A mass incantation, the serpents arise The vessels of fury released With unrestrained rapture, the frenzied, consumed with ecstasy, Awaken the gods with the might of their cries Apostates shall never know peace The flesh of the fallen, a conqueror’s feast In pools of crimson … they’ll writhe In pools of crimson they’ll writhe! "Elysian Immortals!" they cry A path of destruction through unfaithful lands The vessels of fury unleashed The clerics enchant with the soothsayer’s song of prophecy Descent into darkness, they look to the sky Awaiting the looming Unlight Divine in its purpose, malignant to all Into salvation … they ride Into salvation they ride! "Elysian Immortals!" they cry and forge on Onward to the sea Three hundred ships aligned Shimmering scales of golden beasts Luminate the murky brine The Eastern Way within their sights Their savage howls of bloodlust fill the night Warships breach the shore A force ten-thousand strong Marches through the Eastern Way With battle cries and sabers drawn Unseen warriors from the East With fire and steel to be released Across the pass extends the blade The narrowed walls engulfed in flames A miscalculation, the flash of a blade The vessels of fury deceased The phalanx ablaze, conflagration consumes for purity Forsaking the gods with the might of their cries The faithful shall never know peace The flesh of the fallen, a vanquisher’s feast In pools of crimson … they writhe In pools of crimson they writhe! "Elysian Immortals!" the Last to Stand cry

That which becomes must perish Yet sees the world through eager eyes Moments held in dying breaths and living lies With dread approach the hour Of the sorrows yet to be Undying … locked in faith’s embrace Until ...the numbing stillness takes us all What remains is a vessel in decay The numbing stillness takes us all Awakened just to fade away A way forth to delectation Their coward souls in line to abdicate autonomy To live entwined with the troth of eternal life And the mortal chains that hold Unbound … from the fate of flesh Yet still ...the numbing stillness takes us all What remains is a vessel to decay The numbing stillness takes us all Existing just to fade away “It will not shine again: Its sad course is done; I have seen the last ray wane Of the cold, bright sun.” The servile weep, a mournful shuddering cry A waking sleep for those who deify And linger in vain for a sign Withered, drawn upon themselves A nagging doubt within them dwells Deeper still the mooring pulls Holds fast to the unversed fools “Deserted one! Thy corpse lies cold And mingled with a foreign mould” The servile weep, a mournful shuddering cry A waking sleep for those who deify In the end, the tyrant claims its price Imminent, the voyage of demise That which becomes must perish Yet staves the end at any cost Moments are delayed and lost The dreadful hour of the sorrows meant to be Unyielding … merciless is the blade of fate The numbing stillness takes us all What remains is a vessel to decay The numbing stillness takes us all Awakened just to fade away “For the time when in my breast Their struggles will be over! For the day when I shall rest, And never suffer more!” The servile weep, a mournful shuddering cry A waking sleep for those who deify

Rays from a dying sun Illuminate a clash begun for right The right to seek eternal light Keepers guard the Eastern Way Apostate's doom in empty eyes Viscera draped, charred, and cruciate Warn of death beyond the bolstered gates The summoning brings forth the horde Rouses the warbeasts from their sleep Drawn by the hunger of enslaved souls To be released Behold the righteous path, the blood of martyrs past And all will rise to touch the sky Forsake the fallen ones, their paeans left unsung Their glory lies within the afterlife Behold the righteous path, carnage in the aftermath And all apprise the sacrifice The stench of battles won, warmed by the titian sun Til one remains and sacred land is reclaimed Beneath a dying sun A fault in time obscures those lain in wait A mystic ruse to transcend the might of Western savagery Across the pass, the blade extends Forged by the flames that now pour forth To cleanse the flesh and free the soul A merciless means to glory's end As was foretold Behold the righteous path, the blood of martyrs past And all will rise to touch the sky Forsake the fallen ones, their paeans left unsung Their glory lies within the afterlife Behold the righteous path, carnage in the aftermath And all apprise the sacrifice The stench of battles won, warmed by the titian sun Til one remains and sacred land is reclaimed Beneath a dying sun One final gasp As night turns into day The embers burn as the choking wind feeds the flames Upon the ashes they dance Upon the remnants they feast "The last to stand," the elders chant, "shall endure Elysian peace!" The prophecy had come to pass Yet the Last to Stand remain A plague of doubt and ravaged faith Alone beneath a dying sun

The curse of The Immortals: the tedium of endless time A ceaseless march of forced existence, an amaranthine line With no cessation, no release from eternity The cursed Immortals create their own mortality From the depths their lessers arise Lost and searching for a guiding light Subservience instilled by their masters And so they pray They walk among the mortals, the lords of all creation With healing hands lay still their sighs, the promise of salvation The darkest fears of those unbound by the looming prospect of demise Feed the longing to assuage the skeptics of an afterlife From the cults of idolatry Comes a singular supreme deity Soothsayers foresee a hereafter For those who pray One by one, the pillars all shall fall In exile, reason casts a pall On whom they prey A crusade to indoctrinate, to enslave them all Illusory serpents undulate and bring the rest to thrall With saviors guiding from above, and evil held below A numbing stillness propagates, The Immortals make it so One by one, the pillars all shall fall In exile, reason casts a pall On whom they prey A burial in an ocean of unanswered prayers As faith still hinges on blind devotion and soothsayers Heretics seize the widening divide and conquer all seen And build upon ashes left by a faithless retreat The whims of The Immortals, a struggle for supremacy The smashed and scattered remnants of the singular Divinity Invaders raid the skyward towers, dispatch the savages with cruelty To spread a plague divine, to rid the world of heresy From the west the soldiers arrive The conquered heretics conscribed Devotion instilled by their captors To make them pray Unborn, a world terraformed by the Lords Lords unite with allegiances sworn Lords beguile the simple of mind Lords divine for those of finite time Time, the sands run low for those of finite time Forlorn, a world mired in chaos for Lords Lords balanced on the blades of swords Lords divide a mortal paradise Lords decree a mortal demise Demise, a clarion sounds to bring a mortal demise One by one, the pillars all shall fall Unraptured, The Cleansing casts a pall On those who prayed

From the depths arose life Born of a need to leave the sea And so began the eons march to sentience, to conquer all seen An unstoppable virus, so cancerous and so obscene A blight upon the world The Anthropocene An epoch of unnatural evolution A world reshaped by need Anthropogenic agents of destruction unconstrained by destiny Imperfections mount with consequence No man could foresee the whims of The Immortals The extinction event proceeds A global plague Brings forth the end of an age The poison sky bleeds revenge from on high A rising tide sweeps away this verminous kind The faithful pray for rapture, but they’re betrayed The end is nigh, it’s only a matter of time The pulse fades The light dies The Immortal bows its head as failure clouds its eyes Merciful malevolence where there once was pride A cycle of creation, a cycle of demise The clay is formed, a spell is cast The golem springs to life The end is nigh, It’s only a matter of time