Shattered Planes Archives (Seasons 4 & 5)
Afterlife => {Destroyed} South => Topic started by: K2 on June 25, 2012, 01:41:54 PM
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The trembling of South was causing everything to fall apart. Entire buildings, crumbling. Entire surfaces, falling. The Torture Holes themselves were nearly destroyed, as the ground itself began to erode. Madness. South's damned trying to escape. South's workers, those who thought they were demons of Hell, but in reality descendants of the followers of the embodiment of Destruction, were unable to stop it... It was pure, utter destruction.
And then, from one of the Torture Holes... Vincent Hearts arose, his body nothing more than patches of matter and energy, his face set on the madness before him. He rose his hand, and the trembling began to subside....
And then. Everything stopped.
But Vincent knew what would happen next...
The dead no longer were bound to their posts. Sure, they were still trapped in South, but what was to stop them from rebelling? And who was in charge? Surely the others who had followed Radical would make a play for power now. Vincent himself knew that he deserved the role as the new leader of South as much as anyone else. But he also knew he would have to fight for it.
That's when it started. The free for all for the throne of South.
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The realm of Hell. He'd been here a few times, mostly just passing through. Not judged here of course, he wasn't dead and you needed a eternal soul for that anyways. Last time he'd come it was that tournament thing, where he'd lost in the second round. Good opponent, and she taught him a couple of things after the fight. Honestly though, he never really cared too much about the place, never even met its leader. He was only here because he wanted to visit the tournament grounds again. Keith never made it that far, though, since after he walked out of the Chaos Warp, he noticed all the fighting. At first he didn't realize what it was or that there was anything wrong(this was Hell, mind you), but then he realized that the demons weren't just fighting prisoners. They were fighting each other too, and for the first time he'd seen a few were headed for him. Then he head what they were saying,"I'll be the rular of Hell!""It will be me!""Nobody else is even capable of ruling but me!"
Keith thought for a second and grinned a little. It'd been a while since he let himself lose, and even with his new morality, weeeell, this was Hell after all. Most everyone here probably deserved it, he thought, as his very shape changed and his presence radiated nothing but pure Chaos Energy. Suddenly he was wearing his old armor, and his arms ended in massive bladed claws, with two more appendages coming from his back like wings. But yet, they weren't wings, for these appendages were massive clubs of raw Chaos. How he would use them, and what they'd do, weeell, who knew?
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Vincent set eyes on the new arrival almost immediately, feeling the pure wave of chaos from this one, and instantly he stopped what he was doing. No other target mattered now. He began to walk across the battlefield, towards Keith, as a few demons tried -- and failed -- to attack Vincent. This fight was difficult without magic, but Vincent had an advantage -- he was directly tied into Hell itself. He and it were bonded together, and had been ever since Vincent created the torture holes.
Vincent held out his hand, and the red sandy ground below Keith began to burrow under itself, like quick sand, becoming nothing but a mush, pulling Keith down.
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Keith felt the pull of the sands, frowned, and decided that today? Today he was going to fly. Y'see, Keith, not being made of matter, wasn't quite affected by gravity. And even if he was, he was made of Chaos itself. Gravity's affect on him, if it had one, would probably be that he always ate cajun on a Tuesday and never Wednesday because it gave him smallpox. And then he eats it on a Friday and the bubonic plague gets released on a backwater terran planet.
So today, he decided that he was going to fly, or at least that his body would stay above what he percieved as ground level. He achieved this even as the sands tried to pull him under by making the gains of sand pass through him-no, not entirely accurate. More like where they went the Chaos making up his body went around them. They could travel freely and the chaos would get out of the sand's way and it would therefor have no effect on him, because it could not grip him.
"That all you got, bro? Lemme show ya what I can do!" Keith said to the newcomer heading straight towards him, as he pulled one of the pulsing pure-red clubs back and lobbed the mass of Chaos at his doe. It completely detached from him, and went straight for the guy.
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The club of chaos was coming straight towards Vincent, who quickly reacted, motioning for the ground of South to rise up into a wall to protect him. This wall was glowing red, made from the hot embers of South itself. As the club met the wall, the chaos would be going up against hellfire -- the force of chaos against the force of death. Vincent sighed, thinking of his next move. He was very limited without magic, and only had what was around him at his disposal.
And that's when he realized what WAS all around him. The red, hot sand of Hell, it's burning sensation -- each grain was designed to make those who walked across it feel the damnation of the souls of Hell. It was all around right now, making up this part of the battlefield. Vincent concentrated hard on the sand, willing it to do as he commanded, willing it as it was a part of him. And it was. That's when the wind picked up.
Harsh wind, hot, setting everything on fire. As fire rained across the battlefield, this wind picked up much of the sand, and it started to rise high into the air...
A sand-storm was forming.
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As soon as the wall moved up, the club of Chaos did something odd-it hopped. One third hopped above the wall, another third hopped right of the wall, and the last third hopped left of the wall. The club had split, and each fragment was dodging the wall differently. If they'd get past, this person would find himself in the path of the reconvergence of the three pieces of the glowing energy club.
Keith, meanwhile, keot his cool completely at the prospect of the sands picking up. Like the quicksand tactic, he avoided damage from this the same way-by letting the sands go through him. Keith wasn't alive, and he had no Spirit. The sands wouldn't do any harm...And so, they caused him no pain. He yawned as his appendage grew another club, and smacked a nearby demon with the one still attached. The Chaos envoloped the demon, pulling it in. At first it probably writhed to get away, but once it was dully enveloped the orb of the club grew still before it stopped pulsating, turning to a much darker red than it'd been before. Then it began to pulsate again, only more...Rhythmic. Like a heartbeat, perhaps. Well, that'd happen if Keith could get the demon, anyways.
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As the club came towards Vincent from three directions, he noted that the Hellfire had hopped as well, binding itself to the clubs, circling around them, the flames rising up higher and higher. Gravity seemed to be suspended for the club fragments and fires, as they stopped in mid-air. They would have to fight their battle before moving. Vincent had binded the three fragments and their fires in place until they'd finished, and the fires were working hard at burning through the club fragments.
The sand was moving sure Keith, sure, but that was just what Vincent wanted -- he'd realized with the quicksand that Keith was different. As each grain of sand passed through Keith, they left behind particles. Those particles, micro-sized, were moving through Keith, slowly coming together inside him...
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As the particles were left behind in Keith, they were corrupted by the Chaos in Keith. Twisted from their original purpose, whatever it was, they would follow a random route out of Keith in going in every direction. Without their purpose guiding them, or their original powers, well, empowering them, they were now just useless motes of dust.
The club-frags simply started to corrupt the Hellfire rather than fight it. It wasn't changing control or any form of ownership, it was simply relinquishing the Lord it already had. As it burned the Chaos, it became tainted by it and turned wild and free. Not under Keith's control, but not Vincent's either. And once they fell to the grounds of Hell, they'd burn farther and spread this taint of Chaos, of unlaw, of freedom...
Of Anarchy?
The club on Keith was almost black now, and Keith closed his eyes. He saw not the demons memories, nor its knowledge, no, those were the products of Order. Rather he felt things it'd felt. Its instincts, its emotions...There wasn't much left of the Demon itself now, but Keith had what he needed...A feel for Hell. With this club, he brought it down onto the land of Hell, and like the flames nearer to his Foe, this Black-Red goop spread, and spread taint. But unlike that fire, the Taint it spread was Keith's influence.
Keith had just explicitly challenged Vincent's bond to Hell, and begun to override it with his own power.
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But the particles themselves were infused, of course, with the powers of Creation and Destruction, meant to serve as a weapon for protecting Hell itself. No, it was not as strong as the embodiments themselves, but it would serve as a viable defense against Chaos. The particles, broken down from the hot sand of Hell, were coming together to form Gravefire... Not Hellfire, but Gravefire, a fire meant to represent South's raw power of death itself.
The Gravefire was working at burning itself into Keith, infusing the very idea of death into Keith himself (seeing as he could not die normally, as he was not alive). But it was having trouble... It had to fight through the chaos first. To do this, it started to try and "kill" the chaos.
Meanwhile the Hellfire on the Club Frags was easily corruptible, unlike the Gravefire. Remarkably, as the club frags fell to the ground, the fire DID begin to spread. In an attempt to suffocate the Chaotic Hellfire, Vincent began to suck the oxygen out of the area around the fire, hoping to suffocate it. With that extracted oxygen, he began to cause it to spin. As it did this, it quickly picked up fire and sand. A vortex was forming before them.
But when Keith began to challenge Vincent's bond to hell, his goop spreading, Vincent knew what he had to do. He wouldn't allow Keith to take his spot. He began to concentrate the pure, rotting decay of Hell itself. Intensity. He focused this decay on Keith itself -- effectively, he was using the entire realm of South against Keith. How? Accelerating hell mutation. Keith, and the red goop that he was spreading, would begin to rot, die, to be mutated by Hell -- not into one who could control Hell... No... Vincent was changing Keith into a "demon".
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Throughout He'll a mix of emotions would be felt. Some were filled with a flicker of hope that they might escape. Some were filled with the fear that they might be ended here and now. Some were filled with stress as the souls that were kept in check for so long seemed to be suddenly able to flee their grasp.
Niiv on the other hand felt utter joy.
You see, this fallen angel had come to the south, specifically the Embdiment City, after fallowing some kid who seemed to want to pick a fight with an embodiment. He didn't. Niiv was so disappointed by this, but soon this fell to terror as he realized magic had vanished. Niiv was practically powerless in this situation and would have to rely on his limited spirit energy and silver tongue. Niiv's best hope was to avoid conflict as much as possible. However, this plan was doomed to fail.
You see, as thousands of dead spirits began to rebel an opportunity would arise, an opportunity that Niiv couldn't miss. As hoards rebelled against demons Niiv became the nuscence of the underworld. He was messing with every one, causing trouble for damned and demons alike, and having a grand old time doing it. It was then that he realized what exactly was going on, that there was currently no ruler of Hell. Why should he stay small? Imagine what he could accomplish as the supreme ruler of the underworld! Ohoho, this was going to be fun!
As Niiv flew through hell, getting closer to the palace, he noticed to great warriors fighting for rule. One was made of a dark energy that Niiv immediately recognized as the wonderful energy of chaos, and another warrior who seemed to fight using Hell itself. Niiv decided it would be better not to get in between them and headed straight for the palace.
He flew into the palace using one of his few tricks he knew how to accomplish with spirit energy: basic illusion. Niiv made himself imperceptible andeasily got past any and all guards to the throne room. As he entered, he smiled at the great throne that lay before him. Could it really be this easy? Niiv could easily believe it. In his experiance, power often yielded stupidity. Nonetheless, Niiv thought it best to search for any traps the throne and surroundings may behold.
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Could becoming the ruler of South be as simple as taking the throne of Radical? Surely, eventually, after the fighting outside had seceded, the victor would come for Niiv and take him out, right? But maybe they would wipe themselves all out. Niiv would find no traps around the throne, but nor would he find that sitting in the throne granted anyone with power over South. Perhaps, if Niiv kept searching the palace, he'd find something more useful to battle the legions outside, or maybe some secret on how to, like Radical and Vincent, bind oneself to South.
So, Niiv had a choice. Would Niiv keep searching the palace, or walk forward as...
The wall that the throne was against vanished, as did the throne itself. In the space behind where the wall had been, there was an evening sky, and not the harsh climate of South, but...
Snow, and vast mountains, that seemed to go on for miles.
Would Niiv search the castle, or enter this winter world?
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Niiv, unsure what he had done to cause the wall and throne to vanish, and this screamed of a trap. Niiv decided what would be best to do wulde be to test this new discovery, and thus he tossed a coin into the winter wonderland to see what wouuld happen.
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Nothing strange happened to the coin. It landed in the snow, perfectly normal. It would seem, by all accounts, that this was not a trap, and why would it be? What kind of trap would Radical place around his throne room?
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Niiv, a master at holography, thought this seemed a bit to familiar. He decided the proper way to test this place was to throw one of his marbles into it. Niiv reached for the bag and opened it up. Careful not to touch any of his little spheres of antimatter (no telekinesis was a pain), Niiv tossed a marble in.
And, well, what the heck. If worst comes to worst, at least it'll make the place look a little nicer.
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A few of the Relorian souls locked within Hell banded together, using their spirit energy to fashion a message to their old commander, embedding it within one of their spirits. The former squad took out the last item they shared, a worn and weathered deck of Tarot cards, all but the major Arcana lost to the wasteland. Each took the deck, shuffling it to their satisfaction, and it was set upon a level and stable rock. Playing rock paper scissors to decide who draws when, they take turns drawing until one draws the final Arcananum: The World, representing the culmination of past and present, the final end of this cycle and the beginning of the next. The unfortunate woman stands, sighing yet resolute. The message embedded within her spirit, the others shield her as they make way for the Hellgates, using the entirety of her spirit as energy to fuel the message, her existence extinguished with a brilliant, beautiful and vibrant flash of colors throughout South's sky, her dying gift to those who had been imprisoned here.
Within minutes, the Hellgate blasts open, a grey shadow darting through, the last trailing light from young Zillairre's spirit trailing behind it. It makes a beeline for the throne room, his liutenants his shields.
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"AH! I wasn't doing anything suspicious!" yelped Niiv as the gray shadow entered. Luckily, when entering the throne room he had prepared himself in case something hostile were to enter.
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It slides to a stop, its entourage left outside to block entry. "Why do you seek Hell's throne?" He asks, his voice gruff and low, but more querelous than angered.
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The new figure would likely notice the dramatic change of temperature in the throne room, as the winter mountains that the opposite side of the throne room was exposed to continued to blow cold wind into the throne room. Niiv's marble would, like the coin, fall to the ground like normal, and be covered by snow in time, a result of the harsh storm blowing on the other side. It would also be of note that a woman's singing would likely be audible, though faint, in the room.
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Niiv, seeing that his antimatter marble had not exploded on contact with the snowy landscape realized that entering the snow world was downright suicidal. He was a living spirit in Hell, so anything trying to trick him with an illusion was bad news, and if this was some kind of portal, well, then it was to a world of antimatter, and therefor a very bad place to set foot in.
"Oh, why does anyone seek Hell's throne? I wanted to sit on it, to see what if felt like," Niiv answered it. "I suppose you came for a similar reason. You want to rule this land, do you not??"
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However; it seemed to go beyond the idea of matter and anti-matter. The anti-matter marble was covered in a whiteish tint now, as if the world it was in had sensed that it did not belong. And within moments, the anti-matter marble disappeared. The world ahead was not dangerous at all... And from it, the very scent of an embodiment filled the throne room.
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For something to die, it must first live. Infusing the idea of Death into Keith did not have any effect upon himself, especially since, Keith being made of Chaos, as soon as it was infused the idea itself was changed to something else entirely, something that it would be useless to infuse as a idea(notable changes were:Death to duck, death to root beer, and finally, death to Sarah Palin! I kid, I kid, I have no animosity to any politician :P) Similarly, as it tried to 'kill' the Chaos, it just didn't happen. There was nothing there to die.
The Chaotic Hellfire did not stop burning with the subtraction of oxygen. Being Hellfire it alreasy wasn't nprmal; now it was charged with a force of pure Chaos itself? The flames would indeed thrive, spreading the corruption further. As the vortex began, strangely the flames reacted-they spun in the opposite direction ane twisted outwards. The flames began covering even more ground as the spun, corrupting the land with some form of unownership as it did.
Keith was basically made by the force of change. Chaos rarely keeps a singular form, after all. And yet...Chaos also rarely entropies and as much as it changes, it is one of the most stable forces there are because all Chaos has its same properties, as different as its become and has almost universally had its same definition over the Aeons. To mutate or forcibly change Chaos, the force of change, unpredictability, and most of all freedom to change OR remain stable at whatever it wished, even for South...Was nigh impossible. Even as South tried and failed to mutate Keith, Keith used the force he was made entirely of, his force of change and unpredictability, to mutate South. And the way it was looking, as the goop began to meld into the ground, and spread yet faster, it was looking like Keith was winning.
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The man stands tall before him, nearly at twelve feet. He looks to the throne, and smirks. "I do not believe it will fit this body very well." He says, gesturing at his legs, which feature two knees, the second seeming backwards, and the two demonic looking wings spread out proudly form his back. "I don't care about the rule. I want the power held here. And I know someone seeking the power behind that wall, as well." He adds, throwing his hand out to the side, the air around it flexing before opening like a magical portal. "I do believe I have found a way into Vahaga's domain, Ceris!" He calls out through it.
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Niiv, thinking the world was antimatter said, "Well, why don't you go find out for yourself?"
He thought for a moment, as a new idea clicked into his mind and he asked, "Wait, when you referred to the power held here were you referring to the snow world rather than South?"
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He chuckles, looking down on the boy. "And what business of yours is it?" He asks, as a woman clad in a white, almost snowy dress steps out, pale skin and white hair nearly blending into the snowing backdrop. "My, my, it seems you did well, Derto. A very interesting find indeed..." She says, walking right out into the snow, despite being barefoot.
The man laughs, watching as she departs. "Frigid bitch, she is, but she has her uses..."
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(Er... how is there a throne even there to sit on when both Hikaru's threw it into lava? I won't question it...)
"Well well well, look who it is." Both Ingrounded!Hikaru and Subgrounded!Hikaru came into the room and saw the small crowd. It was Ingrounded!Hikaru who had spoken while Subgrounded!Hikaru observed the opening behind the throne, the two of them having wandered back into the palace after all the commotion to again find a way out of Hell while they didn't have Antonio to stalk them every step of the way. "Enjoy the new design?" Ingrounded!Hikaru waved her hand at the still pink and girly throne room. "It is just a shame we did not get to see old poor Lucifer's reaction before he threw a fit and killed himself."
"I would not go in there if I were you..." Subgrounded!Hikaru glanced to the other people, ignoring her counterpart. "There is no embodiment to control the area anymore. She was killed by Decay when Koty and I went to find her..." A frown crossed her face as she mentioned Koty's name but was quickly replaced by her usual apathy. "It is most likely a trap as is this whole ordeal."
Meanwhile...
Somewhere in Hell, stranded, Ezael had been searching for a way out for what felt like years. One accidental wish gone wrong and he had been sent here alive by some fairy-like little man who had looked like he enjoyed granting Ezael's wish wrong. What the man was or why they were out to send him to a random unknown yet trying place was beyond him. Whatever the case, there he was, still lost without so much of an idea as to where he was or how to leave.
With the added effect from the riots of the dead, things seemed to have just gone from bad to worse for Ezael as he had to avoid demons which he did not recognize for what they were as well as battles between dead people. Just where the hell was he?
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OOC: Actually there is no throne. K2 said it disappeared when the snow appeared.
"A mere curiosity," Niiv said to the great figure as he passed. It seemed a girl in his company was entering this world of antimatter, and...not canceling out in a violent explosion. Well, that was a disappointment.
It was then that two Hikarus walked in. Wait, two Hikarus? Well, that must make it the big four now, or maybe, the big two...
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Kerion looks to the Hikarus, smirking. "Well well, it's as Celestie said, you do still have some feeling for him. Interesting, very interesting indeed..." He says, Luna disappearing from their view into the snows. "So, what brings you two here, hm? Do you seek the power of Hell as well? My my, one would have thought you'd have enough power by now for nearly anything. Your nearly godlike self, and your constantly reincarnating fiery self together could take galaxies together, isn't that right?" He asks, watching them closely. Walking over, he shakes his head, staring the mortal Hikaru in the eyes. "I'm afraid I can't let that happen. You see, our interests in this conflict."
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Niiv, slightly separate from the crowd at this point, began to grin. Oh-ho, this was going to be marvelous. If only he had his magic and could attempt to raise the Hikarus' blood pressure, as well as other factors in order to make her more easily angered, and make a full on argument break out.
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"If I claimed Hell it would be only to destroy it," Subgrounded!Hikaru muttered defensively, preferring not to notice his first comment. "I merely want to escape this forsaken place. Lucifer had the only way out."
"But if we did wish to take it, it is not as if someone as weak as yourself could stop us." Ingrounded!Hikaru smirked, "Especially since you just now confirmed that by commenting our 'godlike' abilities." She laughed as Subgrounded!Hikaru spoke up.
"However perhaps we could make a deal... We help you take Hell if in return when you have the throne you change this damn orb back and return my soul from that ludicrous demon follower of his."
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Kerion smirks a bit, taking a moment to think it over. "An interesting proposition indeed. It would certainly save me a great deal of time." He says, glancing back at the lands of Snow beyond the wall. "Who is this demon, and where may I find him?" He asks after a moment, his smirk widening.
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Both Ingrounded!Hikaru and Subgrounded!Hikaru watched as he smirked and then looked at one another for a quick second. "On second thought..." Subgrounded!Hikaru muttered, "Just agree to free me when you take the throne and we will lend our assistance. For the soul we will take care of that ourselves... I do not quite trust you with the one thing that can be used as a means of control..."
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Kerion chuckles, shrugging. "A cheaper deal for me. That's fine. Now, how will we ensure the other will keep up their end of the bargain?" He asks, looking her right in the eyes, quite clearly not trusting her as far as she could through him.
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Niiv saw that he was getting nowhere, and thus decided to tka a different approach. He would begin to search the palace to see if he would find something useful. He left the room, making the false version he had created of himself leave in a different direction as to throw off any hostile persuers.
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"With no magic, the only thing one could do is contract their own Spirit.." Ingrounded!Hikaru rolled her eyes, "But neither of us quite trust you enough to do that. So in that regard, you are out of luck."
"And why does it matter in the first place? If I did turn on you, I would still be stranded in Hell. Taking it over does not change that, in fact it almost guarantees I would have to stay here, which I do not wish to do. Therefore, it is you that is the lest trustworthy in this bargain as you could simply refuse to free me at the time we did help."
"In other words, just do your part and we will do ours. If your turn on us, the result will not be one you will like." Ingrounded!Hikaru concluded after her counterpart Subgrounded!Hikaru had finished explaining.
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He chuckles. "No magic? Ah, I'd forgotten your race doesn't have anything similar to our Weaves. A shame. In any case, let us get things started, shall we? I think it's about time we ended this little contest." He says, stepping up to them and offering his hand. "Partners, for now?"
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"This is getting us nowhere!" Vincent yelled out to Keith, "What do ya say we end this now, hm? Once and for all!?"
As he uttered those words, it seemed like every inch of hell was shattering, like glass. Distortions. Chaos. Everyone would find the ground shaking violently, and find the ground below them phasing out and in, disappearing for a split second to the whiteness of nothingness, only to once more appear. It was as if hell itself were... Falling apart. Vincent's last move.
The moment someone set foot in the snowy domain of the Embodiment Of Cold (once Vahaga), a short yet skinny old man, much like a dwarf, bald, wearing villager clothing and carrying a wooden staff three times his height, appeared before the group, still well into the domain. He did not speak, but merely glared at the group, moving his head to motion that they should follow him as he glared at the scene of South falling apart before him.
And then he turned around and started walking into the snow.
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Keith grinned at the man's words. "Very well then! Loser buys the drinks, aye?"
Once he said his words and saw the plane falling apart, Keith knew what he had to do. Maybe not all of it, but perhaps enough would work...
The area under Keith's control appeared to shrink vastly, as though he was giving up ground, before instantly exploding outward. Except...He didn't control everything. Instead, the area of Hell he took over was a massive criss-crossing web of territory, all taken over by Keith's Chaos. Honestly, if it weren't for his foe's change in focus from holding ground to scorched earth, he probably wouldn't have been able to do this, but now it was all beginning.
As his foe tried to destroy hell, the web of control made by Keith's Chaos fought back, holding all of Hell together. Keith's control of Hell fought back, preventing even the parts not controlled by him from falling apart. All of this drained him immensely, though, having just taken a massive part of a dimension in a very, very short time, then using the area he'd taken up to stop the whole thing from collapsing. Both of the clubs growing from his back were now merged with the ground, and Keith ran at his foe, dragging them along the areas controlled by him as his arm turned into a blade.
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(As Hikaru has not posted yet, I will post solely as Luna until she does.)
Luna nods at the dwarf, looking onwards. "Is there anything left of the Lady Snow?" She asks, looking around, musing about how the destruction affecting South would not reach through the doorway.
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Before either of the Hikaru's could answer Kerion, they both realized what was happening with Hell and glanced at one another. If hell went, so did Subgrounded!Hikaru's soul. That could not be allowed to happen!"I will assist in helping you then..." Subgrounded!Hikaru moved forward as Ingrounded!Hikaru turned around and started to walk the other way.
"While I will obtain what is rightfully ours."
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Kerion smirks, chuckling. "Seems someone's going a bit overboard. I can keep this section intact, so there's at least something for you to come back to." He says, taking out what looked more like a hunting knife then an actual weapon. "Just be quick."
Luna nods at the dwarf, looking onwards. "Is there anything left of the Lady Snow?" She asks, looking around, musing about how the destruction affecting South would not reach through the doorway.
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OOC:Law of the Three Days(Sounds a tad more epic, don' ya think?)
With no adequate resistance made, Keith managed to take vast parts of Hell for his Web of territory, which stopped it from falling apart and in fact stabilized the entirety of the areas that his Foe tried to make fall. And then, Keith reached Vincent, plunging his blade into the other's body. Except...The blade of Chaos did not harm him. Well, not in a way that would cause him death or wounding, anyways. With his strike, he was making a connection to Vincent...A connection that would allow Keith to steal from him his bond to Hell itself. With that move, the fight would be over, and Keith would be bound undeniably to the Realm, as its true Lord and King.
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Keith had effectively become the ruler of South now, with Vincent, the last remaining link to Radical, defeated. But Vincent wasn't the one trying to destroy South -- his attack had only been what pushed South to it's limit. With everyone trying to control South at once, it was too much for the realm to bear... It was literally caving in on itself, and even as various parties tried to keep it together, it was quickly coming to its end.
So what did it do?
The souls of South -- not the ones in the domain of the embodiment of snow -- dead or alive, suddenly, would find themselves being forcefully teleported out of South as it began to cave in. It would be like a loud, violent pop -- much like forced teleportation in the Outerverse. So where were they being teleported to?
The Spirit Realm.
The only one who would not be teleported was Keith... He was binded to South, and he could make South stop from caving in. The question was, how would he do it?
In the domain of Snow, the old man gruffly shook his head at the question, before motioning that she follow him deeper into the domain.
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With his new link to Hell itself, Keith saw its structural instabilities within the framework of the Realm itself, as caused by the fighting over its control. He realized that while he was holding it together, if something was not done, it would definitely fall apart. So, Keith did something not at all insane and obviously completely rational.
He changed the plane itself to Chaos.
You see, Chaos was very much known for its unpredictability. Paradoxically, that was the only stable thing most people would probably know it for. Oh, most certainly you could direct Chaos, have it work towards your ends, especially if you're a creation OF Chaos itself...But ultimately how it does what it does is quite random. And because of this random aspect, as Keith changed more and more of Hell into Chaos, it grew both more and less stable. Some areas breaking under the stress of so many laying a claim became instead stronger the more stress was put there, other places the stress immediately disappeared as though it'd never been there. As well, some areas broke and cracked as the Chaos infusing the space itself increased the stress...And then there were areas where the stress(and other factors) caused simply random effects, such as making flowers with antlers for petles sprout or turning a hill into some sort of alien duck.
This all was not the only purpose of Keith's actions though. With more of Hell being made into Chaos, he had more and more control over it. He took the areas that were breaking apart, and focused the Chaos into mending them back together, and into relieving the strain and stress the dimension was going through. Hell itself was slowing raveling back together, becoming instabily stable from the influence of Chaos itself.
And Keith's own power, as he did all of this, was beginning to rise further, and further. Something in the back of his mind nagged at him about this...It was unsettling. He almost felt...Afraid of this new infusion of power. Like it might...Change him. Or...More like...Take him over?
-
As Keith repaired South, it was changing. Sure, it was changing into a realm of chaos, but more than that... It was giving up control -- transferring the power that had been Radical's over to Keith. It was crowning him. It was enlisting in him more than simple physical control over South... It was giving up the throne itself, to Keith.
Radical had been granted his power by Destruction and the embodiments. That power was what had made Radical so strong. And now, it belonged to Keith... Until the embodiments decided otherwise. Or until somebody killed Keith.
-
Kerion returns, seeing Keith. "Well now, it seems you beat me to it. That just can't be allowed to happen." He says, walking over to him. "Nisorin has a very high opinion of you, after your fight with his wife." He adds, stamping his foot to the ground to send a shockwave of his own energy out, contesting his domain and pulling together the ground around him for a good twenty feet.
-
"Fight with his...Celestie?" Keith said, running his memory for any beings similar to the one before him. "If your friends with them, then I honestly dont want to fight you." He said, frowning, as he focused his power to keep that area contested while pouring Chaos into the column of rock in order to weaken it enough to make it fall back down to his level. He simply appeared next to his "foe", using his current mastery over the plane to shift his location in it, and he just kind of scratched his head in confusion. "Before we fight, if we even will, can we at least talk?"
-
Kerion chuckles. "It's a little late for that. You have the key to something that I want, you see." He says, looking to the incarnation. "There's something hidden deep within the ancient city that I need. And I really don't care who gets in the way. Now, what is it you'd like to talk about?" He asks, his hand sparking with the return of magic, which makes him grin all the wider.
-
"Um...Ok. Whatever you're looking for, you can have it. I'll help you find it if you want." Keith says, bemused that this line of thought, that Keith would help him, hadn't crossed the man's mind. "I dont like fighting allies, so I just wanted a way to peacefully resolve this conflict I dont really understand. Whatever it is your looking for I can guarantee Im not here for."
-
Kerion smirks, looking around them. "Look around you, Incarnation. Tell me what you see." He says, his eyes shining with some sort of unknown vision-based spell. His stance was relaxed, as if completely unbothered by the oppressive atmosphere and unnatural denizens of South.
-
In actuality, the atmosphere was quite different than the norm for Hell and its denizens were, of course, quite gone at the moment due to them having been teleported out already. Even so, Keith looked around bemusedly, saying,"Uhh...Hellscape? Chaos-Infused dirt? I dont...Um...Im not sure what I should be looking for."
-
"G'day brother," Chaos said casually, walking into the room, "Excuse me for interrupting your conversation. Please, don't mind me. Go on. Discuss... Well, whatever it is that the two of you were discussing. Sounds rather boring. By the way, I love what you've done with the place."
-
Kerion scowls, glaring at Chaos. "Leave this place, Chaos, this is none of your concern." He says, watching him with a wary eye. He turns back to Keith. "I do so hate being interrupted..."
-
"None of my concern?" Chaos asked, materializing a gold sphere of magic in his hand and tossing it angrily towards Kerion, a scowl upon his face. "None of my concern!? NONE OF MY CONCERN!? I'll have you know, that right here, right now, is EVERY BIT my concern, and it is you who should be disposed of."
-
After Chaos walked in, the Bag-Headed Man did as well. Keith looked at them both with some shock, he certainly hadn't expected Chaos...But the Bag-Headed Man? Keith almost never saw him even IN the Chaos Warp, let alone outside of there. And there was how familiar he was acting around Chaos, Keith really didn't think they knew each other. "Uhm...Actually, guy, this...This might be my brothers business. I...Um...Look, just tell me what your looking for and I'll give it to ya, its not really that big a deal...But if my both of those guys are here...That...That might be a bit bigger."
-
Kerion looks to Chaos, the space between them opening up like a mouth, snapping shut and devouring the ball of magic. "You are the one who interrupted a private conversation. I will ask you again, please leave us to our chat. We won't be long." He says, looking back to Keith. "My name is Kerion Derto. And you, are Keith, incarnation of Chaos. I seek entry into the Negative side of Existence, and I believe the door is here in Hell."
-
"Oh can we not just skip the theatrics for once and just get on with it?" Subgrounded!Hikaru also walked in with the Bag-Headed-Man, her gaze directed at surveying the throne room around them, watching for any and every danger. "I do not believe it is interrupting when the end goal is battle. Who the hell ever heard of manners in combat?" She rolled her eyes.
-
"The nerve of some people," Chaos replied, agreeing with his daughter, "Brother. Can we please dispose of this one? He does annoy me so."
-
(Hiiirroooo?)
-
Keith just kinda looked at Chaos and Pink-Hair with a 'What the fuck are you two going on about???' look, before pinching his eyebrows together and saying to Kerion,"Yeah, that should be fine. Just give me some time to find this entrence for ya when I have a chance, or if you know where it is just let me know if you need my help for it. If not then go for it, thats fine by me, I dont see how that'd be a problem at all."
After this, he turned back to them, saying,"Yyyyeah...Uhm...Alllright, what is it that you all need so desperately? And...Uhh...How do you..."He pointed to Chaos and Pink Hair,"Know...Him?" At this, he pointed to the Bag-Headed Man, who responded with,"That parts kinda a long story. One we reeaaally dont have time for."
-
Kerion sighs yet smirks, nodding to Keith. "We will be in touch soon, worry not." He says, turning towards the Palace. "I do wonder what's going on in there, though." He muses, before opening a rip in the space before him, walking through and closing it directly behind him.
-
"You," Subgrounded!Hikaru growled, "Shut HIM up."
She glared at Chaos intensely. Why did she put up with these idiots? She hated her family. This was why she hated her family. It was always save-the-world or tame-the-evil-embodiment with them. And they never took anything seriously.
Ingrounded!Hikaru appeared with a resounding pop, glaring around the room before looking at her counterpart. She proceeded to announce, "You. Embodiment guy. Let us make this easy. You give up control of Hell to the demon Antonio. I spare your life."
-
(Imma guess this makes it my post...)
"I...Whuh...Er...You two are twins?????????????" Keith said when the second Pink-Hair appeared, then getting himself back together enough to be confused if she meant him("Uh...Embodi...Ment? Are any of you guy...No? She means me? Um...Uh...O...Ok? Im...Not...Embodiment, though????????") to facepalm at what she said. "One thing, you dont intimidate me. Two, I dont HAVE a life to be spared. And three, uh...Who the fuck is Antonio, your demon boyfriend or something????"
-
Both Hikarus appeared very flustered as Keith kept talking, but by the boyfriend comment, their face had gone from the same shade of hot pink as their hair to a red. Subgrounded Hikaru growled, shouting out, "Grrr... You will die for that, cretin!"
"Let's make this quick," he said, "Dear ol' Dad has picked you to take over the family business. A lotta people have problems with that. Starting with me. So let's get this out of the way. I take it you two are acquainted," he said, motioning towards bagman. "This guy's got a plan, which requires us to get our hands on Revelation, which THESE two," he said, glaring at the Hikarus, "Will only help with if we help her get her soul back."
"Ahem," Ingrounded!Hikaru cleared her throat, "As I was SAYING," she glared at Chaos angrily, "I can only get my soul back if you are... Dealt with. The person who owns my soul also claims to own this place. But he says you are in his way.. Which makes you a problem."
-
"...I...See. If I remember right...That is indeed rather bad for me, brother. We'll need to do this as quickly as possible, I should think." Keith said, nodding, then turning to the Pink-Hair twins. "My apologies, my apologies...I honestly dont know much about you. I was just guessing, first thing that came to mind as any reason you'd be doing anything for him. This...Person, though. What if I get your Soul thing back for you? I mean, thats all he's got hanging over your heads, right? I have no intention of fighting you...But from the way it sounds, this guy is in MY way, which leaves me little choice but to go through him anyways. I might as well get you back your Soul while Im there, right? And if brother's right, the Man has a plan that needs you Soul-Intact, so all I'd need in return appears to be something you were here for anyways."
-
"And how can we trust you?" Subgrounded!Hikaru growled, pointing at Chaos. "You are his brother. What is to say you do not take my soul and run off with it and use it for yourself?"
-
"Tell me how, then. I honestly dont want your soul for myself, I have no use for it...Besides that, its rightfully your own. What proof would you ask?"
-
"I do not really care of the fight you two have going on," Ingrounded!Hikaru muttered as she pointed at Keith. "I despise the both of you, one for being family, the other for wronging my counterpart. However one has my counterparts soul and the other must die for me to re-obtain it. That was the terms of the contract, and therefore that will be end game. Besides, I would be killing two birds with one stone here, getting rid of you means getting rid of Anarchy as well or so these fools proclaim." She gestured to Chaos and the bag-headed-man. "Or you could... you know, just surrender Hell to him and you would not have to die."
"I am with my counterpart on this," Subgrounded!Hikaru spoke up as well, "I have no reason to help any of you except to get back what is mine. The rest of this does not concern me in the least." She laughed aloud, "In fact, helping my family was never appealing in the first place."
-
"Brother," Chaos noted, "I know of the one they call Antonio... He is... Not the kind to share what he feels is his. He has been the right hand man of Radical for sometime... Perhaps it is best we destroy him."
-
"Or you could just give him Hell." Ingrounded!Hikaru rolled her eyes as she stated, "Then he gets what he wants. I get what I want, and in the end the idiot still gets saved from your father. Everyone wins."
Subgrounded!Hikaru merely nodded.
Ingrounded!Hikaru then looked at Chaos, "And if you disagree with me. I will kill you. I am far more powerful than you in this state. And ending your life would be so much easier now."
-
"Oh, we'll give him hell, alright," Chaos replied, smiling. When his daughter threatened him, however, Chaos glared at her, anger burning in his eyes. He stared directly into her eyes, and in a harsh, dark voice, he stated, "I'm not afraid of you."
-
At that Ingrounded!Hikaru glared, "Really? Do you want to test that." She closed her eyes and sighed, weighing every option. Finally after seconds, her mind made up, she opened her eyes and walked over to her counterpart and stood just inches in front of her, causing Subgrounded!Hikaru to look at her in question. Ingrounded!Hikaru however just ignored her and continued to glare at Chaos. "I have had just about enough of you." She gestured, holding up a hand with her palm up.
"People always come to wonder. Why exactly would a gifted young magic user such as myself with every good intention in the world EVER try to destroy my family? Was I insane? Was I mistreated? Abused? Not right in the head? Or was it simply..." She stared right at him, catching his look, "because of you? YES! That's right! You! And her!" Ingrounded!Hikaru gestured to Gloria, "Always getting in my way." With a roll of her eyes Ingrounded!Hikaru continued, "Oh no these spells are much too powerful! Oh no! You should not do that, you could get hurt."
With a short laugh, Ingrounded!Hikaru ended her mocking, "Always putting all kinds of rules on using magic, and the types of magic. Almost as if you were afraid that I or someone else of the family was gonna become like your dear old father. Was that it? Limitation for fear? That is how it seemed. I had to turn to Salus just for a source to practice magic with. And yet! when the brats were born. Oh no! These were the heirs of Genesis! These were the gifted, the ones to hold great magical power! Even more powerful than their sister. Not that she even had a chance...." Ingrounded!Hikaru pointed at Chaos while Subgrounded!Hikaru could only nod. "THEN when something is actually done about it, we split up for years, and you return actually tolerable at a point that I actually care for my family again. What do you do? Try to kill the three of us. Join a group, and go after us one by one, as if family means nothing.
"Well in all honesty, I have had enough. You treat family in the beginning like everything only to turn around and counter our every attack even going so far as to kill us or stand by and watch your boss imprison and trade us to hell.. THEN you want to come here and try to put family over all again? I believe that is what you call hypocrisy. And I will take no more." With that, Ingrounded!Hikaru ended her small rant and snapped her fingers. A sphere of Deicide fire forming above Chaos.
"Wait you can-" Subgrounded!Hikaru started to exclaim before she was cut off by the actions of Ingrounded!Hikaru. The sphere of Deicide fire had at that moment faded from sight, and sense, having slipped into an alternate plane and fallen on Chaos.
"Any last words father?" Ingrounded!Hikaru spat the question out before again snapping her fingers, allowing the sphere of Deicide Fire to rejoin the Physical and Spiritual plane, right in the area that Chaos occupied.
-
It was true. Chaos had been a kind and caring man back then, and in those days he had even used a name more preferable than Chaos. As if Chaos were an entirely different persona. His family and life in the Era Village had made him a better person... When his daughter, his pride and joy, destroyed it all, he was... Devastated.
And he had once more become Chaos, son of Anarchy, destroyer of all. He was... Evil. All he truly wanted was to... Kill his daughter for what she had done to him. Even if it meant destroying his sons to do so. The Anrufe had been a means to an end... But the truth was... Killing Hikaru had been his purpose all along, even after finding out that the village was still around.
Even if it meant throwing away his wife. She meant nothing to him now. Not if it meant getting in his way. He had loved her once, and perhaps still did, but all along, his love had been obstructed by hate. The Anrufe had changed him. And he... Wanted revenge.
"Last words?" he replied. "Your brothers were my favorite."
And with that, the fire shifted into the Physical Plane, occupying the same space that he was. Seeing as this could not happen, the fire literally ripped him to shreds. But that wasn't all. The fire had gone through the Astral Planes as well. He was literally being killed, both physically and spiritually. His body exploded near instantly, his blood and guts splattering the room as his spirit also burned.
The moment it happened, Gloria rushed to his side. Screaming, she casted a spell at Ingrounded!Hikaru.
"Yeitos!" she yelled out, zapping streaks of purple energy at her daughter... But the rebound caused her to fall backwards into her deceased husband's arms... And into the Decide Fire. Screaming, her entire body caught as she, too, died in the arms of her husband, her body and her husband's burned to a crisp.
...Silence.
And then, a black wave as the magic signature of Era Tyris suddenly spiked up from Chaos's dead body before fading once more... Era Tyris was awake, and Chaos was dead. Chaos, as it so happened, held a part of Era's power... Chaos had sealed part of Era's soul away long ago... Now, with Chaos's death, it returned to him in the Vaccus Galaxy.
Silence again.
"What. The. Hell."
Having appeared there, Cole Tyris and Chal glanced at the dead bodies, at the two Hikarus, at the weird bag-headed man, at the Anrufe member who somehow had... Changed South... It was just like him. The entire place smelled of chaotic energies. Of Keith.
"You fool!" Chal shouted out to Hikaru, "We needed him! The Keeper's Court needs him! Do you know what y-ooooOOOWOOAHHH!"
The entire realm of South began to shake. Again? Yes, again, but this time the realm wasn't falling apart... But the entire palace was, well... Filled with the noise of cracking. Something... Bad was about to happen. Something very bad was about to happen.
-
Keith had watched in slight shock at the fight going on in front of him, mostly unsure what had triggered it. He didn't really know much about his family's history, hadn't been important to him, but he hadn't expected it to come to violence.
And then, in an instant, his brother and his brother's wife were both dead. And in that instant, something began to happen to Keith. Something in his twisted but well-meaning mind began to..Snap. As though it'd been twisted way too far. And as it snapped, another thing happened. This thing...Far, far worse.
The rumbling stopped almost as soon as it began. Keith's influence in the immediate area increased dramatically as Chaos everywhere began to multiply. Not in small amounts, either. The Chaos that was appearing was in the levels necessary to erase sanity from those afflicted. Devour intelligence. Instincts would become dominant as all Order and rational thought was purged from all the Chaos washed over. Keith himself simply slouched back a little, laughing as his hair, normally unaffected by gravity and floating everywhere around him, suddenly fell. At the front it covered his eyes while the back draped over his armor...And then, his hair fused to what it touched. It fused into his face and his armor before forming into a helmet, connected to his armor by a haphazard chainmail. The helmet didn't cover his mouth, though it had sever spikes at the bottom that apparently represented teeth, and two holes where his eyes would be simply emitted a dull red glow. All the while he refused to stop laughing maniacally, and the rest of him began to change. His gauntlets became clawed, his boots became taloned, eyes opened everywhere upon his armor, and wings grew upon the back. Not in any sensible fashion of course, there were about 13 of various sizes and locations. And as all THIS happened, the palace itself began to change as the Chaos infested the area. Pillars twisted and became tendrils, works of art became gaping maws. The architecture twisted and grew as things incomprehensible by a sane mind took shape. Suddenly Keith stopped laughing entirely, though his mouth still remained in a crazed grin, and turned at everyone here.
"Why, oh why, dear, beloved family, must we all come to fight and slay one another? Must that be the way of the cruel, heartless world? Or but the actions of us who live within it, perhaps. Hm. Hadn't quite thought THAT way! Is my perfect little utopia but a impossible dream? Oh, y'know, nothing really much, just a world where my father kinda sorta TALKED to me instead of trying to kill me when we were in his realm, maybe a little bit of peace between kin instead of FIGHTING whenever one of the relatives meet together to discuss things. I dont really hate my family, you all see. Kinda cant, since I dont know them! But maybe, juuuuuuust MAYBE! I would like them. I would like that. It would be a nice change of pace. Anyways, you two want me to give up hell for your liiiiittle boytoy whatshisface? Weeeeell, deary ol' relative o' mine, yer doing a right FANTASTIC job of convincing me! Oh hey, maybe next we can chat about shoes or politics or whatever the fuck you two talk about after killing and eating some OTHER relative I might happen to like! Also whothefuckareyoutwosupposedtobe? Cant you see we're having a FAMILY MOMENT here!? I mean unless you have a little something to contribute I mean I guess that'd be fine."
All the while, after Keith had completely snapped, the bag-headed man began to tremble in terror. All he managed to say was,"You two...You've ruined everything."
And then he fell to the ground, apparently in a catatonic state.
-
"Y-you killed him..." Subgrounded!Hikaru couldn't believe the sight that had just happened before her eyes. Even if they were counterparts. The two of them had far different experiences the last hundreds of years, and at this point, Subgrounded!Hikaru would not have done what her counterpart just did. The fact she never ended the life of that fool Gaserlake showed that. In fact, ever since she had unsealed all of her memories, Subgrounded!Hikaru had trouble killing anyone for that matter. So to watch her father die, even as betraying as he was, and by the hand of her own counterpart which may as well have been considered by her own hand? Subgrounded!Hikaru could only stare aghast.
"Oh please." Ingrounded!Hikaru dusted her hands off as if cleaning the act from them. "Do not even act like you did not want it to happen. We are the same, I know and have the same desires as you. It was about time he died. Besides..." She glanced to the now transformed Keith as the shaking which had been stopped for but a few seconds started up again, this time more roughly and violently, as if shaking the entire foundations of Hell a part. "We have more pressing matters to deal with. That attack did not come without cost, if you remember my former warnings..." Her eyes flashed as she looked above her where the skies of Hell suddenly turned white, as if they had just become Deletrius. As if they were 'deleted.' "Existence is here."
Subgrounded!Hikaru merely shook her head, "We may have been the same at the time that we split But I doubt we think the same now. You did NOT need to kill h-" She was cut off by the violent shaking as she spun herself around to keep balance. "Just look where it has lead!" Her shout instantly became lost in the torrential wreck that was starting to envelop Hell. They had alerted Existence to the contradictions which existed through that attack. And now that Existence knew where they were, it was one step closer to correcting the problem.
At that moment... All Hell was literally torn apart, one side ripped off from the other as a white gash appeared between the two halves, a vortex of strong energies pulling from the gash as white lights tore through it and encompassed the entire area.
-
"Wh--wh---WHAT THE HELL!?" Chal shouted as the entire place began to shake, as South itself was literally ripped apart, a good chunk of it was instantly... Destroyed... Deleted to nothing but whiteness... Empty space... The entire place was becoming unstable as the whiteness spread throughout the skies...
But it wasn't seeking to destroy South. No. It was seeking to fix the contradiction. It was seeking... To wipe it out from existence entirely. From the whiteness in between the two pieces of the realm, where it had just been cut in half, it came for them... A streak of white coming straight towards Ingrounded!Hikaru like a paintbrush running across the canvas.
Raw instinct was kicking in, alright. Appearing near the two, K2323 quickly grabbed onto both of them, forcefully teleporting them away. He ran over to the bagheaded man on the ground, noting the dead bodies of his father and mother, slung the man over his shoulder, and teleported away as well.
-
Before the beam of white light could come any closer Ingrounded!Hikaru had grabbed the wrist of her counterpart, Subgrounded!Hikaru and teleported out of the way. At this point it did not matter if she used any magic as they had already angered Existence, not that magic would affect anything Existence threw at them anyways. Magic was nothing compared to the powers of existence itself, not when magic was a part of existence and could thus effectively be cut off. Luckily the powers of an Ingrounded were nearly equal to that.
"I knew this would happen!" Ingrounded!Hikaru floated above the scene with her counterpart, once more having narrowly missed a strike by Existence. "Maybe I should have waited for later to have killed him..."
"Or maybe you should not have killed him at all!" Subgrounded!Hikaru glared at her counterpart.
Ingrounded!Hikaru scoffed as she grabbed her counterpart and teleported out of the way of a quite deadly beam of white, "Look! Whether you like it or not. We are the SAME. Experiences be damned! Whatever differences we now have will not matter once we merge back anyways."
At that Subgrounded!Hikaru said nothing for a long while, until she silently shook her head, "No. I am now more sure than I ever was. Even if we were once one and we shared desires and thoughts. When that spell happened it not only split us a part but also set us on different paths." With a look of defiance, Subgrounded!Hikaru continued, a grimace upon her face, "I have.. I have..." She paused, the words coming out with difficult. "I have changed! And in that change, I look back at you, and do not like what I see. I do not like what I once was. Therefore I will not merge back with you!"
Taken aback, Ingrounded!Hikaru looked almost surprised before quickly glancing around them. Through their talk the white lights had caught on to her escape methods and had now cornered them on all sides. Existence was getting smarter and she had to do something about it before it erased them both. "Too bad!" With a forceful grip on her counterparts, Subgrounded!Hikaru's wrist, Ingrounded!Hikaru declared, "At this point it is not up for debate. Existence has found us, and you do not have a choice!" With that, Ingrounded!Hikaru pulled Subgrounded!Hikaru closer to her and used her hand to reach into the very spirit of her counterpart, taking hold of it and pulling it into her own, a golden light enveloping them both at the exact same time as the white lights of Existence enclosed on them.
When the lights cleared, Hikaru, both Hikaru's were gone. Had they truly been erased? Deleted from Existence itself? Or...?
-
The white beams stopped. Existence itself seemed to be... Confused. Then, realizing what had occurred, it decided that it was done here. What did it leave behind? South was still in tact, for the most part. But there were holes, huge holes within it. Beams of white running across miles of land, where existence had deleted parts of South. Chaotic energies were seeping into this whiteness, into the mass of white that surrounded South itself.
It was up to Keith to rebuild it from here.
Appearing near the seemingly chaotic Keith, K2323 shouted at... it. "YOU! I don't care if you're my uncle or grandfather or whatever! Where is my s... Are my sisters!?"
-
'Keith' looked to his apparent nephew, and tilted his...Head. Thing. The red glow in his eyes had turned dull, though many more eyes appeared on his body of all shapes and forms. A few were turned towards K2, however many seemed to be aimlessly staring at random points all around them. If one looked at the 'deleted' portions, they might notice the space stitching itself back together into more and more eldritch and indescribable forms. 'Keith' didn't care right now, though. He didn't know what just happened nor what was happening...To him, to his kin, to anything. Memories, none his own flooded his mind; alien thoughts appeared from nowhere. Yet some small bit, of him or someone...SomeTHING else he was unaware, kept him mostly still, kept him from...Attacking? Helping? He wasn't sure what it was stopping him from doing, wasn't sure if he wanted to fight it.
"I...Dont know. The two Pink-Hairs were there. They wanted to attack me, after they attacked my so...Brother. Brother? I cant tell...I tried to speak with them. For what purpose, Im unsure...To stop them from fighting, to ensure it...Idontknow Then the white. Everywhere, white of the purest shade. Annoying, not enough ambience, not enough diversity. The one Pink-Hair was worried, the other mad at her. You came, took the others. The white came for them...They spoke to each other, bickering over something I understand not. Then the one reached into the other, and pulled her into her. Then they were gone...The white washed over them, yet I think too late. Now...I have answered your question. Helped you. Maybe...I cant tell. You...In return. Whats happening...To me...Us...I...I believe I need help. Kin...Please help me."
-
The chaos would find the very moment it touched the white in order to patch it up, it would be swallowed and erased, deleted from its very existence. This was not some mere power of the material world that the chaos could match or even change. This was the power of existence ittself, left behind in patches within Hell. The places erased had been deleted and that remained was pure untouched canvas.
Though existence had seemingly stopped and went away, the patches refused to vanish. What's more it had not stopped with and continued its pace of multiplying as it flooded the realm. Pretty soon Hell would be overtaken by pure white. But this white was different... Instead of simply erasing what it had consumed, it instead painted it.
At the same time as that happened, within the white gash left through the center of Hell there appeared what looked like a girl.. As she moved forward one could see that she was as white as the realm around her. Her hair White. As white as the attacks of existence and the light she appeared in. Her clothes? Also white. Even her eyes. All white. Pure unscathed platinum white. "Touch not the beyond, dwellers of the living. For if you do it will consume your very essence." Her voice like ice, with every word that she spoke it would bring pain to the ears.
When at last she had stopped, she stood before them. White light surrounding her entire form as she looked to the two that remained.
-
"Long story," K2323 replied, "You're Keith. Kinda. You're transforming. Ascending into an embodiment. I think we can try to slow the process down, if you'd like."
He glared over at the white girl, rolling his eyes. "You. Who the hell are you?"
-
"I am Satya, a messenger," the girl spoke, her gaze never leaving the two of them. "The contradiction has disappeared. But this place too must disappear as it has been tainted by the contradiction." By now the entire realm was pure white, so white that it hurt to look at it. All it needed was the signal from the girl before it too would be erased to nothing, nothing but a blank white canvas. "You dwellers of the material world will not be harmed. This place and its connections, however, it will not last." She closed her eyes. "You have been informed."
At that, the girl immediately collapsed to the ground, the white glow disappearing from her form as at the same time the entirety of the realm of Hell would be swallowed to none-other than Deletrius, having been deleted from the material world. The people, dead or alive, however, would remain within the white canvas that remained.
-
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASY!" K2323 shouted as the white glow started to fade. He shut his eyes, concentrating really hard... Trying to push his spirit into the fading white glow. Push his very being into whatever it was... He had to find the answers to his questions. Nothing else was important right now.
-
The white glow simply faded out, the attempt rejected.
-
"Well, damn, I feel silly," K2323 simply said, blinking as he glanced around. Where.. The hell were they? All he could see was whiteness, all around. There was no floor, no nothing. They were all just... Floating.... Well, until he chose to look up. That's when he saw it.
A massive structure, that expanded for miles in every direction, far high above the denziens and dead who had just been in Hell moments ago. What would they see up above? Well, first a blue ocean of sorts, expanding out in every such direction as well -- an ocean of energies. But above the "ocean" -- the dimensional sea? They would see a structure of many different colors and sizes, a shell of some sort... Pulsing.
They were looking at the Outerwalls of the Dimensional Plane.
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K2323 could feel it. A mere whisper in an ocean of screaming, but it was there. Hikaru. Somewhere. He couldn't trace it. He was good, but not that good. Someone was using her soul. And... It... Hurt. Pain flooded his entire body. His hand rushed to his head. Blood surrounded him. All over. Something was happening.
Out of his back, a rusty, black chain had sprung free, blood gushing out of the wound that it had created. The chain was still linked to him, but out of his upper-left back, near his shoulder blade, the chain had come forth. A chain of Destruction. The mark of one of the embodiment's followers... It was calling him, as if Hikaru's magic signature had been something familiar to it, enough to awaken it.
And then, K2323 was gone.
-
Hours later after K2323 had left, many of the nomads had calmed down and had agreed on sending a search party into the 'new lands' that had recently fallen into the realm. Many did not want to go, but at this point they needed to know what they were dealing with. Therefore it was decided to send a few teams, one who would investigate just the outskirts, others would delve further and the rest would backup the ones that ran into trouble.
Eventually one such team had made it to the palace and had found the fallen Keith and unconscious Satya, both of which they tried to wake in an attempt to help.
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"I wouldn't touch them," a voice mused as Vincent Hearts (http://shatteredplanes.com/forum/index.php?topic=6069.msg53661#msg53661) appeared silently at the doorway, wearing a tattered, brown coat that covered everything but his face. Realizing that this group seemed to be, well, not from around the area, he tried to be gentle as not to scare them off. "Who knows how they might respond."
He quietly walked over to the form of Keith, kneeling before him. "Seems you got your wish after all, friend. But not in a way that either of us would have expected. Best wishes to you, then. Maybe we'll meet again in the afterlife, eh?"
He smiled at his joke before approaching the nomads, and Satya. Picking her up gently and holding her in his arms, he glared at the nomads. "The name's Vincent. It's a pleasure."
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"You...Owe me a drink. Or something. You sound familiar anyways...So hard telling what thoughts are mine...And what are...Someone...Or thing...Else's..." Keith said, still laying facedown in the ground. He brought his hand to the ground next to his head and simply pushed, falling up to his feet. If the nomads hadn't seen the horror of his helm before, it was readily apparent now, even with the glow from the eyes very much dimmed. His armor wasn't really much better honestly, what with the mouths and eyes everywhere, but it was clear that he wasn't looking to harm any of them. He was too preoccupied with other thoughts for that right now. "Would you do a former foe, and now hopeful ally a favor, friend? If you know where the one who ordered that familicidal witch to cause this mess resides, please tell me where this is. Such a transgression his stupidity has caused cannot be allowed to remain unpunished. If you help me, I can promise you it will not go unrewarded, of course. Not as a superior or as a king...I can promise this to you as a friend and ally."
-
When the group of nomads got a good look at Vincent and a better look at Keith, they literally freaked out realizing just what they had tried to 'help.' Originally thinking it was fellow humans, the group didn't know what to think as some started screaming and running in circles.
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"...You all have very poor survival instincts. You listen to your fears, which is good, that will keep you alive, but you succumb to panic and make more obvious targets of yourselves. If you met a true horror or monster, your running around like that would get you all eaten alive. You are lucky that I have no desire to harm any of you, nor shall I. If you fear something, you run away from it or you hide. Fortuneately for you all, I am not a flesh-hungry terror and hold no desire to harm you. Especially after you were quite kind enough to try and give me aid, unnecessary as it may have been." Keith? said as tendrils of Chaos rose from the ground to grab at their feet, holding them still long enough for him to have their attention and tell them what he wanted to tell them. The Chaos dissipated when he was done with that, and he simply nodded to them and listened for Vincent's reply.
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"Thank you, my friend," he replied, nodding his head at Keith, "The one you seek... He and I are linked. We are perhaps the only two living beings who have the same orb of recognition, the mark that we are Radical's property. The mark that we are his generals. I can find him. Should we..." he glared at the humans, "Leave them be?"
-
Eventually, long after the chaos outside had gone down and the entire realm had shifted to Deletrius, Luna and the old man would reach a large cliff that oversaw one of the many mountains of the domain. The snow was harsh and cold in such high altitudes, and the old man quickly led Luna into a cave, out of the cold, where he nodded his head towards a large treasure box with a huge lock on it.
While the old man said nothing, whispers filled the air from the box, and seemingly from the entire domain itself, as if it were speaking.
"Not safe. Not safe. Move it. Hide it. They can enter. They can come here and take it. Hide the box. Keep it safe."
-
Luna stretches her fingers, looking over the box. "What is in here that is in such danger?" She muses aloud, looking around for the source of the voice. "Who seeks Vahaga's treasure?" She asks, before examining the lock.
-
A chilling wind swept through the entire domain as it replied. "
Yloh."
It had used one of the many nicknames for the embodiment of Destruction. What would Destruction want with a treasure chest in the domain of the embodiment of snow? Who knew. However; apparently, the domain felt it important enough to warrant seeking outside help.
-
Luna laughs, smiling as she tries to open the chest. "Ararus is dead. His children, twins, have taken up the mantle and they have no clue what they're doing." She says, tracing a fingertip along the engravings on the chest. "But I will protect Vahaga's treasure all the same. Neither Destruction nor Creation nor any of the other Embodiments will lay a finger upon it."
-
Memories were a powerful thing. So was magic. So, it was not uncommon for memories to bind themselves to certain powerful magical artifacts. When Luna touched the chest, some of these memories would go flowing through her head -- memories of Ararus in the face of death at times in the past. And most importantly, memories of his visit to Vahaga's domain some eight or nine years prior.
"I thank you for allowing us entrance into your domain Lady Vahaga, I also thank you for your protection of my object. I must ask that you hand it over to me, it is no longer safe here.."
His words had rang out into the icy cold on that day.
"And as for the object of yours.. Well, I'm afraid you have too much power as it is, even in that binded form. And so, I shall not be handing it over to you."
Her reply had the strange tone of finality in it.
And then, images of what came next -- Vahaga's death at the hands of Koty. Molihik, the embodiment of Decay, arriving to fight Vahaga -- no doubt one of the first battles of the Embodiment Civil War. Koty's running from the domain as it started to crumble in Vahaga's death. And most importantly, the item he had come for still safely in Vahaga's domain.
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Luna frowns, shaking her head to clear the residual memories away. "Vahaga... I had thought this was one of your possessions, but this is far more important..." She says, finally opening the chest to examine the contents. "How very, very interesting..."
-
The moment she started to open the chest, the old man's hand clutched onto hers, fear in his eyes, but seeing that Luna meant no harm, he relaxed. Vahaga's successor had yet to come around, but the force of cold, or to be more precise, the force of the feeling of coldness, could still command his/her faithful servants. It had been the same for Fatet before K2323 had become the embodiment some years prior -- her faithful servants, known as "Limbs", had done her will for her.
In the same way, Vahaga's servants did HER will. This old man understood that, whatever was in this chest, it was important. Speaking for the first time, his voice was raspy and ancient, and it had obviously not been used in years. The words hurt, but he managed to issue them with time and care. "What has become... Of... T-the one of the fire realm we share this p-place with?"
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She looks to him. "South? When I arrived here, it was embroiled in a civil war over who would hold dominion. How that war has panned out since I arrived, I do not know. For all I know, it may no longer exist."
-
"Where," he began, his words more harsh now, but kind all the same, "Is. He. Who. L-l-leads? He. W-who. H-has. THE TAILS?"
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She frowns, moving to stand between him and the chest. "What tails are you talking about?" She asks, clearly not knowing what was going on. Her hands instinctively cover in frost, one atop the chest, the other at her side.
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"The m-mean b-b-being with t-tails from the realm of the f-fire," the old man insisted, "He who leads."
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She smiles. "Do you mean Lucifer? He has been killed."
-
His eyes spread incredibly wide. To hear such news was obviously enough to make a person speechless, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on this man, who burst into questions. "By who!? How!? When!? Who has taken his place!?"
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She backs up a bit, frowning. "I don't know who or how, but it must have been recently because the fight for his successor was still raging as I arrived. Will you please tell me what the Hell is going on?!"
-
"G-G-G...Gall," he replied.
At the mere utter of the word, apparently an incredibly ancient word in itself, an incredibly huge force would cause not only Vahaga's domain, but Old South which it was connected to, to begin shaking violently again for what had to be the billionth time that day. This time, a loud buzzing noise filled the air, very loudly. The old man was yelling at Luna now, but his words would be drowned out by the humming, his lips moving too quickly to be easily read. He pointed repeatedly at the chest in the process of yelling.
In the throne room, Vincent, now panicked, looked over at Keith. "What's happening now?"
-
She scowls, ripping open the box to grab what was inside, already working together a complex, soundproof barrier-array around her and the man. "Now, what's going on?!" She growls, looking around at the quaking domain.
Kerion, sneaking about Hell seeking the throne room, braces himself as everything starts to shake. He uses this chance to get into the throne room, sticking to the shadows and suppressing his magical signature, camoflauging himself using internal magic to match the wall behind him. 'What's this?'
-
"I-I-I have f-f-failed my duty," he rambled now, seemingly speaking to someone, but not Luna. It was as if he were glaring at someone standing next to Luna that she could not see. "P-p-PLEAS-lease f-f-forgive me, m-master. That wretched embodiment, s-s-she kept me b-busy."
When he, indirectly of course, referenced Vahaga as a 'wretched' embodiment, the domain grew even harsher still among the shaking of the realm. Gushes of snow began to fly into the cave as the mountain above quickly started to form an avalanche from all the shaking. Things were getting bad everywhere, especially for the old man and Luna.
"I-I-I know, m-master... Yes, I understand... N-n-no, I could- Yes. Yes, okay. T-t-thank you, master. I will n-not fail you this time."
And then, he glanced at Luna, a wicked smile spreading across his old wrinkled face as he ran deeper into the darkness of the cave, laughing as he left. His laughter echoed through the cave long after his body disappeared in the darkness the cave provided, but the snow seemed to be chasing after him, coming into the cave, threatening to crush Luna as it continued building up.
All over the realm, the ground would slowly begin to crack, faults forming all across it.
-
Luna sighs, holding her free hand out, her eyes suddenly flashing an ice blue as the snow halts. "I do mot know who you are, but it would be wise to stand down." She calls out, pocketting the object from the chest before laying her palm against the wall of the cave. The cracking slows, and blue tendrils chase after the old man. "I' Luna Ceris, call upon the ancient snows of the forgotten peaks! Vahaga's student has become her equal, and now I claim this place in her will!"
-
A blue spell circle seemed to form in the cave, glowing, a source of light in the now-dark cave blocked by snow, which had, of course, stopped by Luna's call. Out of the spell circle, a strange glob of white goo began to rise up and form the shape of a humanoid, female.
-
"Thank you, my friend," he replied, nodding his head at Keith, "The one you seek... He and I are linked. We are perhaps the only two living beings who have the same orb of recognition, the mark that we are Radical's property. The mark that we are his generals. I can find him. Should we..." he glared at the humans, "Leave them be?"
OOC:GAH, Sorry K2, I completely missed this post entirely. Uhm. Lemme respond to it, short though the response may be.
Keith? nodded, saying,"Yes. If you would, please help guide me to him."
-
"Right, then. Hold on tight," he joked. Even if Keith could have actually held on to anything (for that matter, how did he not simply sink through things?), it would not be necessary, as the two -- actually, three, considering Satya was still passed out on Vincent's back -- in no time at all, were gone, leaving the nomads probably more lost and confused than ever.
...Hopefully none of them would take a wrong step and end up on the never-ending stairs.
(OFF to Other, the topic Insanus.)
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Luna watches the woman carefully, her sword hand letting go of the hilt while the other hand still held her spell primed. "Who is it that disturbs Lady Vahaga's home?!"
-
"K-K-Kerion?" the white glob asked, continuing to form still, it's voice some cross between a female's and a monotone, genderless voice. It's white, globish hand reached out towards Luna pleadingly.