Dragonball M, Chapter 3: In Blood, Bone, and Ash! The Way Forward Unlocked!

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Silence, then through the entire facility a rumble and explosion is heard.

Marsheb, held in suspension, takes the majority of Ishtar’s wrath. The beam punching down and through the fused Oni, before breaking against Baric’s humanoid head, torso, and horseback before continuing on.

On and on the beam went, plowing through the two and into the crater facility, punching down through layer after layer, level level until it finally tapers off some five hundred feat below where Sasheem had started fighting Baric. Ishtar managed to go through about half the facility it seems.

The two rooms, where the Oni and demon had been fighting, are both pretty badly wrecked from the shockwaves the beam caused, but all her allies have survived, if a bit burned or bruised.

Of the fused Oni, only a shimmering black clawed arm remains, its features drawing light in as it rests softly in a corner.

Baric, however.........

Perhaps because Marsheb took the brunt of it, half the demon remains. That is, it’s rear legs and it’s horse head and it’s sword in the corner. Which, to everyone’s surprise, is still alive. Even now tendrils of rit and fetid odor extend between the two portions and the sword, drawing them together as the demon slowly begins to put itself into some semblance of mobility and togetherness.

[MrSandman]

Before she can kick it, several of the hounds, moving stealthily, circle around and pounce on each of the Erosa’s.

The Doctor finishes a weld and brushes the case off.

“There, all done.”


He turns his head, plague mask still on, and speaks.”

“Dispose of them.”

And then the hounds start trying to blast the Erosa’s while the Doctor picks the case up and heads toward a strange green tube on one of the work stations.

Each of the Erosas were caught to various degrees offguard, but quickly counterattacked against their aggressors with whatever their specialty style of attack was.

"Ara Ara.....I'm starting to think you don't want us here." Mother Erosa massive claws caught two of the attacking beasts that attempted to jump her...her massive strength and hand size easily trapping them firmly in her grip. With a swift motion, she squeezed them enough to break whatever internal components were keeping them operational....and then let them drop, only to grab each by their tail and start spinning them around like makeshift flails.

Dropping down to avoid the fire from the remaining dogs....Mother speed towards the Doctor, flinging one of the flaildogs past her at this destination while swinging the other to attempt to club the man from behind.

[MrSandman]

Silence, then through the entire facility a rumble and explosion is heard.

Marsheb, held in suspension, takes the majority of Ishtar’s wrath. The beam punching down and through the fused Oni, before breaking against Baric’s humanoid head, torso, and horseback before continuing on.

On and on the beam went, plowing through the two and into the crater facility, punching down through layer after layer, level level until it finally tapers off some five hundred feat below where Sasheem had started fighting Baric. Ishtar managed to go through about half the facility it seems.

The two rooms, where the Oni and demon had been fighting, are both pretty badly wrecked from the shockwaves the beam caused, but all her allies have survived, if a bit burned or bruised.

Of the fused Oni, only a shimmering black clawed arm remains, its features drawing light in as it rests softly in a corner.

Baric, however.........

Perhaps because Marsheb took the brunt of it, half the demon remains. That is, it’s rear legs and it’s horse head and it’s sword in the corner. Which, to everyone’s surprise, is still alive. Even now tendrils of rit and fetid odor extend between the two portions and the sword, drawing them together as the demon slowly begins to put itself into some semblance of mobility and togetherness.

"BLOODY HELLS!" Etrina exclaimed, emerging from some debre with a look of exasperation. "I know there was warning but...oh..." The Mage blinked, looking down the hole Ishtar had put in the floor.....and to the room below that.....and the room below that......and the room below that....

".......Well....Thankful I suppose this wasn't aimed towards the side closer to the vacuum of space. I mean...I.....ewww...what is that.......UGHHH!!" Etrina let out an annoyed yelp and stomped her way over to slowly regenerating horse head, charging up frost magic as she goes....to blast with with freezing magic at as point blank a range as she can manage with the rot and condition of the room.

"WOULD.YOU.JUST.STOP!" She growled, intend on freezing it to the point it damn well couldn't do anything else...much less stink up the room anymore.

[Yun Lao]

Charco obliterates one of the large mechs, claws tending it apart like a hot knife through butter.

He felt no resistance from the mecha as his hand passed through it, the hardened metals parting through his fingertips like fine grains of sand. From the metal came a shower of sparks, dancing in the air like fireflies on a summer night, followed by fuel and hydraulic fluids spilling forth like lifeblood. It had been a flawless strike on his part, yet it had taken its toll on him as his right forearm was bent the opposite direction of the joint in a gruesome manner, blood dripping from broken shards of bones piercing out through the flesh. Old Dragon's guidance had given him the strength to resist Rex's assimilation but it was apparent that his body was ill-prepared to completely handle such power.

Suddenly the mangled limb began to jerk and convulse, taloned fingers splayed out and wiggling as if seeking to grasp something just outside of its range. With a sickening crunching sound, the limb whipped forward, forcing itself back into its proper place; however, the emergence of scales across the surface was enough to indicate that Rex had had a hand in this unnatural healing. No doubt the spirit was trying to keep his soon-to-be body in one whole piece.

Before she can kick it, several of the hounds, moving stealthily, circle around and pounce on each of the Erosa’s.

The Doctor finishes a weld and brushes the case off.

“There, all done.”


He turns his head, plague mask still on, and speaks.”

“Dispose of them.”

And then the hounds start trying to blast the Erosa’s while the Doctor picks the case up and heads toward a strange green tube on one of the work stations.

There he was.

The man Charco had sought in his agony. At that moment, a sliver of relief fell over him and with it came the bittersweet knowledge that his story was just about over. To deliver a greater evil upon the doctor was to be his final act; a sacrifice to ensure the victory and survival of his friends and comrades. With the Old Dragon's influence, however, the Doctor would not be the only one to pay the price for this sacrifice. A memory, forgotten to history, and unknown to him, came to mind.

The silence was the greatest agony, its pain far beyond the words she dreaded to hear. It was in this silence that the memories came flooding back in vivid detail and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth once more.

She shifted in her position subconsciously, having been forced on her knees for the past several hours, her hands behind her back, and was reminded of the stinging pain of flesh rubbed raw from the shackles and chains bound around her ankles and wrists, yet the pain was a salve to her mind for it distracted her from her thoughts. Before her were the three elders of the Ogatan clan, Bic, Vesta, and Briquet, who had remained silent since their arrival to these chambers. They had been contemplating their words from some time, no doubt trying to find them after being witnesses to such horrors.

"Penhuoqi..." Bic said, bringing bittersweet relief to her as her fate was finally decided.

"We had little faith in your plans... but granted your permission because of our belief in you."

"In doing so, we angered the guardian of our clan," Briquet said in following.

Guardian? Penhuoqi wasn't sure to laugh at their foolishness or cry at their refusal to realize the truth. Rex was no guardian. No guardian would have taken control of her. No guardian would have made her slaughter and eat the innocent with such relish and fervor. He was a curse in their blood, one she had foolishly thought her ally.

"Before this tournament, the other schools saw us as barbarians; savages who barely knew how to fight. We could only wish they still thought that way now. There is no future for a school that houses monsters and cannibals, but they have chosen to forgive our school...Vesta said, grimly, "No one outside that arena will ever know of this tournament and the Kyōryū Ryū will be dissolved."

Those final words struck Penhuoqi harder than anything else. Her naivety had forced their clan back further into the shadows now and she knew, with great shame and regret, that the Kyōryū Ryū would be lost to history in only a few generations. The sounds of the chamber doors opening the rustling of the movement told her that others had entered, but she found it difficult to see who they were due to fighting back her tears. She didn't need to see who they were to know they were most likely representatives of the other martial arts schools.

"For your crimes, you will be handed over to the five schools to be punished as they see fit," Bic declared and the elders rose from their seats in preparation to leave, but they would pause as Penhuoqi spoke out.

"No..."

It was difficult to push it out past the lump in her throat as she fought back the urge to breakdown and cry.

"I am willing to accept my fate, but I will not allow the other schools to know of Rex any further than the terror he wrought."

The masters of the other schools were quickly alerted as Penhuoqi was encased in the orange hue of the Thyreophora, its power destroying what ki inhibiting properties the shackles and chains possessed. The Elders began shouting orders in an attempt to subdue her, but all three paled in horror as she spoke further.

"Saishū Zetsumetsu..."

There were very few things out of bounds when it came to the methods and techniques the Dino School deployed. After all, the school had been founded from the cruel and brutal lessons learned from survival, but that did not mean there was nothing deemed "forbidden". This technique had been born from the harsh reminder that the Thyreophora, even mastered, was still dangerous. It would be a painful death, but it would be her way of atoning for her actions in this life.

Ogatan Penhuoqi's last hope was to be reborn again as an Ogatan, if only to correct the mistakes she had made.

Charco became ensheathed with orange energy as he tapped into the Thyreophora, his power level jumping up in response to the influx of chi rerouting itself through his system. The first and second state came as easily as breathing and the third state quickly followed, his muscles bulking up to their full size; however, he continued to push his body beyond its normal means. Soon enough his muscles deflated back to their original size as he forewent the need for increased defenses and the once fiery orange of his aura paled to the point that the energy was now a pure white.

Sorry Ochazuke... The boy thought as he could only imagine that the Kikojutsu master would sense that he was burning through his life energy at this point. The fourth state of Thyreophora was one he had never previously thought to use and while he could feel the exhilaration of its powers, he was also aware that his body was beginning to cook itself from the inside out, his skin reddening and sweat evaporating as quickly as it formed.

You ungrateful whelp!

Rex's words finally pierced through Old Dragon's influence, accentuating just how little time he had left before Rex would gain control.

You seek to cripple me, but you foolishly underestimate my strength! You are no phoenix and all that will be left of your pitiful existence will be the ashes of your stupidity!

Past the breaking point, Charco could feel his body beginning to harden, his skin blacking as the fires within quickly began to seep out. Taking a step forth, several cracks broke across his flesh, light spilling out followed by the fine red mist that was his evaporated blood. He was familiar with pain, but this was like anything he had never felt before. Pieces of charred flesh fell to the ground as he began to run towards the Doctor, tunnel-vision ignoring all but he. The golden glow in his left eye was dimming and his ki signature, as horrifying high as it was, was violently unstable.

"Saishū..."

Incendiary ki filled his hands outstretched far more easily than it should, building as quickly as his body was breaking down.

"...TYRANNO..."

Each of the Erosas were caught to various degrees offguard, but quickly counterattacked against their aggressors with whatever their specialty style of attack was.

"Ara Ara.....I'm starting to think you don't want us here." Mother Erosa massive claws caught two of the attacking beasts that attempted to jump her...her massive strength and hand size easily trapping them firmly in her grip. With a swift motion, she squeezed them enough to break whatever internal components were keeping them operational....and then let them drop, only to grab each by their tail and start spinning them around like makeshift flails.

Dropping down to avoid the fire from the remaining dogs....Mother speed towards the Doctor, flinging one of the flaildogs past her at this destination while swinging the other to attempt to club the man from behind.

It was growing difficult to think as his brains were being boiled at this rate, forced to rely on the drege of his instinct and willpower to guide him. Leaping upward, he planted his foot on one of the hounds Erosa had thrown at the Doctor, using it as a springboard to propel himself higher. Pouring every last bit of energy he had left, Charco willed his arms forth toward the Doctor.

"BLAST!!!"

His happiness, his sorrow, his rage, everything that was Ogatan Charco was expended at the Doctor and then he was no more.

...farewell everyone....

----------
Combat Information
Thyreophora, Fourth State: Active (until end of post)
Power Level: 5,800,000
Final Extinction

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Erosa is the soul witness to Ogatan Charco’s mighty roar, the beam of energy, stemming from humanities strongest human, was a sight to behold and one unseen in the cosmos by a human in millennia.

For a crystal clear moment she sees the young man burn up before her as he strikes the Doctor, the human spirit shining brighter than a diamond in the sun. In this place of the ancient First Race, in the birthplace of stars, the youngest races’ champion rose up and smote the evil in front of him with a righteous fury the universe had never seen, and it was glorious to behold.

The explosion blows her backwards over a hundred feet as everything to the left of the Doctor is slagged and broken, the void of space ripped into as the far wall simply disappears under his torrent. Invisible energy fields kick in and close the massive hole, leaving it like a gigantic window into space. The blast also utterly annihilated the work benches, labs, and the green tube the Doctor has been about to open.

The same tube that held temporal energy crystals the Doctor had painstakingly created and stored. Crystals that broke under Charco’s Tyranno Blast, invalidating centuries of work and the Doctor’s ability to temporally escape. In one attack Charco crippled the Doctor’s mobility and dangerousness.

As to the Doctor..........

He stands. When the dust dies down, when the heat miasma quits, and when the sucking void of space is silenced by invisible energy barriers, Erosa seees the back of the Doctor. They hadn’t moved an inch under the point blank blast. Their cane, their cloak, all shattered and slagged and gone. The case also gone to dust. And with a clatter, the plague mask also falls and shatters.

Leaving only a person with their back to Erosa, long hair falling down their back as the hat too is gone gone. The hand holding the case clenches around charred remains of a handle, and then quickly reaches up and pulls out an old fashioned watch from within their vest pocket, checking the time and still ignoring Erosa.

Which is chilling because nothing she knows should have survived that blast, much less be so unmoved.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"BLOODY HELLS!" Etrina exclaimed, emerging from some debre with a look of exasperation. "I know there was warning but...oh..." The Mage blinked, looking down the hole Ishtar had put in the floor.....and to the room below that.....and the room below that......and the room below that....

".......Well....Thankful I suppose this wasn't aimed towards the side closer to the vacuum of space. I mean...I.....ewww...what is that.......UGHHH!!" Etrina let out an annoyed yelp and stomped her way over to slowly regenerating horse head, charging up frost magic as she goes....to blast with with freezing magic at as point blank a range as she can manage with the rot and condition of the room.

"WOULD.YOU.JUST.STOP!" She growled, intend on freezing it to the point it damn well couldn't do anything else...much less stink up the room anymore.

The three pieces, pulling together, slowly freeze under her spell. If it was any stronger it would be able to ignore the spell, but weakened as it is, each piece freezes solid.

For now.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

A second massive explosion, at least equal sounding to the one Ishtar used, reverberates throughout the facility, shaking the asteroid.

Charco’s Blast while unseen by all save one does not go unheard, and the other groups all know something big just happened.

[Tami]

A second massive explosion, at least equal sounding to the one Ishtar used, reverberates throughout the facility, shaking the asteroid.

Charco’s Blast while unseen by all save one does not go unheard, and the other groups all know something big just happened.

"Aw heck." Dash cursed as she swung around, trying to pinpoint the source of the blast. Once she does, she takes off at high speed towards it.

[MrSandman]

Erosa is the soul witness to Ogatan Charco’s mighty roar, the beam of energy, stemming from humanities strongest human, was a sight to behold and one unseen in the cosmos by a human in millennia.

For a crystal clear moment she sees the young man burn up before her as he strikes the Doctor, the human spirit shining brighter than a diamond in the sun. In this place of the ancient First Race, in the birthplace of stars, the youngest races’ champion rose up and smote the evil in front of him with a righteous fury the universe had never seen, and it was glorious to behold.

The explosion blows her backwards over a hundred feet as everything to the left of the Doctor is slagged and broken, the void of space ripped into as the far wall simply disappears under his torrent. Invisible energy fields kick in and close the massive hole, leaving it like a gigantic window into space. The blast also utterly annihilated the work benches, labs, and the green tube the Doctor has been about to open.

The same tube that held temporal energy crystals the Doctor had painstakingly created and stored. Crystals that broke under Charco’s Tyranno Blast, invalidating centuries of work and the Doctor’s ability to temporally escape. In one attack Charco crippled the Doctor’s mobility and dangerousness.

As to the Doctor..........

He stands. When the dust dies down, when the heat miasma quits, and when the sucking void of space is silenced by invisible energy barriers, Erosa seees the back of the Doctor. They hadn’t moved an inch under the point blank blast. Their cane, their cloak, all shattered and slagged and gone. The case also gone to dust. And with a clatter, the plague mask also falls and shatters.

Leaving only a person with their back to Erosa, long hair falling down their back as the hat too is gone gone. The hand holding the case clenches around charred remains of a handle, and then quickly reaches up and pulls out an old fashioned watch from within their vest pocket, checking the time and still ignoring Erosa.

Which is chilling because nothing she knows should have survived that blast, much less be so unmoved.

In the aftermath, it was quiet......strangely quiet.

Except for the ticking of a pocket watch....the awful march of time moving on.

Leaving behind, someone important.

A scream erupted from nearby, the sound of a wounded animal. The smallest of the erosas, already a sizeable pile of enemies surrounding her, had only caught a glimpse of what was going on from where she had been fighting...nonetheless, as charco was consumed by the light he had brought into being, and her tiny form was flung backwards in the resulting chaos.....she felt him slip away. The man with the spirit of the old lizards had passed...off to join his kin beyond the reach of the blood.

Bounding over on all fours, past the wreckage and the black void he had punched with the remainder of his being, the little erosa arrived at the spot of his departure.....quietly looked around and then bowed her head.

“GAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!” She howled, loud enough so all could hear....perhaps even charco, where ever he was now.

The other erosas gathered around, silent save for the howl....continuing til her voice choked and she could hold without breath no longer.

Then finally she turned her head to the doctor.

“...Ero.....E....rro...”

“......she says...” Mother erosa speaks, cold eyes fixed on their enemy. “...he’ll be remember.....she’ll fight for a universe where people will remember him......and it’ll be one where nobody will remember you.”

[MrSandman]

The three pieces, pulling together, slowly freeze under her spell. If it was any stronger it would be able to ignore the spell, but weakened as it is, each piece freezes solid.

For now.

Etrina let out a sigh, for the moment it had stopped moving....emphasis on moment. If ishtars earlier description was any indication it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

Now able to step a bit closer, etrina focused on her vitalmancy magic....attempting to get a bead on what kind of life energy the still kicking monster was giving off. While whatever form it took would likely be too poison or...malevolent to simply drain into herself....perhaps she could siphon it into something as a means of containment...

[Yun Lao]

In the end, all that remained was the charred and blackened husk that struck the ground with a heavy thud, lobbing several chunks of its gruesome material in all direction. All that remained of the boy was a morbid statue, depicting his last moment and yet, it was more than that. Despite his essence being gone, something survived. Within the husk, it squirmed and stirred but would not emerge, not yet. Its movements created several cracks across the husk and to the closest of observers, they might have caught the sight of movement.

Whatever it... no... he still lived. Dark and twisted, he had survived and he was angry. For now, however, he remained beneath Charco's death masque.

---

While the battles of time and realm raged on, Capital City had received a reprieve from the series of attacks that had rattled the lives of its citizens. Despite the terror and suffering, they did as humans did best: they lived on and rebuilt. Several of the city streets were blocked off for construction as cranes and other construction vehicles began the daunting task of putting the pieces back together. One of these buildings, formerly a gothic and alternative clothing store that went by the name of Grimwear, would be the site of the beginning of another battle.

Emptied, save for rubble, abandoned furnishings, and old merchandise, these would be the only witnesses as reality began to warp. Like a droplet of water on a still surface, a ripple churned the air, distorting the objects and air it touched. Another ripple came, followed by another and another until the area bubbled and fluctuated like boiling water, errant sparks of energy dancing about. The stress would soon prove to be far too much as reality simply tore, sending a shockwave that knocked over shelves and spilled pre-torn jeans and leather skirts to the floor. An arm emerged from the slit and soon a figure stepped forth, time and space repairing itself behind them, leaving only silence once more.

Withdrawing an item, the figure pressed a button on it turning it on. It was a communicator, an older brand of the iPine Cosmos model, but it lit up, displaying its logo as it went through its boot up. Soon enough, it would settle itself on its main screen, displaying the time and date.

"It worked..." The figure, a woman, breathed out. Hurrying outside, the girl looked about, beaming with joy as she could hear the sounds of the city, "It really worked! This... this really is really Earth! I made it back before it was destroyed."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Etrina let out a sigh, for the moment it had stopped moving....emphasis on moment. If ishtars earlier description was any indication it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

Now able to step a bit closer, etrina focused on her vitalmancy magic....attempting to get a bead on what kind of life energy the still kicking monster was giving off. While whatever form it took would likely be too poison or...malevolent to simply drain into herself....perhaps she could siphon it into something as a means of containment...

Entropy. Decay. The natural death and rot and ruin of the universe, if it’s surrounding area. That is what feeds it.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Silence, then through the entire facility a rumble and explosion is heard.

Marsheb, held in suspension, takes the majority of Ishtar’s wrath. The beam punching down and through the fused Oni, before breaking against Baric’s humanoid head, torso, and horseback before continuing on.

On and on the beam went, plowing through the two and into the crater facility, punching down through layer after layer, level level until it finally tapers off some five hundred feat below where Sasheem had started fighting Baric. Ishtar managed to go through about half the facility it seems.

The two rooms, where the Oni and demon had been fighting, are both pretty badly wrecked from the shockwaves the beam caused, but all her allies have survived, if a bit burned or bruised.

Baric however.....

Perhaps because Marsheb took the brunt of it, half the demon remains. That is, it’s rear legs and it’s horse head and it’s sword in the corner. Which, to everyone’s surprise, is still alive. Even now tendrils of rit and fetid odor extend between the two portions and the sword, drawing them together as the demon slowly begins to put itself into some semblance of mobility and togetherness.

Etrina let out a sigh, for the moment it had stopped moving....emphasis on moment. If ishtars earlier description was any indication it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

Now able to step a bit closer, etrina focused on her vitalmancy magic....attempting to get a bead on what kind of life energy the still kicking monster was giving off. While whatever form it took would likely be too poison or...malevolent to simply drain into herself....perhaps she could siphon it into something as a means of containment...

What have I done.

Ishtar remained where she was, even after the hellish beam had petered out leaving behind naught but ruination and silence; and when she started breathing again it came in ragged heaves.

"Haa ... Haa ..."

It had worked, the blast, from what her golden-eyes could see. Marshub was gone; ashes consumed by the mix of Ki and Hakai leaving naught behind but his void-black arm. Baric was barely alive -- though that it was alive at all spoke to the truth of what she had disclosed earlier -- though in seeing the state of the Nuckalevee, one had to wonder ... was that abominable fusion of Oni alive ? What of Bloodwrath ?

Did it matter ?

Ishtar had met their challenge with wrath, and passed her judgment. If they survived, she would do so again, and again, and again ... until naught was left but a memory. Baric however ... "Imprisonment is worse, for one who cannot die naturally." Ishtar commented, eyeing the remnants of Baric as they undulated across the ruined floor. "And simply annihilating Baric would be a mercy ..."

One she was not willing to grant.

Not after what I witnessed on Elyssya.

Of the fused Oni, only a shimmering black clawed arm remains, its features drawing light in as it rests softly in a corner.

Catching sight of a darkling glow however, Ishtar spied Marduk's arm; and without a word the Oni moved shakily to collect it, before backtracking to recover Baric's Fetid Blade. Both items in-hand, the Oni was quick to give them each a once-over.

"What have we here ..."

[Twiliteknite06]

"Aw heck." Dash cursed as she swung around, trying to pinpoint the source of the blast. Once she does, she takes off at high speed towards it.

Hops was trying to contain his excitement at having helped to defeat the cursed hybrid. Of course, the work was all done by Sarada, he was just clean up crew. He was going to congratulate the Queen on her victory but was thrown off balance by the violent shaking of the entire facility. Dash took off running in search of the cause, "Hey, wait for us" he called after her as he scanned the lab once more hoping to find his missing equipment. Upon deciding that it wasn't going to be that easy, he took off after Dash, maybe they'd pass an armory or tech lab along the way, he'd check the entire building if he had to.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

What have I done.

Ishtar remained where she was, even after the hellish beam had petered out leaving behind naught but ruination and silence; and when she started breathing again it came in ragged heaves.

"Haa ... Haa ..."

It had worked, the blast, from what her golden-eyes could see. Marshub was gone; ashes consumed by the mix of Ki and Hakai leaving naught behind but his void-black arm. Baric was barely alive -- though that it was alive at all spoke to the truth of what she had disclosed earlier -- though in seeing the state of the Nuckalevee, one had to wonder ... was that abominable fusion of Oni alive ? What of Bloodwrath ?

Did it matter ?

Ishtar had met their challenge with wrath, and passed her judgment. If they survived, she would do so again, and again, and again ... until naught was left but a memory. Baric however ... "Imprisonment is worse, for one who cannot die naturally." Ishtar commented, eyeing the remnants of Baric as they undulated across the ruined floor. "And simply annihilating Baric would be a mercy ..."

One she was not willing to grant.

Not after what I witnessed on Elyssya.



Catching sight of a darkling glow however, Ishtar spied Marduk's arm; and without a word the Oni moved shakily to collect it, before backtracking to recover Baric's Fetid Blade. Both items in-hand, the Oni was quick to give them each a once-over.

"What have we here ..."

The fetid blade is not a blade itself, but an extension of Baric, as flesh and rotted as the rest. Frozen as it is the tendrils it can produce cannot reach Ishtar.

The arm defies Ishtar’s examination. The feel of it is like gripping water, yet its solid. Not wet, but cool to the touch as well, and it seems to drink in light.