Twilight of the Alari (Story)

[Velaala]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on this forum, but I thought it would be a nice place to share a story I've been writing! It can probably fit in a few of the other forums, but I figure this is the best place, considering the overall theme is physical change, so... Yep!

There ARE pictures with it, but I don't know how to put them up here, yet...

Any comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated it! Thank you!


Part One - Light


"It's not going to hold! We have to stop it, now!"

"There's no turning back at this point! We're past the point of no return, if we fail here, nobody will make it out alive, not a single person!"

The ground shook from the massive surge of released energies. The crystal could no longer serve as the sole focal point for all that spiritual power. It was going out of control.

"What are you doing?! Get out of there! You'll never make it out in time!"

She didn't listen. The Vela'Alari had to continue, failure would mean certain doom for all her people. This had all been possible because of her in the first place; the burden fell on her to make it happen, no matter the cost.

And so, she leapt directly into the swirling maelstrom of light, which immediately enveloped her entire body in a blinding flash of chaotic energy.

Vela'Alari would come, no matter the cost.

"Are you sure this is going to work? We can't allow a single error for an event as complicated at this one, Neiame, as I'm sure you know."

She sighed and nodded slowly. She had spent decades working to make this day happen; she would be ready for it.

"Continue the preparations. I've already sent all the emissaries, and received approval from the primes all over the world. Everyone will be ready. Have you gathered all the necessary materials?"

The red-skinned man nodded respectfully, motioning to some glowing runes on the ground.

"This is all we need, isn't it? I've already sent the acolytes to prepare the area for the ritual, if all goes well, everything should be in order by tomorrow, which should give us plenty of time to prepare further."

"Excellent. Go warn Ellicia, and tell her to start the communion. For this to happen, everything must be tuned correctly."

She smiled calmly as she looked over the runes, tracing her finger beneath those already present, and adding a new series of markings.

"Make sure you don't forget the focusing crystal, Caeil. I'll see you again soon."

The man bowed respectfully and left the room, leaving her to her own thoughts. What if it were to go wrong? The Vela'Alari had never been attempted before. Similar rituals had been performed previously, she had even participated in some herself, and even led some others, but none nearly as encompassing as this one. This was the ultimate ritual for her people, if the summoning was to be unsuccessful, not one soul would make it through, and her people would surely go extinct, and risk being utterly erased from existence.

She shook her head and stepped outside to clear her thoughts. She would go through this to the end. She was High Priestess of the Alari people; she held the utmost responsibility in this matter. Her claws dug into the ground as she walked, absent-mindedly brushing her white hair out of her face. She smiled at the passing people as she went on her way, not a single altercation to be seen in the bustling streets of the city. She sat at a bench near the temple's park, taking a moment to reflect on what she was putting at risk.

The Alari were quite a strange people. They were similar in shape to Earth's humans, while being extremely different. Neiame's own skin was a dark, purplish blue, a colour which was not uncommon for her people, whose skin tones could range from darkest blue of the sky to the hottest colours as those of their twin orange and yellow suns. This same variance of colour could be seen in her people's hair, though like humans, this colour generally faded with age.

Anatomically, the Alari were very similar to humans, with hairless bodies, hands, etc., but with a very great sexual dimorphism. While the women were generally more feline in appearance, with clawed feet and a thick, bushy tail, the men were more goat-like, with hooves instead of feet, a pair of horns on their foreheads, and a thick yet hairless tail. While Neiame's own claws were rather small and unintimidating, she had always been quite proud of her tail, especially in her youth, as the largest tails were considered a symbol of beauty among women.

Unlike humans, and many other races, however, the Alari were a very peaceful people. While very simple on a technological level, their spiritual strength was one of the most advanced. The rituals she had taken part in, as well as the one about to come, depended on this spiritual energy. It was a sharing of minds, somewhat of a mental union of two or more people as one. This served to bolster the spiritual power expended, potentially using an extremely vast amount of energy.

However, this did not mean that the Alari shared a hive mind of sorts. Unlike humans, the Alari had minds which functioned on many levels. More specifically, this meant that one individual could take part in a communion ritual, sharing their mind with others, while each also retains control of their own individual mind. Similar to telepathy, this meant the possibility of communicating through the power of the mind, while also creating a potential for powerful rituals.

Such was the case of the Vela'Alari. This ritual required extremely vast energies, so that the entire Alari people had to participate, from the withering elder to the newborn child. The complications weren't in the logistics of the operation; the results of this ritual were of a nature that no Alari could refuse. The problem was found very precise tuning that was necessary for such a large population participating in the same communal ritual.

Neiame sighed as she thought this over once more. Was it plausible? Could an entire people, thousands of individuals, beat their hearts in unison, even for such a short time? Would the result be worth it?

She resumed walking, trying to cast the doubts from her mind.

[Velaala]

Part Two - Union

Everything was ready. The area had been consecrated as per Neiame's specifications. The gate had been constructed exactly as needed, complete with the focusing crystal atop the pedestal. The summoning of the Vela'Alari was at hand. She had everything she needed herself, as did her two assistants. As High Priestess of the Alari, she held the entire responsibility of this operation's success, and she simply could not allow an entire people to vanish because of a careless mistake.

She nodded and closed her eyes; an act immediately mimicked by Caeil and Ellicia, and started to focus her mind into the communal mind of the Alari. The three of them would first serve as the catalyst to the whole ritual; they would first start the call which would cause the rest of the people to begin. When it would become strong enough, it would sweep over to the remaining few, which for some reason, chose or weren't able to participate, and they would become part of the ritual themselves. Such as a wave washing over a beach, leaving the sand perfectly aligned, the Vela'Alari would bring each individual perfectly in tune.

She had often wondered if it was too much. This had always seemed part of her people's instincts, their destinies. Their world couldn't handle them anymore, but was this the only way out? It had often been foretold by the elders before her, but was their fate truly fixed and unchangeable?

"Begin the second part."

Both Caeil and Ellicia nodded, redirecting the flow of energy from an imperceptible destination straight into the gate's heart, the focusing crystal. The spiritual current was so strong she could have even been able to see it, had she opened her eyes. Neiame's task was the hardest part of the entire ritual. That is to say, Caeil and Ellicia's certainly weren't simple, but her own involved bringing all the energies to the same place. She had to serve as the beacon for the entire ritual. In other words, she had the most control over the act, but this also meant the greatest responsibility, and the greatest danger.

It was beginning. She could feel the communion's effect begin to manifest themselves. As each individual sent their spirit to the gate, it would pass through Neiame and her two assistants. There was nobody she could have trusted more for such a delicate procedure, she had known them both their entire lives. If anybody could endure such incredible spiritual strain, it was surely them.

"It's not going to hold! We have to stop it, now!"

Caeil let out a pained scream. Had she misjudged them? Was it her fault? Had age taken such a toll on her abilities?

"There's no turning back at this point! We're past the point of no return, if we fail here, nobody will make it out alive, not a single person!"

The ground shook from the massive surge of released, untamed energies. The crystal could no longer serve as the sole focal point for all that spiritual power. It was going out of control.

"What are you doing?! Get out of there! You'll never make it out in time!"

She didn't listen to Ellicia. The Vela'Alari had to continue, failure would mean certain doom for all her people. This had all been possible because of her in the first place; the burden fell on her to make it happen, no matter the cost. If she had planned something wrong, she would do what she would have to do to fix it.

And so, she leapt directly into what had grown the swirling maelstrom of light, which immediately enveloped her entire body in a blinding flash of chaotic energy.

"Neia-"

Vela'Alari would come, no matter the cost.



Neiame opened her eyes. Was she truly alive? Had it not failed? Had it possibly even succeeded?

No. She recognized this place. This was her temple. Everything was at its place, just as she remembered it. The touch, the feel, the smell... Everything was the same as before. She was alive, so much was certain.

If she was alive, why was she alone? Where were Caeil and Ellicia? She widened her eyes in terror. Could they have?...

She sat up, which took her quite a bit of effort. No sign to the left, none to the right. It was as if they had never existed. Everything else was just as she remembered it. The gate, the crystal, the altar, the temple itself, everything was in pristine condition. Just as before.

Could the Vela'Alari have succeeded?

She tried getting up, slowly, and using her tail to help herself up, as she had always done. Yet something felt wrong. She had pressed it against something that should not have been there.

Her eyes widened in shock at what she saw. She had two tails. Her own tail had not simply gotten cut in half; she quite literally had a second tail! She could easily tell which was "hers", as it was the one that responded just as it always had. Trying to use the other, however, mostly ended up with her shaking her bottom strangely and getting a few unexpected reactions. She did the only thing she could think of: she laughed, letting the walls of the temple resonate the echo throughout the halls. Had anyone been there to see her, she would have lost her rank as High Priestess in an instant.

It was a nervous laugh, however. What was this thing? Why did it feel so strange? Why was...

She froze in place for a few seconds.

She was holding and feeling that new tail with six hands. That definitely explained why it felt so different, yet it only raised more questions. She tried to think and recollect her thoughts, and the only conclusion she could come to made her fall against the ground in shock.

Vela'Alari had come. And she had been left behind.

Of all her people, she was the only one which would ever see the twin suns once more. Was this her penance? Is this how she would have to atone for her mistakes?

She tried to relax. At least it was just her. Had it failed, there would be death. Everywhere.

She decided she would see just how she had been affected. With much effort, she crawled out of the temple's main hall, into her own private quarters. She felt extremely heavy and weary, her four new arms mimicked the movements of her original two, yet they were more of a burden than a help. What she saw in the mirror as she sat up shocked her.

The first thing that she noticed was the colours. Her purplish blue skin was back to the soft sky blue, while her hair had reverted to its original golden colour, the very same as her eyes. These were the colours of her youth. The fact that she didn't have a single wrinkle left only worried her some more, not so much because of the results, but because of the reason. What had happened? Had she been sent back in time, somehow?

No. This was the temple as it was during the Vela'Alari. And what was with her arms? They all looked the very same, just as her own were during her youth. Toned yet soft, strong and gentle, as she had been when she was still a cleric of battle. Back when her people had enemies. She tried lifting one. The other two on the side followed. Moving the fingers around led to the same results.

She looked at the tattered remains of her robes. The sides had been torn open by the arms, implying they hadn't grown gently. Maybe this explained the occasional soreness she could feel. She narrowed her eyes as she was inspecting her clothing. Had she always been this large, even in her youth? She reached to herself and gasped loudly.

If her arms felt sore, these things sure did. Which much effort, she had managed to take off the remains of her robes, ripping it at times of frustration, as she just couldn't seem to get it around the new limbs. Just as she thought, her chest was quite different as well. These had to be at least the size of her head! And there were four of them? That sure explained how sensitive they suddenly felt. If nothing else, at least her new breasts made her smile. She might be a freak, but at least they looked nice.

After an unnecessarily long time inspecting her torso, visually and physically, she finally looked at what else had changed. Horns and hooves. Only males had those, had she?... She gasped and brought a hand between her legs. She sighed in relief. This had not changed. But her hooves weren't like those of the males. They had large, thick hooves, while her own were thin and slender. Just like her horns.

This was when she realized what had happened. She counted her limbs. Six arms, four breasts, two tails. Hooves and horns. Her youth. Caeil and Ellicia, along with herself, had that very same number of limbs for themselves. Caeil was a male, with the horns and the hooves. Ellicia was young.

She was all alone, but she smiled nonetheless. The Vela'Alari had indeed succeeded, if not the way she had planned. The ascension had happened, with the spirits of the Alari leaving their bodies, to transcend to another plane of existence. One where physical turmoil and the shackles of age were but a memory. A plane of existence where her people could finally survive.

She had succeeded in mending the rift of the ritual, but at a very great cost. She would never ascend as her people had, she would be forever alone.

Vela'Alari, the twilight of the Alari, had come. Just as the suns set over the horizon into the unknown, her people had vanished into darkness.

Despite having lost everyone and everything, Neiame smiled. She had paid the price to save her people. She had become the Vela'Alari.

[Velaala]

Part Three - Exile

Staring at herself in her private quarter's mirror, Neiame sighed. She had to do something. Had others also been left behind? Had they also been transformed as she had?

She certainly felt disconnected from the rest of the Alari, yet at the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was not alone. The Vela'Alari's objective was to sever the connection between the Alari's souls and upper minds, the part of their minds which could commune with one another, from their bodies and lower minds, their individual minds. They weren't dead, she was sure of that much. They had merely ascended to another place of existence. "Merely".

She had missed her own ascension.

The saddened face looking back at her was disconcerting. Was it the expression of despair that lingered on her features, or was it simply because of the youth and energy that she had regained? Bringing her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, she gasped fearfully as something grabbed the side of her breast. The two on the same side, more specifically. Her second and third hand, following the first as usual, had moved up at the same time. This made her chuckle at her reaction; had she really been frightened by her own fingers? Her own fingers, which seemed to enjoy squeezing and pressing some more, as if on their own?...

She had to tug on herself a little to stop groping her own chest. It felt nice, yes, but it was as if she couldn't even control them, as if they had a mind of their own! Moving the upper ones would make the lower four follow every time she tried, save for one minor but inconvenient problem; were they to ever touch her chest, they would grope away. At least wasn't the worse that could happen.

The high priestess - did that title even mean anything anymore? - slowly got up after a short while of experimenting with herself. This took quite some effort, considering the added arms and breasts added quite some weight to her upper body. She did have her second tail, which helped counterbalance this, however. The thought had never occurred to her at that moment that it was because of their tails that alari women could stand to have such naturally large chests, unlike humans, whose center of balance was harder to adjust with such a size.

She almost fell over a few times because of her hooves. She had no claws anymore, meaning she had nothing equivalent to toes. Her balance depended entirely on how she held her body. Luckily for her, the new tail was relatively easy to control, unlike her arms. Granted, she could only move it in the same way as her original (she knew which was which), but at least she felt she had full control over it. Her arms, for their part, felt the same way as when she slept on one; she could move them, but it felt more like heavily dragging them along.

Taking very slow and careful steps, she made her way out of the temple, each hoof step resonating loudly throughout the empty hall. Previously, this would have taken her but around a minute from where she was, even despite her old age. While she did feel much more energetic and strong, she was surely not used to this modified body.

Reaching the entrance, she leaned against the archway at what she saw. She stared out the horizon in terror, it was something she had never expected.

The entire city was empty. Lifeless. A hollow husk of what had been a glorious civilization.

Where were their bodies? There would surely have been citizens outside the temple, the most fervent of the Alari! Why did the streets appear entirely deserted?

Sitting down on the steps and slowly making her way down, Neiame closed her eyes and thought. This wasn't possible. The bodies had to be somewhere.

Of course! How had she forgotten? She slapped her forehead in embarrassment to herself, which caused her to also smack her chin and an upper breast, which promptly started to be squeezed. Grumbling, she pulled herself straight again and looked around, heading down the streets. The homes and the large centers of activity, anywhere people could gather!

First home entered, empty. Second home, empty as well. Such was the case for the entire street. The entire place was a ghost town, a relic of the past. At least everything was in its place in each of the houses, no half-cooked meal, no half-scrawled runes, everything was neatly ordered, just as when someone was leaving for a long time. Indeed, this had happened, albeit it was a very long time, one that would most likely outlast the world itself.

By then, she had started getting used to her new body. It wasn't new as much as different. Everything was hers; everything was more or less the same as before, while being something else entirely. She was even starting to be able to move her tails around independently of each other, though for balance reasons, this was not always a good idea.

She entered the communal hall, a large building used for public reunions. One might compare this place to a city hall used by humans, yet the Alari had no need for leaders or bickering. Instead, this was more for tuning the upper minds of each individual, specifically to avoid conflict, the building built for the purpose of facilitating the process. Unlike the temple, which was once the spiritual center of the entire Alari people, this was only meant for the city.

It was therefore quite ironic that Neiame would think of looking there, after an event meant to separate the upper mind from the physical realm. She was not surprised to find it empty, though this shattered her hopes further. Where were all the bodies? Had nobody else really survived?

The questions racing through her mind, Neiama passed out from shock and desperation.

"This world can't sustain us any longer. We've vanquished all our enemies, and our resources are running dry."

"There has to be some other way, Arbiter! Think of the ramifications this could have! There has to be another source! What if we receive more invaders?"

"How long would that take? Can we risk starvation while we wait and hope for another arrival? We've drained the nearby worlds!"

"Is this worth a civil war? What good would come from that? We'd just keep dwindling our numbers until one of us survives. An invasion could take centuries."

"But that's never been attempted before! How are you so sure this is better? All the smaller scale experiments have ended terribly!"

"I've looked into everything. I've been part of those terrible experiments before you were born, and every single one ended up successfully. Do you really think I'd try doing something that might endanger-"

"That's enough, both of you! We're going to trust her with this, we have no choice! Neiame, do what you have to do. Our future is in your hands now. Lead it well."

"I really hope I did... Will I ever know?"

Neiame laughed sadly as she looked at her hands, all six of them. She closed her fingers and opened them again. It was as if she was just starting to get feeling in her new hands.

"Are they really mine?"

"Who else's could they be?..."

"I suppose so, but..."

She froze. Who was she talking to? The room was empty. The entire city was empty. Not only could she see it, she could feel it. The mental connection to the rest of her people had been cut clean. Yet she had heard the voice. It was unrecognizable, just like one in a dream, but... She was awake. The squeezing at her chest while she rubbed her eyes could confirm this.

She slowly got back up. The ritual had left the lower minds on this world. Just like the bodies, had they vanished? Had they gone somewhere else?

"Is it really that hard to figure out?"

"I don't know."

"Where are you going now?"

"I don't know."

"Go take a look at my home, remember where it was?"

"I don't... Yes I do."

She walked on, as more chattering seemed to pick up in the back of her mind. Had it been there all along and she just hadn't noticed, or had it really just started? She reached the place.

"Don't you look a little odd with all that stuff?"

"I..."

"At least it should come in handy!"

She tried to ignore the awkward laugh. She knew this place.

"Why do you only have that many? Shouldn't there be more weird stuff, too?"

She thought of this for a moment, looking down at her hands. Why did she only have this? Why hadn't she grown more legs too? The Vela'Alari had included all her people, had Caeil and Ellicia been the only two to-

She suddenly fell over as her weight suddenly shifted. There was a loud grunt as she closed her eyes, having hit her head on the ground quite hard. What was going on?! What was this sudden pain?!

"Oh, this is bad..."

"Is it? I think it fits the rest."

"What do you think, Neia?"

"QUIET!!"

She let out a scream, silencing all the voices. The pain was unbearable enough already; she couldn't stand to hear some mundane casual talking in the background. A table suddenly fell over her, which forced her to hold out her arms protectively.

As bad as this was, it was nothing to what was happening to her body. Just as she had been wondering a few seconds ago, it seemed her body had forgotten certain elements of her companions' bodies. She writhed around in pain, not caring much about the table's corner digging into her stomach. This was nothing next to the flesh and bones reforming themselves, her spine slowly extending outward, from which started to grow out a second pair of legs. The flesh just appeared to form from thin air, gradually moving downwards, first a second "stomach", followed by the hips. She let out a blood-curdling scream as bones cracked and reformed, eventually growing the thighs, knees, and so forth down to a new pair of hooves.

When the growth had finally stopped, she was curled around one of the fallen table's legs, unable to move either of her own four legs, a result of the incredible pain and numbness that had settled in after a few seconds only. She had her eyes shut tight, panting heavily, but this was not over. This amount of legs only accounted for two people, there was still one left. The pain intensified as the process repeated itself once more.

"Finally awake. That seemed quite painful."

"She deserves it, after what she did."

"She's stuck down here, go easy!"

"How does she know if we made it or not?!"

Neiame opened her eyes once more, staring at a wall. Was it finally over? The aching pain at her stomach reminded her of the situation; however there was more than simply a table over her body. Her sudden growth spurt had not only moved some furniture, it had quite literally kicked a hole through the wall, with her hindmost pair of legs sticking outside the relatively small home. It was hard enough to walk with hooves, now she had to try with six of them?

"I give up..."

"What?! You lazy little... Get back up!"

"Calm down, she'll be fine!"

With quite some effort, she pushed the table off herself, seeing nothing wrong with the ease at which she almost sent it crashing into an opposite wall. Feeling unable to move any of her legs in the slightest, she stayed on her side on the ground, trying to twist around just enough to be able to stare up at the stars, through the window in the ceiling.

"I did it, see?"

"I suppose so. But you still made a mistake."

"How can I be sure?"

"I don't know. That's something I'll have to figure out someday, right?

Yeah, but I don't think I ever will.

It's entirely my fault, no matter what happened."

She sighed softly, and turned her head to the side. She did look younger. She didn't like having three different aspects of her personalities split like that, though. She looked the other side.

"I wonder if I'll start bickering with myself, now...

I don't see why not!

Now, that wouldn't be very pleasant, would it?"

The throbbing pain between her shoulders was nothing compared to this. All three heads closed their eyes at the same time, and let out a single, combined sigh.

"I am alone."

[Velaala]

Part Four - Shift

Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye? How aware of variations in heat waves can that eye be? Imagine a world alive with incomprehensible objects and shimmering with an endless variety of movement and innumerable gradations of color. Imagine a world before the 'beginning was the word'.

-Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on Vision

The stars were bright. Had they always shone this much? Had there always been this many? Was she simply dividing her focus in different directions, allowing her to take notice of different things?

Neiame had indeed become quite strange. Not only had she lost all connection to the Alari, her body had become a bizarre remainder of her people's physical appearance. Had she become male or female? Had she truly become an amalgam of her people's worldly forms, which had been left behind during the ascension?

Using her original pair of arms, she slowly pushed herself up in a sitting position, resting her back against the nearby wall. Her lower body had gained so much weight, she wouldn't even dream of trying to move this around, as it simply laid on its "back", the three pairs of legs stretched out towards the front.

Staring at her lower body, and its three pairs of genitals, Neiame's mind raced. Caeil was male. She had no male features along her legs, excluding the hooves which had replaced her claws. Not only this, these were all her legs, they were not simply a strange combination of bodies, they were an extension of her own original body. Could this explain the pair of horns on each of her heads? She smiled at the way she could see herself without the use of a mirror, a rather ephemeral advantage considering her situation, but an advantage nonetheless.

She leaned forward a little, but quickly realized there was little use. Her tails were much too far at the back of her taur-like body. However, she could still move them around, which made her smile again. She could place them between her legs, hugging the tips gently against her chest. She may have no clothes (none would fit her, anyway), but this didn't mean she couldn't cover up! The fact that nobody would be there to see her never crossed her mind, at least distracting her from her loneliness.

She couldn't stay like this forever, however. She would have to move eventually, and that meant learning to use these legs. She had already begun getting accustomed to her new arms, after all, minus the occasional groping. Her heads, for their part, hadn't needed any sort of learning, they had just been there. She could see, she could talk, and she could breathe. As long as this was done simultaneously, it was as if nothing happened. The problem arose when she tried doing different things. These were three different perspectives at the very same time.

Using her hands, she gently rubbed her original pair of legs, giving them as best of a massage as she could. The numbness was starting to leave her second and third pair of arms, allowing her to help herself with these, instead of simply dragging her hands limply across her skin. She didn't want to let these four have fun with her lady parts, who knew how her body would react?

Given enough time, she could start to feel her legs again. Not only her first pair, but all three, moving as one, but moving! With much effort, she managed to roll on her front, and eventually get on her knees. She nearly fell on her side while doing so, but managed to hold her balance using her hands. Slowly, she tilted herself to the side... And set one hoof on the ground. That is, she set the three hooves on the same side flat against the floor, the extra legs mimicking the first. She did this again for the other side, a wide smile on her face. She was getting it.

She managed to get up easily at this point, which in itself caused problems. Had she shattered more of the wall she had broken earlier while transforming, when she stood up just then? She twisted her torso around as best as she could, to try and see behind her while moving her lower body. She was surprised at the ease she could do this, and even more so when she saw the pieces of rubble on her bottom. She blushed and smiled innocently, giving a little shrug, and then chuckled lightly as she immediately remembered she had no one to apologize to.

The former priestess closed her eyes and sighed dizzily as she felt the hunger take her. Her body swayed around as a feeling of vertigo overcame her, yet it immediately faded, as she realized what had just happened. She had moved her legs around without trying, and had stayed standing. Maybe this would come to her naturally.

She could not ignore her hunger, however. First, she would need to travel out of the city, to reach the farms. She wouldn't need much of this, however, as she would need to find another source of energy, one to feed her spiritually. Without the presence of more Alari, she could not subsist on the symbiotic bond between her people which had managed to keep them alive. It had worked, but it had not been enough, hence the necessity of the Vela'Alari.

What source would she find, then? Physical nourishment was easy to come by, and with enough spiritual nourishment, she could pass on it entirely. But with such a strain on her body, she would need a large source of energy to survive, and quickly. She closed her eyes and tried to think. Her people had not received invaders to feed on in a very long time. Had all the neighbouring peoples grown so fearful of the Alari? Had they learned that a species of spiritual parasites could not be invaded, and would simply annihilate their enemies by draining their energy?

This had not been a problem when the Alari were young. Just as a farm can feed a small family with no harmful consequences, the Alari could feed on their neighbouring species in a symbiotic relationship. However, as Neiame's people grew in population, the once unnoticeable, symbiotic spiritual drain had turned the Alari's friends into enemies, which led to disastrous consequences, the utter decimation of entire races. The Alari's strength had been their downfall. There was no source able to feed such a powerful behemoth of a species; it would devour itself with its own hunger.

The Vela'Alari had indeed saved her people from its own vampiric nature, and possibly saved many other races which could have possible come into contact with the Alari in the future. But what about her? Would Neiame perpetuate the cycle of destruction which had started with the birth of her people? Where would she find a source of energy she could feed on, without giving herself more and more enemies?

She had been so deep in thought that she had not realized the effects of her search for energy. Extending her field of spiritual perception as far as she could, to see if she could sense anything nearby, her body had slowly grown to shatter the remains of the house around herself. This had indeed extended her reach to the point she could sense a potential species in a nearby world.

The shock was great once she opened her eyes once more. While she had previously been standing in a rather small house, she was now standing with her hoof in where it was previously located. From her height and size, she could see the entire city. The tiny homes which held one or two rooms would now easily fit in her palm. A single of her fingers could now be compared to her original height, as it was barely shorter than the houses' doorways.

If she had planned to rest in the city for a few days, she now had to give up on this idea. Her growth had resulted in quite a large amount of destruction, her hooves dragging valleys of increasing size along the ground as they had grown and spread apart. Any buildings unfortunate enough to stand in the way had simply been tore down. She was extremely grateful none of her people would ever see this world again, let alone see the monster she had become.

It never occurred to her that this sudden growth involved much more flesh than the equivalent of her own, Caeil's, and Ellicia's, even combined. She was too busy trying to sense the source of the spiritual energy. The added size not only seemed to extend her perceptive reach, but also appeared to ease the control of her new body. It took her a moment or two to realize she was moving around slowly, placing one of her gigantic hooves down on the ground at a time, carefully avoiding stepping on any other buildings. What confused her most is that she was looking down with her left and right heads while doing this, to see where she stepped, while still searching for energy.

It then suddenly struck her. It should have been obvious, but she had refused to think of it. It was not only her two companions' bodies she had absorbed within her own, but her entire people. Her people had shed their physical forms and parts of their minds to ascend to this new level, but she had remained behind, and drawn it all to herself. Is this what she had been sensing as she grew? Had she simply materialized more and more of her people's bodies within her own, adding to her already unusual form?

No. She could still sense it. It wasn't related to the Alari in any way. While she could feel her race's presence, it was a hollow shell of what her civilization had been, while this energy she felt was clearly something else. Something living.

Neiame thought for a moment. She had not set aside her sensing of these strangers, she was simply thinking of something else at the same time, while also seeing where she was stepping. It seemed each of her heads was at work on something different, yet she could feel it all at once. More than this, she could see it all at once.

Why had she first grown added limbs, and this time, she had simply grown in size? Was it the result of her subconscious desire? When had she ever wanted to turn into such an aberration?

She cleared her thoughts. All of them. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. If she had the entire Alari people contained within her own body, this meant she held more than simply what had been, but also what could come. A single person has no way to reproduce on their own, but a species can reproduce itself. And so, defying all known laws of biology she had known (which was relatively little), she tried. And she succeeded.

As if her first transformation following the Vela'Alari had been repeated, she was slowly growing yet more limbs. Two more arms were growing on each side of her torso, below the six already present. She felt the flesh simply forming itself, not quite extending out, but simply creating itself, as if it had always been present. Once they had grown out completely, the new arms looked exactly like the previous six, all ten identical in appearance. With enough focus, she was already able to move them around, without the feeling of numbness which had inhabited her at first. While she could not control each arm individually, she was able to move and feel each one around, adding to the impression that strings held each arm together.

The sensation of added flesh kept happening, as she grew yet another pair of breasts. If she had still been wearing clothing, it would have torn simply by all the soft skin pushing outward in front of her. Were she to leave her hands to wander, they would surely have enjoyed these two additions. That is, if hands could feel pleasure. Could they?

She looked behind her. Sure enough, she had grown yet another tail, giving her a total of three. She still had the same amount of legs and heads, however. As she had predicted, she had only grown as many new limbs as she first had, immediately after the ascension. It seemed she could indeed control how her body would change. Was this her own ascension? To become the embodiment of the Alari, one last memento of a formerly great people?

Neiame closed her eyes and grinned. As long as she could feed, she was effectively immortal. She had ascended as her people had, only in the opposite direction. While her species had set aside their dependence to their bodies and left behind their parasitic nature, Neiame had been plunged directly into these rejected aspects of her race. It was everything she had always wanted to avoid, and there was no avoiding it now.

She could not escape the shackles of her body. And her body hungered with the hunger of thousands towards this spiritual energy she had sensed.

And so, she hungered.

[Velaala]

Part Five - Wrath

If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

-J. Robert Oppenheimer

She could not fight the hunger.

Neiame had become a monster already, but she wouldn't allow herself to go this far. She had managed to save the universe from her people's dangerous lust for spiritual energy at the cost of everything she had ever loved; she could not let all this go to waste.

Her body, however, didn't seem to think the same way. Had it developed a mind of its own? The Vela'alari had split the upper and lower minds of her species during the ascension, after all. Could she have also absorbed into herself all the lower minds that had remained, along with their physical mass? She could not remember what composed the lower minds, as her own had been fused into a single one. Did it include the memories? The personalities? The tastes?

The most primal instincts?

"Feed."

"No! I can't!

Why not? I've already consumed everything on this world!

Have I left anything alive?...

I didn't consume any of the animals!

What are those?...

I knew it, this is amazing!"

With her uppermost pair of hands, she tried to hold her head, which had the rather comical side effect of knocking all three of her heads together, as she seemed to have forgotten about her new body. As dizzy as this made her, it was nothing compared to the growing feeling she could feel along her upper back. She was not done growing. Closing her eyes for a moment to try and soothe the places where she had bumped her heads together, she tried to focus, make this growth stop, to no avail.

"I have to admit, it IS rather pretty...

Of course it is!

When did I feed on them, though?...

I didn't feed on anything!

Yes I did, and it's a good thing I did!"

As both of her adjacent heads had already turned to look behind herself, she did the same with the middle head, twisting her neck as best as she could. No matter where it came from, it was indeed beautiful. She had grown herself a massive pair of wings, covered in iridescent wings which seemed to include the entire spectrum of colours. Coupled with the simultaneous rising of the world's twin suns, these wings which easily spanned more than twice the reach of her arms, seemed to cast a rainbow behind her gigantic body, covering the land behind her in a plethora of bright colours.

Neiame could simply stare in awe, looking at the feathers and the multicoloured ground, while reaching out with all five of her right arms to stroke one of the wings. They felt as soft as they looked, as she felt with her many fingers stroking the feathers gently.

She had no idea where these had come from, however. There were no beasts in the land which had limbs as beautiful as the wings she had now grown. And she could not remember feeding on any of them. As far as she could remember, no animal had spiritual energy on which her people could feed on. Then where had they all gone? As tall as she now was, and as perceptive as her new body had made her, why could she not see or sense any such creature? As a matter of fact, she could feel no other source of life anywhere on the world; it simply seemed like a barren wasteland, a derelict resting place of an entire civilization.

Could the Vela'alari have encompassed more than just the Alari? Had she made a mistake in her calculations, which had included everything living on this world? Maybe her race had not been so spiritually different from the others after all. Maybe she had simply miscalculated. She felt her people were the only species she had ever met with a dichotomic mind as their own. The ritual had simply been too powerful, effectively including more than just the Alari, with more than likely disastrous consequences for the other inferior species.

Even the distraction provided by her wings was not enough. She had to feed. While she did not necessarily want to feed, she knew she would like it, despite her inner protests. Could one single person withstand the pressure of thousands, which emanated nothing but a lust for energy? She looked up towards the other worlds.

She suddenly closed her eyes and shook her heads. She would not allow herself to be overcome by such a raw appetite. The worlds came into view again. She closed her eyes once more and tried to concentrate harder. Once again, however, she could see what she tried not to. She let out a scream which seemed to cause the ground to quake ever so slightly. Was there no escaping it? What would she need to do to free herself from this burden?

Trying to calm down once more, she opened her other eyes. As if three heads were not enough, her hunger had caused her to grow new eyes as well, as it refused to keep its gaze off its prize. She let out a single, unified sigh from all her mouths at once, taking a moment to look at herself. She now had three golden pairs of eyes on each head, with the two new pairs on top of the original, but otherwise exactly the same. Were they really necessary? Did they augment her visual perception even further? She had no idea.

All she knew, at this point, was that she was hungry, and that she had nothing to lose. She glanced towards some of the surrounding worlds. Were there always that many? Had she sacrificed her people's earthly lives when this much sustenance was so close?

It would never have been enough. No matter how proud or wise they were, the Alari were parasites. This much she knew for certain. Given the chance, they would have spread across every known world, eventually consuming everything in their need to survive. The ascension was beneficial to everyone.

Everyone but Neiame.

She was alone, left behind with the entirety of the hunger she had sought to eradicate. And with her had remained the danger to all other living beings.

With a mighty flap of her wings, which shook the very ground she stood on, as well as sending a gale of wind powerful enough to destroy some of the tiny houses below her, she took off. Rather, she had tried to, jumping as high as she could and hoping to fly off to one of the nearby worlds, but her massive weight was too much, even for her massive wings. Without thinking, as if by instinct, two more pairs of wings grew out from her back, the combined strength of which allowed her to be propelled into the air.

While it didn't take her long to leave her world's atmosphere, it never occurred to her how she could even move around with such ease into the vacuum of space, let alone survive in it. She had managed to figure out without thinking much about it, as she was so focused on her spiritual lust. She didn't even need to think about it or explain to herself why it was possible, since the answer was so obvious.

None of the worlds in her path stood any chance. The inhabitants could do nothing but be drained of their energy as Neiame approached. Oftentimes, she could simply leech their strength from a great distance, a consequence of her new size and her increasing strength. As much as she found this disturbing, with one of the voices inside her heads tried to resist this onslaught, it paled in comparison to how she felt.

She knew it was wrong, that it went against everything she had once stood for. But she enjoyed it.

"Vela'alari has come!"

Instead of simply absorbing small amounts of spiritual energy from her victims, as she had once done before her transformation, she now felt no remorse in obliterating her preys' entire souls, which simply fueled her appetite. She had always tried to maintain a more symbiotic relationship with her sources of nutrition, letting them live and simply feeding off the excess energy. This Neiame was gone.

Each soul she gorged on eventually became part of her own, leaving no trace of the individuals themselves. Her body gradually began to bolster its form as a result of her actions. It would start growing in many ways, whether it was growing even larger, or sprouting yet even more limbs than she already have. Her already powerful arms began growing thicker with muscle, while her already large curves would grow larger. Who would need such strength to subdue? Who would be attracted to such a disproportionately freakish body? She was monstrous enough already, was she past the point of no return? When would her body stop?

There seemed to be no end to her growth. It seemed every single body she had taken into her own was trying to manifest itself through her. Arms, legs, heads, tails, breasts, she constantly grew more and more of everything. However, she somehow had enough physical mass contained within her to let her body keep growing. Her home world had vanished from any of her numerous fields of perception. Her only point of reference was now the larger of the twin suns she had been born under.

It was like a speck of dust.

Even though she had strayed constantly further in her instinctive desire to feed, she could still see it, shining with the soft soothing light she had grown accustomed to. And yet, it could now easily be lost between the friction ridges of a single of her fingers, the tiniest of lines on one of the tiniest parts of her body.

She closed her eyes and closed a finger and thumb around the sun.

"It's all gone.

It was already gone.

It's my own fault, after all.

It was the only way.

It..."

She suddenly widened every single one of her eyes and froze, as a single image imprinted itself in her mind.

"Mommy?"

[Velaala]

Part Six - Drift

So much destruction. So much death.

As she drifted across the emptiness of space, Neiame could only reflect on what she had done, as she tried to hold back her instinctive urges to consume. The ritual she had overseen had simply resulted in accelerating what she had tried to prevent completely. While the Vela'alari had succeeded in separating her people from their parasitic nature, it had not removed it, instead leaving it entirely focused within Neiame, leaving her as the single, solitary warden of this destructive power.

Had it been enough? Had this one image been able to hold back the tide of carnage of which she had become the herald?

She knew who it was. This proud woman had once been her daughter. Had she been joined to the collective mind of the Alari, even in death?

This girl's devotion to her mother as well as her desire to follow in Neiame's footsteps had caused her demise. As powerful as they were, the Alari were not without casualties. Even with all her inner strength and her training as a battle-cleric, some of which had been given by Neiame herself, a single Alari warrior-maiden was no match for the treacherous tactics of some of the Alari's enemies. Surrounded by these bug-like creatures, which had crawled out from the ground, she had willingly dispersed her body into raw energy, as did her people. She had taken many of these creatures along with herself into the great beyond, with her last facial expression a compassionate yet mournful smile.

This had all happened in front of Neiame's eyes, who could only watch helplessly as her daughter met her end.

Having lost the girl's father in battle many ages ago, Neiame had vowed to herself she would protect her daughter. She had always done everything she could to ensure a bright future for the girl. And while she had grieved at her daughter's passing, this had not broken her spirit. Instead, it had simply strengthened her resolve to help her people, to end the wars which had plagued her race for so long. How much would she have to lose to finally be at peace?

Idling somewhat calmly within the void between worlds, Neiame brought her mind back to the present. Would it ever end? Would peace ever arrive? How much more would she have to lose?

What was her name?

She could remember everything else about her daughter. Everything but her name.

She could even picture the runes which had once spelled out the name. Yet she could not make out what they meant. Try as hard as she may, it never came back. The memories of the girl's entire life flashed through her mind with enough clarity to be happening before her very eyes. She was there through the child's infancy. She could remember teaching her to master the spiritual currents. Even the most mundane of moments, such as the silly yet loving times they spent playing. And of course, there was always the final image of her passing.

Why could she not grasp this one individual's name?

Had her body instinctively disassociated itself with this memory, instead making way for its all-consuming hunger? Had the loss of her upper mind left her bereft of this most precious memory?

No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on it, the name of her daughter still eluded her. More and memories returned to her, but never this particular detail. Some memories were not even directly related to her offspring. Days of her own childhood or training. Time she had spent in combat, herself.

As the memories gradually filled her mind, she eventually realized these were not all her own. Some of the memories she was experiencing with such intense realism came from beings which she had never encountered before, on worlds she had never stepped on.

To Neiame, it was obvious. Her galactic rampage had been so powerful; it had created a spiritual vacuum powerful enough to drain the entirety of her victim's minds, thus granting her access to their memories. The individual personalities, however, had been completely eradicated. She was sure of this, as with her vast fields of perception which seemed to increase endlessly she would surely have been able to discern the presence of any other being within her mind. She knew she was alone. While the idea of her own mind being invaded by a flood of strangers plunging her into mental disarray wasn't very attractive, she was certain it would still be more tolerable than complete isolation.

Knowledge, languages, customs, she seemed to learn everything from these people simply by focusing her attention to the many empty minds which lingered within her own. She couldn't understand everything it was they were doing. The peoples with more advanced technologies or magicks still remained quite a mystery to her, as she could simply tell why they were doing what they were. She knew what the memories were saying, what they meant to their previous owners, yet she could understand nothing from them.

And yet, throughout the million of individual minds which had merged with her own, there was no single trace of her daughter's name.

She had no clue how much time she had spent dwelling on these thoughts. The pull of an exotic world's gravity was quick to remind her of the present situation. While caught within her own inner psyche, the former high priestess' attention had been diverted from her body's appetite. Unconsciously, it had shrunk itself back down, making her much closer in size to how she had been before the incident. She knew this without a need to compare herself to anything, oddly enough. Where she had once been around seven in height, she was now around ten feet tall.

This was as close as the similarities got, however, as her body was still extremely odd and unusual. She still possessed her three heads, although her personalities didn't seem to juggle between the three heads as often. Her meditation had seemed to unify her personality back to how it had once been. The rest of her body was very similar to how it had been at her departure from her home world. She still had the three pairs of iridescent, multi-coloured feathery wings. She still had the three pairs of eyes per head, which did not give her quite as much vertigo as she might have believed. As well, she still had the three pairs of legs, giving her the appearance of a taur. Her five pairs of arms were the oddity among her body's triplication, along with her tails, of which she now had a dozen.

There was a major difference between her current appearance and the previous one, however. Her proportions were quite unlike they had ever been before. Her hair had seemed to grow much longer, so that it nearly reached her knees, flowing smoothly around her lower body. Her arms, which were already quite toned in her youth, were rather massive in comparison, smoothly sculpted with muscle, while remaining quite feminine. The six breasts rather helped, as each was easily twice the size of her heads, causing quite a strange piling of soft flesh. Finally, her legs had swollen quite thick, leaving her with incredibly long and wide thighs, which made her hips and bottom appear extremely curvy, hiding beneath their smoothness a very impressive strength.

Neiame looked around slowly as she slowly descended towards the ground, assisted by the gravitational pull while also controlling her fall using her large wings. This place appeared to be nothing but a massive, barren wasteland. There was life on this world, she was sure of this, but what could exist on such a place? The small clouds of dust forming around her hooves as they lightly hit the ground only cast further doubt in her mind.

She had arrived here at the edge of a valley. On the other side appeared to be a rather small village, which she would have surely missed, had it not been for her unique sense of perception. She knew right away she should not approach these people. She could sense fear among them. It wasn't quite of her specifically, but rather a general fear of ubiquitous destruction. Had she brought the Vela'alari along with herself? Was she doomed to forever repeat this disaster?

She would try her best to avoid letting this happen again. She would try and live in peace, feeding on the unused energies, which seeped out from every living being. She would remain the parasite she was, feeding over the excess of others, rather than become a predator which simply destroyed others to survive.

Walking along slowly, with each of her gentle footsteps causing a very slight tremor in the ground, she eventually came across a cave. Sensing it was empty, she proceeded to enter, though the current size of her body was causing her quite some trouble, as she had to force her way in. Unsurprisingly enough, considering her new strength, the entrance eroded itself quickly as she passed by, leading her into a large chamber.

This had certainly been inhabited in the past, but the dust and state of the many objects found within convinced her that this place had been abandoned a long time ago. Staying here, she rationalized would still be close enough to feed on the nearby village without being noticed.

With little physical need to eat, Neiame could easily spend her time within her cave, meditating deeply, each day becoming more in more and control of herself. Her spiritual perception allowed her to gradually learn more about the people surrounding her, despite knowing nothing of what they were doing. Some were using strange artifacts similar to those found in her cave, yet she could simply not understand what they were used for. Others seemed to maintain a treacherous relationship with the beasts of the land, tending to their needs and raising them, until brutally executing them and feeding on their carcasses. This was indeed a disturbing universe.

And yet, no matter how hard she tried, she could not remember the name. Had she even existed? Were those her own memories, or those of others which had been mixed with her own?

Sitting on all her knees on the ground, eyes closed, a name finally appeared on the tips of her tongues. The runes were placing themselves within her mind, spelling out this person's name. With it, she would know for sure.

"Err... Hello?"

Neiame's concentration dissipated as she opened her eyes, facing the stranger.

[hexen]

This is a pretty cool development of an entity, reminds me of the small bits I read about Starcraft's lore. Pretty impressive story, exploring the spiritual meaning of lust and hunger, although it has quite an overwhelming amount of unknown information at the start it flows pretty well.

[Velaala]

Thank you for the comment! I should probably have specified that this story is a work in progress (is there a way to change the thread title? :P), so there's still more to come.

About those little holes at the start, that's a little problem with posting it all at once like this... I had actually posted each part with a little bit of time in between, which explains why each part more or less ends with a small cliffhanger. More and more gets explained gradually, basically!

It took a little while to get my account activated here, though, so that couldn't work, sadly!