Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [94]
A healthy-looking goldfish swallows the ball:
FISH: “Ulp! Smack! Yum.”
Walter and MM are standing in the howling gale from the table grinning their heads off. They've won a move and congratulate each other.
WALTER: “We did it! We switched poles and saved the multiverse!”
MM: “But for what?”
Streaming behind goes Spammer Gain, still vaguely cup-shaped, her jubilant fishling machinoix all over her wonderful sinuous body… Off joyously into the multiverse…
Jack and Colinda are frowning down at their remaining cards.
COLINDA: “With Spammer redeemed and the Insect eaten, it's the full reverse … Looks like the game's over for us, Jack …”
Jack suddenly grins. He's planning something—as Spammer grows smaller and smaller in the distance he winks….
JACK: “Oh, I think we still have a move or two left, Mrs. D …”
He reaches out of the picture towards Walter who has a card shoe waiting…
JACK: “Our end game decides our future—the nature of reality for the aeons ahead—Whether justice triumphs over blind appetite—Or if we're doomed to perpetual self-destruction …”
Walter looks directly into Jack's eyes—
WALTER: “Are you going to draw, Jack, or shall I?”
Jack reaches into the shoe and takes a card…
He turns the card…
It shows Elric in the grip of the Silverskin …
The albino struggled hard as his multitude of personalities reached out to absorb him …
Elric absolutely entangled in the Silver spin's tentacles….
SILVERSKIN: “Then if you will not help, we'll take you back—back to our mourning womb …”
Elric struggles to draw Stormbringer.
ELRIC: “NO, King Silverskin!”
ELRIC: “It's my doom to die alone and calling out a question—I resist the claims of history—I have loyalty only to the future … to my child and to my cause …”
The Silvers Join's many eyes are horrified…
SILVERSKIN: “Come, sweetest of my selves—Come into my yearning heart—come, Elric, come …”
Elric breaks his arms free—in one hand is the sword—in the other the Horn of Fate—
ELRIC: “NO!”
ELRIC: “I feel the polarities reverse! This is my one moment—you shall not absorb me, Eternal Champion—”
Elric drives the Black Sword towards the centre of the Silverskin, even as its tentacles fight against him …
ELRIC: “this time—”
Elric plunges his sword into the heart of all his other myriad selves and screams with agony as he does so …
ELRIC: “I shall absorb YOU I”
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!
And all those selves start to pour into the sword…
Until the sword glows brilliant, reflective silver—runes still flaring red—pulsing all those personalities, all that unguessable power back up into Elric—so Elric absorbs all aspects of the Eternal Champion back into himself
Elric is now all glowing reflective silver himself—his ruby eyes glaring from his tortured face—as he absorbs King Silverskin—and lifts his horn to his lips—
ELRIC: “It's done. I am whole again with all my power! The Champion is strong enough to reduce the whole of time to a single perfect moment—To herald in the dawn!”
Close-up of Elric blowing the horn—
WAAAAAAAAAA-OOOOOOOOOOOO!
WAAAA-OOOOOOOOOO-aaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa-aaaaaaa-
OOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo …
Enabling the mathematics of the heart to reduce the ultimate equation to a single elegiac note—
—creating an unrepeatable moment of absolute harmony—a single chance of redemption for the entire multiverse …
The big scene. Elric releases his grip on his pure white sword which rises towards the apex in which a shadowy balance begins to form. In mirror image (both imitating Craig's last scenes from Stormbringer) the Elric of Stormbringer with the Black Sword is seen in an identical posture… as both swords plunge back into both Elrics and both are then gradually drawn upwards to form the Cosmic Balance itself.
—and all living creatures throughout the endless glory of existence …
You think you can do all that in two pages? Well, just in case… We're watching all this from the table—Walter, MM,]ack, Colinda, the Rose and Quelch … Elric's now