The Sixth Pillar is one of the six bizarre uncut diamonds the size of a brick intended to be used in the Machine.
History[]
Early History[]
Though unconfirmed, the six Pillars were most likely constructed by the super-ancient beings, since they included them in their second trial.
At a currently unknown point in Earth's history, the Super-Ancient Beings discovered the Dark Sun and set about constructing a machine that would repel it before it came too close to the planet. During their endeavors, they managed to reshape six diamonds into the Pillars, doing so in a technological process that would appear to modern humans that they had been shaped this way naturally. The Fifth Pillar was also made to be cleansed by the tools known as the Philosopher's Stone and the Basin of Rameses II, which would each work in unison with the Firestone of the Golden Capstone to prepare the Pillar to be set into its corresponding Vertex of the Machine during a Titanic Rising event.
Though they were able to prevent the Dark Star from approaching in their time, the Super-Ancient Beings knew that even after they were gone from the Earth, there may yet be intelligent life, and so left the Pillars and Sacred Stones so that human kind could use them to aid their attempts to rebuild the Machine. They were also able to manipulate the Pillars' molecular structure so that when they were placed into their Vertex, give whoever possessed it would gain a reward; for the Sixth Pillar, the reward would be Power.
Eventually, all of the Pillars came to be kept in Egypt under the Pharaoh Khufu's keep, however, the priest Thuthmosis later stole the Pillars and the Sacred Stones and took them with him as he fled Egypt. Taking one the name Moses, he would keep the Pillars within his familial line until they ended up with Jesus Christ. Apparently unaware of their importance, Jesus would end up scattering the other Pillars, putting the Earth's future in greater jeopardy.
The Sixth Pillar was the only Pillar Jesus kept, and following his crucifixion, Jesus's body was taken by his brother James and entombed in an ancient salt mine, where the salt crystals would preserve his body, and the Sixth Pillar was buried with him. A lookalike copy of the Pillar was left in another chamber to fool any thieves who might come to steal the real one.
The Five Greatest Warriors[]
Heeding Diane Cassidy's suggestions that they look into the Five Greatest Warriors to determine where the remaining Pillars had ended up, Jack West Jr's team began a long period of research and uncovered much of the history of most of the Pillars and how most had ended up where they were. Crucially, Julius and Lachlan determined that Jesus had been entombed with the final Pillar.
When Carnivore had gathered most of the people involved in the Machine's restoration at his base, he asserted that they would be working for him in placing the remaining Pillars. As a result, he tasked Vulture, Scimitar and Mao Gongli with finding the Sixth Pillar from Jesus's tomb and giving it to him.
After Jack's team had simultaneously laid the Fourth and Fifth Pillars, they decided to try and retrieve the Sixth Pillar first. After determining the location of Jesus's tomb, and soon Jack, Lily and Iolanthe Compton-Jones found it within an abandoned Roman salt mine in the Dead Sea. Venturing inside, they spied Vulture's group leaving with the false Pillar. Jack then entered the real tomb containing Jesus's body and took the final Pillar before resealing the tomb.
Unfortunately, Vulture and Scimitar had allowed Mao to leave with the false Pillar, and held Jack and the others at crossbow-point and demanded the real Pillar. Luckily Pooh Bear and Stretch arrived, and the former managed to defeat the pair. While they were inside the mine, however, Carnivore and his forces arrived, and once Jack's team emerged from the mine, Carnivore took the sixth Pillar, along with the other five Pillars, departed for the final Vertex on Easter Island.
Rendezvousing with Mao on the China, Wolf quickly saw that the Pillar he had was a fake, and made plans to take the real one from Carnivore inside the Vertex. Within the Vertex, Carnivore laid out the first five Pillars with the Sacred Stones on an altar while awaiting the moment to place the Sixth. However, Jack's unorthodox entry into the Vertex in the Halicarnassus gave him to opportunity to take down Carnivore and his men, taking the final Pillar and allowing Lily to set it upon the pyramid's peak.
After the Machine repelled the Dark Star, Jack saw that Lily had become infused with the reward of the final Pillar; Power. After she used it to kill Cassidy, Mao and his men, Jack managed to snap her out of her trance, and Lily dropped the Pillar and fell unconscious. Wolf, seeing a final opportunity to claim the Pillar, encouraged Jack to pick it up and feel its power for himself, then made a run at it as Jack refused. Believing no one should have that power, Jack pushed the Sixth Pillar towards the end of the balcony, and despite Wolf's attempt to grab it, the Pillar slid off and fell into the abyss.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
Years later, after averting the Omega Event, Jack returned to Easter Island and ventured down into the chasm beneath the Sixth Vertex to recover the Sixth Pillar, as he had decided that it and all of the others Pillars with the knowledge etched into them were necessary for when the trials and Omega event next occurred in the future.
Properties[]
Appearance[]
Like all of its sibling Pillars, the Sixth Pillar initially appeared as a diamond with a cloudy appearance, with an anomalous void in the center containing a liquid form of Helium, H-3. Upon being cleansed with the Philosopher's Stone, the Pillar became more like translucent like glass, with the Helium void becoming silver in appearance. After its second cleansing in the Basin, it took on an even shinier appearance.
After being placed in the Sixth Vertex, a triangular section was excised from the end placed into the inverted pyramid.
Purpose[]
The Sixth Pillar is intended to be placed at the massive underground Temple-Shrine located beneath Easter Island, the Sixth Vertex of the Machine, during a Titanic Rising. When the Pillar is set, a triangular shape is removed from the bottom end of the Pillar, creating the tip of the inverted pyramid and thus readying the Machine.
Reward of Power[]
The reward of the Sixth Pillar, 'Power', grants whoever holds it whatever they wish - be it world domination, the death of an enemy or the destruction of cities on their whim. Lily was accidentally granted this power when she placed the final Pillar at its Vertex, and it overpowered her will, making her kill several people before Jack managed to get her to stop.
Trivia[]
- This was the only Pillar to have never left Jesus's possession until the present day.