the waves of screeching monsters, he let fly with all his ammo. One hundred and Eight shells a second arced into the onrushing tide. Tearing apart wave after wave with horrific results, yet for every one killed, a dozen more clambered over the ruined carcass. Soon the thousand shells were emptied, and the tide unstopped in it's chittering rush.
Unstrapping the Glaive of Seven Storms, he lifted it upwards. "I, Yuujin Promethea, scion of House Promethea and lord of these lands. Shall not let you stand and rampage through our ancestral rulings. Prepare yourself!" A deep, chuckling laugh the reply in his head. He launched himself forward, as powerful as 666 warriors as he slammed into the wave of chitinous claws and scrabbling teeth. His blade rose and fell, thunderous blasts tearing apart those who opposed him. Lightning blasting as sunset lazily drifted behind him. While before him, far in the distance, the bloated hive queen awaited his body, alive or dead, to join her own and to consume his soul fully.
Slowly but surely he pushed forward, spreading the tide of foul beasts before him. But like trying to cross a river by splashing the water away with a paddle, the onrushing tide slammed into his armored body again and again. His lapine paws shoving the controls as jerked forward. His hellbringer cannon dropped long ago. Free arm swatting them off his towering powersuit as the reactor belched steam steadily in protest. Pushing the power meter towards the limit as he swept aside the opposition. Only to hear their claws rending his army seconds later after each thunderous blast of his lightning glaive. The blade glowing white as it overheated under the onslaught.
Moments dragged on like hours as he marched to his foe. Thousands of the bug like monsters rended apart and sent to hell. But thousands more ripping into his armor. Soon cuts and burns welling up on him as they dug home. Warning horns blaring and dials clicking to red as the suit struggled. His prey soon in distance as the queens vile, bloated form grew close. Casually waddling towards him as he realized she likely felt the same. The hivemind powerful in his head, "Excellent my darling Saint, coming straight to me. You've done so little to my pets, I'll soon consume their wreckage and grow them anew. And you, your power will join mine, and we shall rule all of Creation together as one. A truly divine being, a Saint unlike anyone has ever seen!"
Yuujin suit powered into the grotesque bulk of the hivequeen. But his damaged actuators were unable to damage her. Steam bleeding from every wound as hydraulic fluid poured like blood on the ground. With a sickening crunch the front was ripped open with a casual pass of the tentacled grasp of the queen. Her slavering maw blasting foetid breath onto him. Rows of rending teeth eager to send him down to be consumed. His suit's powerful arm reached out to try and bash the offending beast, but the whole arm was torn out with a blaring cry of klaxons from his controls.
Her hivemind was mind-numbing, pushing his will down as he struggled to fight. Already she projected the horrible hell the other Saints had gone through that she herself had consumed. Their burning flesh and pained screams before death sealed their souls in hers. All was lost as she reached to pluck his mind free, whether she had to drag him out of his armored suit or rip his head clean free, it would matter little. He would be hers.
It was in that last moment when the secrets of celestial fire clicked in his mind. The pressure of her psychic emanations drifted aside as he fell into a deep fugue. He realized he had just enough to do it. And he screamed his defiance as his hands flew at the remaining controls, triggering and unlocking safeties as cooling fluid vented with a steaming hiss. The reactor's hum turned to a sharp whine, pushed beyond it's limits as he laughed maniacally. He was a dead man. But he would take the foul beast with him. His free arm grasping the bloated hivequeen as she tried to back away in alarm. "You will have me, and my secrets of celestial fire. As a matter of fact, you'll have them in 10.8 seconds. And together we shall see if there is a truth about the thousand hells that await us!"
Blight unleashed; The laments of Yuujin
The blast was recorded by the surviving refugees of Promethea as turning night into day briefly. Even kilometers away, the fiery heart of celestial fire was enough to blind dozens who were unfortunately looking in it's direction. The plume of death rose kilometers in the air, spreading into a ruddy mushroom shape. Heralding the most deadly weapon to be unleashed upon Creation in all time. Little would Yuujin have known the horrible curse he had released.
Years afterwards, House Promethea remains unclaimed. The crater of the blast is still visible, although time has swept away the rest of the battle's details. All except for the lingering curse of death. The lands irradiated beyond reclaiming, with something worse than the 'curse' that most worry about. A blight that not only sickens those it afflicts. It twists them into mutants and monsters, parodies of once beautiful life. The Saint's warping powers on physics turned into a horrible blight upon the world. Saints still theorize perhaps it's the combined power of such a saintly fugue and the hivemind's twisted, psychic state. Or just the creator child indeed cursed these weapons to bring sorrow to those who use them. But to this day nothing can live without horribly twisting in the abandoned, dusty ruins of Promethea.
But the plans for the celestial fire weapons moved to Capitol. Whereupon the most powerful Saints, desperate to find any edge against the devastating hivemind, heard the story of Yuujin. His one man victory against Hivenode Charon. And his research was given to those to spread to all the guilds. Sealing the doom of Capitol in their innocence to protect Creation. Their hubris with these powerful weapons would be fated about the Blightfall Wastes in what was the center of Creation, but that story will be for another time. For now great celebration was to be had, as the first victory was finally grasped, and hope was raised for all. But what goes up, must come down...