The Mountains of Madness [1/2]
[QUOTE=MrSandman;4991469]The intense heat from Zaofans hands had the desired effect, at least according to the natural laws of nature......the stone melted.
A bubble form as the heat liquefied the stone, before bursting from the other end in an explosion of superheated magma.
Through the hole, the scene Zaofan came to witness however.....made absolutely no sense to any law. Both mages were locked in combat, but may as well have been standing giving each other weird stares. The "real" combat was taking place between each others seemingly endless arsonal of conjured weapons, creatures and objects. Sword clashed, cannonballs smashed into shields, animated creatures crashed against each other in rapid succession, even humanoids formed of the very basic magic clashed in furious combat just a few feet in any direction.
Morgan seemed to be on the defensive, or rather seemed to only be reacting to whatever Persephone threw at her. With the burst of hot liquid stone however, the mage gestured a strong wind to blow the hot material into a spray of liquid flame.
The effect as it blasted over Persephone from the side was immediate......or rather the lack of effect was. If anything, the hot rock lost its heat and dropped from her the moment it contacted with her skin.
With an amused smirk, Persephone took aim with her finger at the hole Zaofan was staring through and a jet of super heated flame spewed forward.[/QUOTE]
Transfixed for the moment by the battlefield that had struck up in an instant, caught in the periphery between the two armies representative of their casters, and Zaofan was briefly unsure of what he could do. It was as if he blinked for a moment before melting a hole through that mural slab through the portrait of Vortigern, and those scores of living weapons sprung up out of nowhere. Morgan the living memory of Avalon's Dream stood fast against her Queen's Will, giving her all to defend the realm she once served.
As soon as he laid eyes on it, he'd caught Morgan's attention, and she struck out at Persephone's clone.
Then when the fire rushed over him, he knew he'd caught the Queen's in turn.
[i]What do I do?[/i]
As terrifying as her power was, beyond reckoning and across the ages, when everything fell away and nothing made sense, Zaofan for all his faults, still had his training. Whenever the odds were against him, whenever he had his back to the wall unable to think, the qualities cultivated by those honed skills asserted themselves in strange ways. In the defense of the Earth, he'd prided himself as one of Heirs of Zxu'ro. Even without thinking about it, he could rely on the essential qualities that had been trained into his very bones. Even as the spell washed over him, he stood fast on this simple truth.
[B]Fire cannot burn a Dragon.[/B]
And searching for the inspiration to fight, now Persephone lit the burner of his chef's sensibilities.
[b]Pot-Au-Feu! [/b]
Using the [b]Bear's Strength[/b], he crimped the edges of the mural slab into something far too big and unwieldy to be called a griddle; Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was more like a hulking teppan! Kicking it over, within its glazed depths he captured the [b]First Ingredient[/b], the Queen's own Magical Fire!
[i]As a heat sink its capacity should be enough to make up the difference[/i], he thought to himself, calculating the breadth of power he'd bring to bear to take this flame under his control. [i]The difference between a grill and a flambe is all in the medium, after all.[/i]
But in the hands of a master chef, that is a craft that should not be underestimated. It's not about what's in the pantry or on the counter, but how you put it all together. Scampering up the edge of the red-hot grilling stone suspended in the air, a faint blue aura surrounded Zaofan, a student of the Dragon School standing above the image of a deposed Wyrm and the people scattering before him.
"You call yourself the Guardian of the World? Look at what you're doing! You're destroying everything said you'd protect!"
[i]I've got to help Morgan, but even a portion of Persephone's power is too much.[/i]
But without hesitation, still Zaofan made his decision. Raising his other hand up, he slammed his katchin staff into the sizzling, melting rock, and imbued his ki with at least something that could strike the mage on her own level.
[b]The Second Ingredient.[/b] An expanding energy staff, now shrouded in a medium of magic. Wheeling back in the air, he point it straight at her now.
[b]"Valiantium Staff! Extend!"[/b]
It drove itself straight into the duplicate, she who stood fast as an immovable object; and as the staff lengthened, the melting rock imbued itself into the extending staff at a fixed point as it swelled to the size of a column, carrying the Chef off across the sky...
The Mountains of Madness [2/2]
[QUOTE]"Even now you'd resist me......no, that's fine. That's what I respect about you, Ochazuke."
Ruinous power closed in around him, tightening their grip. His dopplerganger seemed closer and closer by the moment.
".....but will can only bend or break in time....you will see in time that mine is the only way our people can live in peace. There is nothing you can accomplish as a mortal....nothing at all......"
Above him, the fight appeared to be reaching its climax......time was running out.
"Don't struggle anymore, submit. Entrust your future to me.....live free and peaceful in the new Avalon. This is what you want......right?"[/QUOTE]
His spirit stilled in the ether, Ochazuke's astral countenance made no move or gesture, only standing firmly, unmoving before his shadow-self.
"Set as you are in complacent eternity...you understand nothing."
His physical body, faced blankly outward from the rising Lookout's edge. Ochazuke's slowly stirred, and the tips of his fingers touched together.
"I won't...resist...this charade..."
[img]https://i.imgur.com/KdtiEX7.png[/img]
"Because...I'm concentrating."
[CENTER][img]https://i.imgur.com/ooLVDfD.png[/img][/CENTER]
[RIGHT][URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OeiDrCbWYI"]BGM - Tables Turn[/URL][/RIGHT]
With a thunderous white flash, the [b]Kikoho[/b] fell downward into Amdapor and smote the Great Old One who had inspired the madness within the Dead City. In defiance of a stagnant eternity and the immortality wrought from indentured servitude, Ochazuke struck upon them with a fragment of his very mortality.
The piecemeal Lookout Persephone had torn from the old capital's foundations left a gaping wound of exposed, raw orichalum tethered to the Ancient it served. He'd seen the building linkage to the Queen, only it was at this distance that he could perceive the greater picture.
[i]It's no tomb. It's a passage between worlds.[/i]
Her spirit came across the ages through it; So did the Entity within her that stood before him. But in manifesting fully before him, Ochazuke could perceive just how one siphoned power from another. Having used his the technique of Genki to augment its reconstruction, he hadn't realized the depths of her slavish hold over the hearts and minds of the departed Avalonians until she absorbed their flesh into herself.
All it took was a different vantage point to see it clearly. And so to correct this, he shattered the tomb entirely to sever her connection with her Voidling gods.
A strange phenomenon happened then, a perceptable shift in the atmosphere. He'd be loathe to admit it, but perhaps he'd found a source of inspiration from a place that would be impossible to ignore.
Combating the Queen directly, he'd seen the way Rex had been using [b]Fukushuu[/b] to draw substance from the air. Even in his current condition as a savage entity, an ego in flux between Charco and Saurian, the perpetual grey drew fodder in equal measure to match the Queen's magic. There from his fanged maw was stoked that primal fear. Instinctual rage against the pain of existence, and the lingering hatred in the air for suffering inherent to an all-too-short life lingering from the devoted Mages of Amdapor.
Firing the life energy inherent to [b]Kikojustu[/b] directly into the [b]Genki[/b] he had gathered within the Orichalum to rebuild it, breaking it apart had loosed the matter Persephone had used to resurrect herself, and in an instant the departed souls of a nation of mages was released.
The bodies of those departed magi were long gone, lost to the sacrifice of their blind devotion. Yet their collective will remained, manifest as whisps of residual [b]Genki[/b] that flew upward carrying their hopes, their dreams, and the latent memory of their shared humanity.
Floating upward, the slumbering ghosts of Avalon gathered in a spiraling pillar along the path Ochazuke's [b]Kikoho[/b] had cut out, and now towards the raised hand that bore the weight of [b]Arthur's Ring[/b].
"To me."
[QUOTE=Yun Lao;4991507]This was what Persephone no doubt wished; the look of surprise and growing horror across "Charco's" face as she had absorbed what was supposed to have been the final climax of their battle. Caught off guard, each one of her blows struck true, battering the human-saurian hybrid until she seized him by the throat. The sight alone must have been pure ecstasy, no doubt reaching a crescendo as those twin needles lunged forth.
A gleam of ethereal light shone in the distance, becoming a shimmering blur that passed between them. [I]Lain's Fang[/I] came to a stop a handful of yards to the side, haunted by the light catching on the particles that were once the needles, its blade redirecting its point towards the undead queen. All the while, "Charco" mouth opened, biting down on one of the remaining shards of the needle once meant to end him. His fangs, meant for flesh, were not built to chew on such material, his molars cracking from the effort and the coppery taste of blood overrode all other flavors as the inside of his mouth was cut into, but he ate it all the same. For one as old as Persephone, who had witnessed Rex in his prime, might have recalled how the tyrannosaurus battled. Whether from age or arrogance, she had seemingly forgotten why it was that he had survived so many conflicts, even against a God of Destruction. She would soon understand as it was imprinted even on this babe of a soul. It was the knowledge that [B][I]Only the STRONGEST Survives[/I][/B].
The needle might not have held much energy within it, but it was enough for him to get a taste of it. After all, as she had so arrogantly explained, magicite could hold a great capacity of energy. Even just a bit of shard was enough to know how to coax out more, as Persephone could begin to feel her energy seeping out from the palm of her hand currently grasping his neck, becoming the [B][I]Tithe To The STRONGEST[/I][/B].
[I]Lain's Fang[/I], seizing the opportunity to be an inconvenience, launched toward the Queen.[/QUOTE]
Slowly the darkness shrouding Persephone's lookout parted. As the column of Genki spiraled around Ochazuke, it swallowed the shadows and part the way for the rising dawn over the Speaker's Mountain. It flew up around him, pooling toward a glimmering spot in the sky that was rapidly descending towards Persephone on high.
Zaofan, by the force of the Valiantium Staff at full extension, was now rocketing straight towards the real Persephone where she was locked in combat. Behind him he carried his weapon now, Bojack's katchin core blue-hot in his hands as the hidden hands of thousands of Avalonians reached past the veil, given voice by his martial brother, they guided his rebellious strike now.
[b]Pot-au-Feu![/b]
[b]Ishiki Toei![/b]
Reaching back over his head, Zaofan pivoted mid air, and brought up a pillar so massive one could easily mistake it as one meant to hold up the sky. The Alchemy of the Kitchen led with a Martial Spirit, and led by the substance of ancient magic into a collective weapon that now drove itself down, a gargantuan, yards-wide [b]Genki Staff[/b] brought to bear upon Persephone's head in a volatile pincer attack.
The Mountain of Madness: An End to Madness
[QUOTE]His spirit stilled in the ether, Ochazuke's astral countenance made no move or gesture, only standing firmly, unmoving before his shadow-self.
"Set as you are in complacent eternity...you understand nothing."
His physical body, faced blankly outward from the rising Lookout's edge. Ochazuke's slowly stirred, and the tips of his fingers touched together.[/QUOTE]
His shadowy doppelganger mouthed a silent rage and lunged, as did the rabble of otherworldly shadows.....and they were struck back by an ethereal force that seemed to surrounded the warrior. Though Ochazuke heard no words, the power he felt surrounding him was familiar....a void that had touched him before. Perhaps a little late to the event, but there was no doubt the abyssal assault was blunted by the intervention of a creature of void.
There was no time for thanks, not that they were needed, nor for acknowledgements.....there was only the moment, stretching into eternity through the window formed between his hands.
[QUOTE]"I won't...resist...this charade..."
[img]https://i.imgur.com/KdtiEX7.png[/img]
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]This was what Persephone no doubt wished; the look of surprise and growing horror across "Charco's" face as she had absorbed what was supposed to have been the final climax of their battle. Caught off guard, each one of her blows struck true, battering the human-saurian hybrid until she seized him by the throat. The sight alone must have been pure ecstasy, no doubt reaching a crescendo as those twin needles lunged forth.
A gleam of ethereal light shone in the distance, becoming a shimmering blur that passed between them. Lain's Fang came to a stop a handful of yards to the side, haunted by the light catching on the particles that were once the needles, its blade redirecting its point towards the undead queen. All the while, "Charco" mouth opened, biting down on one of the remaining shards of the needle once meant to end him. His fangs, meant for flesh, were not built to chew on such material, his molars cracking from the effort and the coppery taste of blood overrode all other flavors as the inside of his mouth was cut into, but he ate it all the same. For one as old as Persephone, who had witnessed Rex in his prime, might have recalled how the tyrannosaurus battled. Whether from age or arrogance, she had seemingly forgotten why it was that he had survived so many conflicts, even against a God of Destruction. She would soon understand as it was imprinted even on this babe of a soul. It was the knowledge that Only the STRONGEST Survives.
The needle might not have held much energy within it, but it was enough for him to get a taste of it. After all, as she had so arrogantly explained, magicite could hold a great capacity of energy. Even just a bit of shard was enough to know how to coax out more, as Persephone could begin to feel her energy seeping out from the palm of her hand currently grasping his neck, becoming the Tithe To The STRONGEST.[/QUOTE]
"Pft....irritating butter knife....." Persephone spat in annoyance, but nevertheless held firm, turning her attention seemingly back to Charco. "Your just being stubborn now....I gave you the opportunity for a quick, dramatic end.....and instead you waste my valuable time."
The humor evaporated from the Queens face for a moment. "Fine...If you can't even die with some dignity or flare, I suppose you'll just have to die screaming."
[RIGHT][URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsW72KIOd8U"]The Final Combat[/URL][/RIGHT]
There was a glint of something in her eye, something deep and dark, something born from the blackest pits of the endless abyss. Even as the energy began to flow from her palm into Charco her smile only grew....and then he felt it. A Cold, Burning in his mouth. Grinded between his bloody teeth, the shard pulsed with energy....too much energy. It burned, seethed, filling his jaws with painful agonizing power.
A jagged spike of crystal burst forth from Charcos left cheek, Then another from his lower right jaw.
"You sup on power like a thirsty dog.....but you overestimate the fountain, as usual for a wyrm mongrel." The Queens body radiated an intense darkness, overwhelming even the glow that had taken her from Charcos previous attack. Her hand grew tight., and through Charco felt strength flowing into him from the tithe....hers seemed to grow faster still. Something wormed and coiled its way against the back of Charcos throat, and then forced itself down......Burning imaginable pain, the ripping and tearing, the feeding.
[QUOTE]Lain's Fang, seizing the opportunity to be an inconvenience, launched toward the Queen.[/QUOTE]
Without so much as batting an eye, the Queens free hand shot forward with a flare of black fire and and closed around the blade as it came within an inch of scratching her face. She let it struggled against her hand, the blade pushing, pulling, sawing against its captors hand....and yet, the hand held firm. The sound, the grinding of black crystaline flesh against ethereal blade created a unearthly sound...one not meant to be heard.
Pulling back her arm, Persephone throws Charco forward....a conjured slab meeting his back with a sickening crack, and with the tearing of flesh as a dozen flailing tendrils exploded from back and sides...wrapping around his arms and legs, effectively tying him in place.
"...Useless....Useless......" Persephone held Lain Fang in front of her, her smile growing even as the blade struggled in her grip. "I'll admit.....for a one trick weapon you were quick a vex to me. But like all things, your limit is but a ant hill before the Mountain. Come on....cut me......put a little effort in." Persephone, in perhaps an act of pure mockery, Grabbed lain by its hilt and pulled....scratching down her hand with Shrek of sound and the sizzle of dark energy. Sure enough, the blade did cut....but it was nothing more then a seared black cut along her palm, skin deep at best...though no blood flowed.
However, Black fire now coated lains fang all the way to the tip...energy transferred from Persephones hand as she slid the blade across it. She held firm to the hilt where even more dark energy flowed into it, igniting into a warping black energy that seemed to distort and warp the blade itself.
"I've learned more then Magic in my long Dreams.....Power to rend even a thought in Void. First however....lets watch the pitiful end of your sad, sad master."
The pain and pressure within Charco intensified, as did the feed of power into him. Yet his bonds held him still.....and soon he could feel the thing inside him burrowing deeper and deeper, fueling him with greater and greater power.
"The appetite clouds the judgement....like a thirst maddened man, you'll drink deep of the bottemless sea. I wonder what will kill you first, the Void Fire....or the explosion when your thimble of a body finally can't hold anymore.....lets find out..."