Visage of Chaos (3.5e Epic Spell)

''As your ritual is completed, the water beneath the city froths, bubbles, and surges. 10 minutes later, the water erupts into a savage fury. Pandemonium ensues as manholes are blasted into the air, the streets crack and get smashed open, windows explode, and cars get pulverized. The water races up a ruined skyscraper and coalesces into the form of a great reptilian beast, whose piercing green eyes survey the wreckage it has caused. It then proceeds to storm off and cause even more devastation. Looks like someone's going to have to open his heart before the day is through.''

When you attempt to cast this spell, you suffer 2 immediate points of Constitution burn, 1 point of Charisma burn, and 1 point of Strength burn, and you and your fellow casters burn 20,000 XP and suffer 1d6 backlash damage. 1 minute after completing the spell, 9,000 cubic feet of water rise up and merge together into the form of the monstrous beast known only as "Perfect Chaos". While not the real deal, and not quite as powerful as the monster it emulates, this animated mass of water still can attack with devastating slams and tentacles (of which it possesses about 10). Treat it as a Monolithic animated object with 120 HD (not factored into the Spellcraft DC because the spell doesn't animate an actual object). In addition, it has a devastating beam cannon that it can fire as a full-round action, dealing 40d6 damage to everything in a 3,000-foot line (30 feet tall and 30 feet thick). The beam attack is treated as a destroy-seed spell, so creatures and objects in the way are entitled to a Fortitude save for half damage (instead of a Reflex save), and are entitled to use their spell resistance to negate the attack. (As with most epic spells, spell dampening doesn't help creatures withstand the false Perfect Chaos's attacks, as your caster level does not influence the damage the attack deals.) Alternately, the false Perfect Chaos can use a standard action to fire up to 40 projectiles of raw energy, splitting its 40d6 damage among them, each of which can be fired at a single creature or object within 3,000 feet (and all within 300 feet of each other) with a ranged touch attack (anything struck is still entitled to a Fortitude save to halve the damage and spell resistance to negate it). If the false Perfect Chaos is reduced to 0 hp or otherwise destroyed, the spell immediately ends. Its hp can be restored by any spell capable of restoring hp to elementals or constructs (including cure and repair spells).

You and the other spellcasters who helped you in the ritual continue to take 1d6 backlash damage per round while the false Perfect Chaos is active. Thankfully, you can dismiss this spell at any time. You do not have to concentrate on the spell to maintain it, but if you die (not merely fall unconscious) while the spell is still active (regardless of whether or not the backlash damage finished you off), the spell immediately ends. If one of the other spellcasters dies while the spell is still active (regardless of whether or not the backlash damage killed them), you must make another Spellcraft check to maintain the effect, with the DC being increased by 20 due to that spellcaster no longer being able to contribute his/her life energy to the spell. If you fail on this Spellcraft check, the spell immediately ends. (The XP cost is a one-time investment at the spell's beginning, and it isn't taken away after the spell is cast even if the spellcaster who provided it is no longer available.)

If you use an artifact to cast this spell as a spell-like ability, you don't need to make a Spellcraft check or get three other spellcasters involved to cast this spell, nor do you have to pay any XP, but you still suffer 2 immediate points of Constitution burn, 1 point of Charisma burn, and 1 point of Strength burn upon casting the spell, as well as 1d6 points of backlash damage, and you take 1d6 additional points of backlash damage per round while the spell is active. You don't have to concentrate on the spell to maintain it, and may dismiss it at any time, but it immediately ends if you die. Because this is an epic spell, however, only a major artifact can cast it successfully; lesser items are simply incapable of possessing the sheer magnitude of power required to pull it off. The Chaos Bow is the only known item capable of casting this spell.

XP Cost: 20,000 XP.