To Hell with the Court

[Orph]

As the name was uttered Ararus quickly threw up a barrier, it was a specialized magic meant to block out the true names of certain things. It barely held against his own name, even when someone like Lucifer said his name it could blind millions, turn entire planets to dust, rip the soul from the Reaper himself. But not without killing Lucifer as well. The terrifying about Koty's name was that Lucifer only spoke a single syllable.

Fortunately the barrier held enough that Hikaru wouldn't hear it, otherwise she would most likely die practically instantly. Despite her Phoenix powers and her recently acquired abilities. Spinning the scythe expertly in his hand, the sound of a swarm of bees filled the air, with a quick grin he continued his trek towards Vahaga. "We need to hurry."

[Queen Bright]

With one last look at the throne room, Hikaru reluctantly followed Koty into the blizzard. Before doing so, however, she used the commotion of the name calling and scythe materialization, to set a small spell circle to the ground of the throne room. She didn't like where this was going, and preferred to be prepared for what may happen. After all, wasn't the focus supposedly on the upcoming tournament? Then why was it they were suddenly ankle deep in snow, heading to the domain of an embodiment? It didn't make any sense.

Slightly shivering from the snow, even with the warmth of the purple flames that surrounded her, Hikaru pulled her cloak closer to herself and called up to Koty as she continued to follow, "Any idea what Lucifer is leading us into?"

[K2]

As Koty and Hikaru were lured further past the throne of Lucifer, the snow picked up. Inside the depths of the storm now, a great wave of darkness began to build, moving through snow.. Rippling, it seemed to pour down upon the wind and snow, as if it were battling it.. No, that wasn't it. It was parting it.

And as the snow storm parted, a woman stood in front of Hikaru and Koty. The snow storm was gone. Right in front of their eyes stood a very tall, pail woman in a dress that seemed to be made of ice (though it was not see-through). She had long, blue hair, and a very enchanting smile and face. This was Vahaga.. Snow, a very beautiful lady, in a humanized form.

"Excuse me if I speak in this form," she said aloud, her voice cooling the air around her and giving off an echo which made it harder to distinguish than normal conversation might be, "But for the sake of your mistress, great and powerful one, I take this shape.. It is a pleasure to meet you. All three of you."

She walked forward a bit, right towards Hikaru, where she reached out to place her hand on Hikaru. However; she stopped herself, leaving her hand hovering near the phoenix sage. "Naahak," she said, giving the child the blessing of snow, "May this child forever be well with the snow."

Now, Snow looked up at Hikaru. She stared at Hikaru for quite a few moments, as if studying her. Finally, she opened her mouth.. But this time, her voice was different. It was masculine. It still had the distinct echo and coldness to it, but it was a man's voice, it seemed. And if one were to listen closely to it, it would resemble Zere's.

"The owner of this voice.. What does he mean to you?"

[Queen Bright]

Watching as the embodiment studied her, Hikaru made sure to give nothing away, keeping her expression blank, and not even blinking. When at last the woman had finished, Hikaru trained her ears to the sound of the voice. Recognizing it almost instantly, she still chose to remain expressionless as she answered. "I've never heard that voice in my life. Why? Is it of some importance?" She lied. If it was a test, Hikaru wasn't playing.

[Orph]

"Hikaru. Whatever you do, don't lie." Ararus informed, more like ordered but he knew how Hikaru took to being ordered around. "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.." Koty requested, sounding formal and hospitable.

[K2]

Vahaga's face quickly became full with rage at Hikaru's apparent lie, but it was cooled by the voice of Ararus. She stared at him, listening to what he had to say.. When he finished speaking, however, her face went blank, and her arm began to shake a bit. Quickly, she turned away from her company to hide her expression.

"That is no way to introduce yourself, great one," commented Vahaga in her own voice, taking a step forward into what now seemed to be a cave behind her. "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."

[Orph]

"You have no choice in the matter Vahaga, and I assure you I wont even touch the damned thing. I will only be having it moved to another location, as this place is no longer safe." Ararus informed, taking a step towards the Lady of Snow. Spinning the scythe in his hand incredibly quickly it began to create the similar buzzing sound.

"We both know what will happen if I have to take it."

[K2]

Vahaga's eyes met with the scythe, and alarm quickly filled her eyes. "How did you..?" she began, locking her eyes on this said scythe. "Did.. did he actually-? What have you done with the lion, then?"

As Vahaga finished her barbering, snow began to build around her.. It was shaping. Forming into something different.. Gold! Their were tints of gold in the snow, as if it were not snow at all, but actually some sort of cloak or blanket for the largest sum of gold on the dimensional plane. This blanket of snow quickly moved away to reveal a golden statue of a skeleton.

Where the mouth of the skeleton would have been, a lion could be seen. Only, it was not a huge lion -- it was a small, pocket-sized lion, floating inside a golden orb. The golden orb around the miniature lion began to expand, getting bigger.. And then, it found itself absorbing everything within a one-hundred-mile radius. As snow quickly began to stir, the storm now was worse than ever.. And then, the miniature lion opened his mouth and spat out a coin of some sorts made of ice.

"Spend it well," advised Vahaga. "Now, quickly! Leave! I will hold him off as quick as I can!"

Who was Vahaga holding off? And what was with the ice coin? Why was it starting to storm so much, and why was it that Vahaga was suddenly in some sort of panic? Revealing itself inside the stormy sky were two faces, side-by-side, glaring down upon Vahaga.. And they were the faces of children -- edged into the sky. They both opened their mouths and a black smoke began to pour out from within, rushing straight towards Vahaga.

But as Vahaga suddenly began ice and moved through the air to meet the darkness, the smoke changed.. And began to show glimpses of a night-time city. Inside the city, there seemed to be many lights on. It was a busy city, no doubt, not effected by the night-time, with much partying for sure. It seemed to be just a normal city. And then, the city exploded, the explosion not passing the boundaries of the dark border around it.

And then, an explosion really did occur. One of ice. The entire domain of Vahaga began to change.. To freeze. Absolute Zero -- nothing would be able to move, something not even Koty could stop. Vahaga was lying unconscious in the snow, her form glowing golden. The golden skeleton behind her began to absorb her essence, welcoming her to join the miniature lion.. And in the sky where it had been storming before, written of dark smoke, were the words, "The End Approaches For All Of Us. Are You Prepared, Sleeper Of Erebus?"

[Orph]

Can't move, can't breathe.. No! No! I will not! I will not fail here! As Koty yelled at himself inside his own soul, his mind no longer an option as it moved to slow to even work. Reaching out with his spirit he felt the bond between Hikaru and him, the God Fire was sputtering away now. Absolute Zero was a thing to be feared, even God's could not move when there was no heat.. No life.

That was why Ararus chose Vahaga as the guardian of his object, she wasn't strong enough to be of danger to him if he needed to take it back by force. But her station allowed to freeze everything, except for herself. Get ready to run. He informed through to her with their bond, using a large portion of his strength to heat both of them up so they could move. If they didn't get away quickly even they would succumb to hypothermia.

The exertion nearly made him collapse, the coin in his hand slowly began to change from it's icy form to something resembling dark copper. Heat began to radiate from the small black coin, it was filling him with strength. Within moments he was standing at his full height, the air around him was actually quite warm. Around seventy-eight degrees.

The snow around him was melting and making a puddle at his feet. It was a small patch of summer in a demonic winter, outside his orb of influence lava would turn to ice faster then a tachyon could travel from New York to New Jersey.

"Nothing ever ends..Molihik, or do you still prefer 'Decay'?" The mortal God questioned, staring the embodiment in the face with unwavering courage.. Or it looked that way, inside he was freaking out. Molihik was the force of Decay, he was practically Death's little brother.

And you didn't fuck with Death.

[Queen Bright]

As she ran along side Koty, Hikaru felt the unfamiliar feeling of fear dwelling inside of her. She was a phoenix outside her element, a sage caught between gods and forces, and she couldn't do a damn thing.
Outmatched a considerable amount, Hikaru knew if not for Koty, she would have been dead ages ago. Minutes ago, hell any of the attacks the two had just been through. These forces were not something to take lightly, and not something she could fight with magic, not something she could even hope to stand against with even the power of the Revelations book.  It was crazy.

Acknowledgment had finally hit her, hit her painfully hard.  For once in her life, Hikaru felt weak. She was used to powers like her brothers held, powers like the Anrufe held. But it didn't compare. They were both things, one could fight against, one could overcome and break the difference. Meeting Lucifer, had given her but only  a taste of the difference, meeting Koty had forcefully shown her the difference, even then she still denied it. Now however she was forced to acknowledge it. The true difference of their strengths, looming like an infinite wall above her. It was a league all in it's own.

"I think it's time we get out of here." Hikaru spoke up, having been brought out of her thoughts by the position they were now in. Keeping close to Koty as physically possible, she knelt down, bit her finger, and began to draw a spell circle of blood, identical to the one she had drawn in the throne room. As she held her hand out to it and began to recite the spell to activate them both, one thought lingered in her mind I have to find a way to get stronger.

Now activated, the runes around the spell circle began to glow one at a time in a clockwise pattern, when they reached back to the first rune, the underside of the circle just disappeared, leaving a hole where the ceiling of the throne room could be seen, signifying a portal back to the first one.

[K2]

"Ah.. Koty," a voice noted, raspy and metallic in nature, "It's been very long.. I hope you don't mind if I kill your girlfriend now."

The two faces began to turn in the sky, their eyes changing.. Looking upon Hikaru. When they saw her, they both began to grin before opening their mouths. From out of their mouths came smoke. This smoke, a black smoke, began to fly straight towards Hikaru's portal where it stopped, materializing itself into a form before Hikaru.

This form was the form of Decay in a human nature.. And he looked.. Absolutely like a child version of Koty's son, Vincent.. Only, he was different, too. He had a wave of decay around him at all times. Still, two things were certain. He looked like Vincent (minus his clothes, which were white robes with streaks of black moving upon it), and he looked like a kid.

"Grandfather! How have you been!?"

[Zero]

On the other side of Lucifer stood Valor Star a mask adorning his face and his magical signature having been changed. He said to Lucifer after seeing the circle "Do you wish me to get rid of the circle?"

[K2]

"Sure," Lucifer replied, looking at the spell circle, "It seems like that would be a good idea. I can't do it myself because it seems to have ties to a domain of an enemy, but you can."

[Zero]

Valor put his hand outward and tensed up. Before he would cast the spell he had to be assured he would get out of Hell after the tournament. "Win or lose if I do this for you regardless after the tournament I am let out of Hell. " He pointed his fist outwards and dissolved the spell Hikaru had done.

[K2]

"Thank you, boy. And if you die in the tournament, you will not be able to escape, but otherwise.. Sure."

Lucifer simply grinned as Hikaru's spell dissolved. He sat back in his throne before ordering a pizza with extra Hell Moss on it.

[Orph]

"You are far from my grandson, if anything it would be great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-and so on grandson." Koty replied, gripping the scythe in his hand tightly he had an idea.. But he didn't enjoy the idea.

"Vahaga, your services were appreciated, and I really hope you've named a successor." He murmured, looking at the golden form with a small frown before he hurled the twirling scythe at her. As the blade connected with the embodiment a large explosion rocked the domain it would begin to disappear soon, quickly grabbing onto Hikaru, being as the baby was blessed by Vahaga she could leave and enter the domain and will, and Koty with his nature could mimic people's magic on contact, quickly they teleported away into Lucifer's throne room.

[Queen Bright]

"Enough games Lucifer!" Hikaru shouted, as soon as the two had returned. Marching over to look Lucifer directly in the eye, it had seemed some of her confidence had returned.

"You force us into your trap-tournament, only to send us on some errand when we're mentally ready, to try to get us killed. What? Afraid the tournament won't be enough? Either start the damn thing! Or let us go home. The  games are becoming mildly annoying, and I DON'T intend to stick around for any more trickery!"

[Zero]

At that moment Valor's hand began to glow with Negion and a worried look began to form on his face. He immediately thought to himself that someone was calling a tournament of the powers in order to select a suitable Negion Master. Well he couldn't lose his Negion so close to the tournament and yet magic that would affect the mortal plane would have to be done with the permission of Lucifer. He immediately said to Lucifer in a whisper "Do I have your permission to temporarily return to the mortal plane and return here when the tournament starts? Someone is attempting to steal a part of my magic from a great distance and I can't allow that."

[K2]

(It seems my post here was deleted.)

At that moment, they were all teleported to Mortality Planes.