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

[Miburo]

As Ochazuke had expected, when he returned to the rock and soil Damask was in some fashion able to rejuvenate himself, albeit the current circumstances prevented his complete restoration.

A mighty weapon sheathed in Earth. Look at you now.

The last time they fought in the Geofront, he was far larger then. Sealed for months in a capsule had left him little to draw upon. Now, the substance of his diminished form was drawn from rock peremated by the rigors of life. Withered stone granulated in the grip of iron roots was not the ideal medium. While his head was intact, with what little he'd managed to surround his large visage, though the size of a man, gave his bearing rather a childlike proportion.

Of course, appearances were quite deceiving, and as the golem spoke, the inert dirt and rock beneath its feet began to warp, furrow, and expand.

There was some spectral substance a living energy intertwined with the ground. Soon a hollow radius bore a shallow crater about Damask as he surrounded himself with an aura. The manifestation of the energy was visible, yet if they were to trace the path of this ki, they would find a distinct absence of a focal point.

Drawn from the very planet itself, by the spell that bonded the Golem's consciousness, it was, in a sense, everywhere. A mercurial pathway that coursed intangibly between the poles and the planet core. The Golem, a being synthesized from a oneness with the Earth, carried the power to bridge the physical barrier to allow them access to this hidden road.

Jack, who had been appreciating the natural vista of Barlon's Woods with a quick puff, let the cigarette fall from his mouth and put it out in his palm.

"Ain't that a sight," he muttered, stealing to save the half of the rolled leaf that hadn't gone to ashes. "Well, where to?"

Ochazuke stepped into the arrayed magical aura surrounding the Golem.

"The Kingdom of Vermilion, where it all began," he said.

The Nevadian gazed at the mystical light, at a loss for once in a very long time as he tried to make sense of it. He was no stranger to the arts, both mystical and martial, and yet it seemed unlike anything he had felt before.

His curiosity was so great that his Shingan activated instinctively, his body acting to make sense of it before his mind could. The energy seemed to flow from at once everywhere, and nowhere. Not like the ambient ki in the air, given off by living things, but by something that seemed to naturally be apart of the world itself. Even with his insight, the source of such energy and its limitations evaded him.

....How...How could I have missed something like this? The energy practically seems to fill the air now that I'm aware of it, and yet....Is this because of Damask, or something else? Is this the essence of the earth itself? I had no idea such a thing even existed...

So focused was he, it took a moment for him to register the words of his companions. The Shingan faded from his eyes, its user content to behold the radiance of earthly power in more mundane terms.

"...Well, I'd normally insist on a toast for good luck, considering the stakes." He replied, following after Ochazuke into the dazzling golden energy, "But I suppose if this goes well, we can celebrate with something special....."

[grampagen]

The Nevadian gazed at the mystical light, at a loss for once in a very long time as he tried to make sense of it. He was no stranger to the arts, both mystical and martial, and yet it seemed unlike anything he had felt before.

His curiosity was so great that his Shingan activated instinctively, his body acting to make sense of it before his mind could. The energy seemed to flow from at once everywhere, and nowhere. Not like the ambient ki in the air, given off by living things, but by something that seemed to naturally be apart of the world itself. Even with his insight, the source of such energy and its limitations evaded him.

....How...How could I have missed something like this? The energy practically seems to fill the air now that I'm aware of it, and yet....Is this because of Damask, or something else? Is this the essence of the earth itself? I had no idea such a thing even existed...

So focused was he, it took a moment for him to register the words of his companions. The Shingan faded from his eyes, its user content to behold the radiance of earthly power in more mundane terms.

"...Well, I'd normally insist on a toast for good luck, considering the stakes." He replied, following after Ochazuke into the dazzling golden energy, "But I suppose if this goes well, we can celebrate with something special....."

Ochazuke returned Held's jest with a steadfast glower, hard eyes falling as if he could see through him.

"If it goes well, I may consider it celebration enough," he replied. "Where we're going, victory may only be a relative matter."

When they and Blizzar gathered within the aura Damask cast around himself, at the moment Jack gave the Golem the command the partition of ground they stood upon suddenly began to feel hollow beneath them. It was strange, a quality of weightlessness they'd all known well before when they took to flight. Still, there could be no mistaking this sensation, and though they were to move, it would not be ascension. The ground swelled, shifted, and enveloped them, and all of a sudden gravity seemed to lose its bearing as they were dragged along the leyline into a descent into the Earth.

It starting as a sinking feeling at first, in an instant the rush of falling pulled the group downward were drawn along the Golem's path. Through the hidden passages through the world, the magical wake wake pulled them into the slipstream of a subliminal ether, and the ebbing remnants of Creation Energy that animated Damask now brought them dangerously close to an altered state of being.

As they fell through the world, and in turn felt it pass through their bodies. It was in a word, disorientating. Without a bottom to ground their relative position to fall or any glimpse of the height from which they fell, the Golem's spell sent them hurtling until they stumbled into a stretch of long dark.

Then in a shifting instant they emerged at their destination.

The sky was dark with rolling thunderclouds above, the foaming sea spitting cold brine at their backs as it crashed into the jagged, sable crags. Jack stumbled to his feet as he crossed the beachhead, struggling to breathe in deep as sweat dripped over his pale brow. Given the circumstances of his late departure and sudden return, perhaps it was the only natural response to having effectively been buried alive.

"Where are we?"

Damask's aura parted, his shape shambling over the beach head. At first his humanoid shape appeared to kneel, his hollow-eyed face bowing forward as he said a single word.

"Home."

Though the distance between parcels of land was great, there yet remains a connection, even to this sequestered corner of the world. The warriors gathered here initiated to the mysteries of ki would know that well, for even the insubstantial bears weight where there is will to gather it. This ancient creature was not the artefact shell, he was begotten from the Earth, only he could tread upon these subliminal causeways and create for them a road.

It was then they would notice Damask's body seemed to dissolve from the waist down. Merged partway into their landing sight, the Golem was feeding upon it, absorbing stone and mineral into his latticwork frame, swelling to his original might.

Ochazuke in the meantime looked toward a lonely mountain in the distance, his hard gaze transfixed to that spot so near.

Hidden there, beneath a fallen hill of aged rock was the fallen Kingdom of Vermilion, where the Red Raiders made their lair, codename Charlie Base.

[Yun Lao]

So when this stranger arrived, it was with with a certain beleaguered fatigue that he turned his attention to her.

"That Saurian does not belong in this world," he said, "The form he manifests is not his own. Even now Ogatan Charco combats that parasite."

As he righted his ki, Ochazuke stood, and the skills of sense-awareness resharpened themselves. He'd missed her entrance, but for the moment, she had his undivided attention.

"Futher...who are you to speak of his soul as no more than a mere fixed portion?"

He said as much to the visitor, yet in this domain of monsters pressing themselves from baser, dead realms, perhaps Rex and Persephone were the closest to kindred among their present company.

"To play devil's advocate; you could say that Charco is the true parasite," The stranger said, no doubt burning off the goodwill of those nearby with her statement, "After all, it was Rex's power and influence that molded him into the form you were most fond of. This train of thought and your own are merely parts of this equation; two sides of a coin. The truth of the matter of, no matter your bias, both saurian and human have rightful claim to that body; Charco through birth and Rex through spirit. Unfortunately, without some semblance of identity, without some form of order, that body will be destroyed from the spiritual turmoil and conflict. As of right now, Rex will the only one to survive from this, forced to restart with another, but that isn't to say that Charco is without a path to take."

A caterpillar struggling within the cocoon, she could only wonder if the boy would have the strength to break free.

"As for who I am? My dear Ochazuke, I am a nobody, yet one of the most important people you will meet. I am a stranger to this universe, yet a resident residing here long before you. A goddess to some, devil by others, I am but a humble wayward servant of Zenos. Islay is my name."

[MrSandman]

Through his connection to the source below....Ochazuke bore witness to the manifestation of something dark below. A beating heart, pumping the blood of magic through hollow veins spread throughout the hollowed mountain. The tomb was stirring while he and the others toiled in the grand stage play far above.

Realization struck....this was as much a distraction as it was Persephones grand finale.

A wave of vertigo struck Ochazuke before he could attempt to focus on his realization, and he was falling....or it felt like falling. The mountain seemed to be rising to meet him, opening its top like a cavernous maw and swallowing him until all that remained was the glowing heart in the darkness and the infinite black abyss.

"...Tsk...Tsk...Your a stubborn one..." A voice assaulted him from every direction. "...I wonder...what drives such resolve. Surely you can see the futility of the world you live in.......no, how could you. Shortsightedness is the mottar that holds your fragile existence together....Asha'rahs gift to her lowly creations. Its so tragically laughable.....is it not?"

The darkness twisted around him, laughing.

"You will die, your friends will die, your loved ones....everything you strive for, everything you believe in, everything you leave behind, every life you save, every choice you make, every effort. Nothing remains in the end. This isnt a threat, nor a prediction....this is the cold reality. The realm of the gods has no pity or remorse....and you cling to it like a rat on a piece of driftwood, not because you wish, but because you cannot conceive any other way. I've seen your past....your future....you cannot deny the truth laid out before you. The senseless loss, the history wasted....so many petty squabbles over survival, knowledge, power. Fighting to serve the ego, and the now....because the future is too unbearable to look at. How many comrades have you lost, how many have you taken from others."

A great shape looms out and around the heart, an image, and idol....one whose form is as vast as the abyss, skinned only in the vaguest semblance of humanity.

maxresdefault.jpg

"I know your pain....I do.....I lived as you lived. Struggled to keep those close to me from harm....strived to be powerful enough to protect them from harm. But its futile....because we were made to die, every fiber of our beings is made to burn bright and sputter out. But that age is closing.....renege your false hope, your struggle....accept what I can offer you, and be reborn in the form the gods deny you."

Around her, thousands of forms slowly materialized.....many ochazuke did not recognize, but some he did. Some he had fought here, in the ruins....draped in familiar vestments...but human in appearance. Among them, he could see Angravein.....even Morgan.

"Don't be afraid....I am your queen, your guardian. I will craft your a form more fitting then anything the gods could ever dream...and we will shake the foundations of their law until in crashes around them....."

Several more vague shapes materialized in front of Ochazuke, these not of Amdapor however.....these were, with sickening realization, far closer to the forms of his companions.

....and the form in front of him, adorned with the soulless vestige of his own steeled face, beckoned him....beckoned his soul....

[MrSandman]

Shrieks and wails, the very cries of the fallen citizens of Avalon could be heard as clearly as the day they exuded from their dying breaths as "Charco" dredged up the surrounding fukushuu; a force of habit no doubt of Rex's influence. Crossing his arms, trembling in barely contained rage, over his chest. The broken fragments of the ruins trembled once more, this time slowly making their way towards him, his power creating a faint vortex.

As Persephone manipulated an errant blast of his back, guiding it through the vengeful spirits who sought to seize it for their tormentor, the Once and Risen Queen's hopes would bear fruit as the blast pierce him through the stomach. That's as far as her hopes would go, however, as his body consumed the very energy that wounded him. Light seeped out in thin rays from between gritted teeth, the power gathering around and within him; however, while it was Rex's fukushuu that comprised the former, the dull orange hue of the energy within was far too familiar to the volatile ki of Charco's Thyreophora. The inviting vortex grew stronger in response to the sudden bout of pain inflicted upon him subconsciously provoking him into dipping into the well of hatred taught by the Old Hateful Hermit, Poepayne. The combination of three sources of energy seemed almost too much of a toil despite his regeneration, as his skin cracked open, weeping scarlet.

When whatever criteria "Charco" had sought in this display of masochistic power had been met, he let loose with a roar of uncoherent pain, creating a devasting shockwave of energies purged from his being.

--------------
Locked Technique Brought Forth: "「Tunguska Vent」"

Persephone seemed to be enjoying the show, despite how little impact her spear seemed to have.....if only because Charco seemed to be tearing himself apart while attempting to channel whatever powers fueled his incessant rage.

Then it all came out at once, and her jovial attitude was only slightly dulled as she was forced to surround herself in a shield of energy to hold the wave at bay, even as it spread out and brought even more ruin to the surroundings. At this point, pieces of rubble had been blown in all directions....littering the land below to the point one may argue the scenery was now no different then it was when they first arrived, save someone had taken everything and flipped it upside down...

As the waves of energy washed over her sphere, cracks of energy slowly forming across its forward facing side, the Queen of Amdapor considered the situation before her with an all consuming....smugness.

"Fufu......Typical Wyrm.....all fury and flash, and the worst your can do is give me a headache....Vortigern was no different. You'd think all this time would have gifted you with originality." Persephone raised her arms outwards, and the intact rubble seemed to gather in defiance of the heavy force bearing against it, molding and solidifying into two large arms made out of a dense material. Reacting to her movement, one of them shot out its massive reach and closed around "charco", crushing him and his vent within its closed fist.

"Now that reminds me though.....I wonder if Vortigern is still where I left him....in the deepest, darkest cage of the mountain. We had so many fun nights together, him and I....and it'll be a shame to not pick up where I left off after your gone."

[Yun Lao]

Persephone seemed to be enjoying the show, despite how little impact her spear seemed to have.....if only because Charco seemed to be tearing himself apart while attempting to channel whatever powers fueled his incessant rage.

Then it all came out at once, and her jovial attitude was only slightly dulled as she was forced to surround herself in a shield of energy to hold the wave at bay, even as it spread out and brought even more ruin to the surroundings. At this point, pieces of rubble had been blown in all directions....littering the land below to the point one may argue the scenery was now no different then it was when they first arrived, save someone had taken everything and flipped it upside down...

As the waves of energy washed over her sphere, cracks of energy slowly forming across its forward facing side, the Queen of Amdapor considered the situation before her with an all consuming....smugness.

"Fufu......Typical Wyrm.....all fury and flash, and the worst your can do is give me a headache....Vortigern was no different. You'd think all this time would have gifted you with originality." Persephone raised her arms outwards, and the intact rubble seemed to gather in defiance of the heavy force bearing against it, molding and solidifying into two large arms made out of a dense material. Reacting to her movement, one of them shot out its massive reach and closed around "charco", crushing him and his vent within its closed fist.

"Now that reminds me though.....I wonder if Vortigern is still where I left him....in the deepest, darkest cage of the mountain. We had so many fun nights together, him and I....and it'll be a shame to not pick up where I left off after your gone."

Rex might have complimented her in a backhanded way if he were coherent. Then again, she might have been in trouble if "Charco" had actually focused his rage onto her instead of wildly lashing out.

His flesh, boiled and blackened, was almost reminiscent to his final stand against the Doctor, but his injuries of self-infliction would heal, although not quickly enough to properly deal with the massive hands of stone and debris that seized him in Persephone's grasp. Silence soon followed and for just but a moment, one could imagine that she had succeeded in ending the creature's rampage. That was until a stream of golden light pierced through the constructed hands, moving effortlessly through as it made a complete revolution around. Cutting not through the material, but rather the magic the Queen bond the material together with, the rubble ceased to remain together, crumbling away from the creature called Charco.



While Rex was unaware of its origin, he had acknowledged its presence within him, leaving him immune to both its affliction and its blessing, but this one, holding only the knowledge of a new babe, was "worthy" of its power. Perhaps his tantrum had been fueled by the frustration of being unable to comprehend his surroundings, as magic clung to this land like a death shroud. It could not be confirmed nor denied, but it seemed it mattered not to Lain's Fang.

Reaching forth with his human hand, "Charco" once more began to gather energy, although this time it seemed much less destructive than his previous techniques.

[grampagen]

"To play devil's advocate; you could say that Charco is the true parasite," The stranger said, no doubt burning off the goodwill of those nearby with her statement, "After all, it was Rex's power and influence that molded him into the form you were most fond of. This train of thought and your own are merely parts of this equation; two sides of a coin. The truth of the matter of, no matter your bias, both saurian and human have rightful claim to that body; Charco through birth and Rex through spirit. Unfortunately, without some semblance of identity, without some form of order, that body will be destroyed from the spiritual turmoil and conflict. As of right now, Rex will the only one to survive from this, forced to restart with another, but that isn't to say that Charco is without a path to take."

A caterpillar struggling within the cocoon, she could only wonder if the boy would have the strength to break free.

"As for who I am? My dear Ochazuke, I am a nobody, yet one of the most important people you will meet. I am a stranger to this universe, yet a resident residing here long before you. A goddess to some, devil by others, I am but a humble wayward servant of Zenos. Islay is my name."

She was coy, and the clinical manner in which she spoke with such fixed certainty struck deeply within him as the winter chill knotted through his wounded flesh. Perhaps like many a damned thing they found on the mountain, the corpsed hue of Islay's frame might have been taken from frost or thinning air. Her icy words dripped with a measured arrogance, and yet the simplicity of her examination concealed how little it spilled over the deeper matter.

And yet she would presume to invoke the enigmatic Lord of All Things and speak of the truth?

"The Saurian had his chance, growing fat on the misery of generations of victims," Ochazuke replied. "Rex's influence, cheh!"

His heavy shoulders found new firmness through their shuddering.

"The moment Charco's forefathers struck him down, he who proclaimed himself 'Strongest' was undone by the very same savage laws he tread into this world. It should have ended there. He died, and has only endured by clasping upon the fears of the desperate, and in a moment's weakness..."

He trailed off for a moment, silent as he examined Islay's ki. Reaching his sense awareness about her frame and permeating into the scattered halo adorning the air about her, it was with a measure of solicitude to his sensibilities that she was not, apparently, party to the fallen magi.

Yet she knew my name. There is Something about this one...

"...he saps the living will of others to sustain his own, the gall to say Rex has a right by spirit." As the battle raged, toothed maw screamed, and the declawed arm lashed out, wild, desperate and divorced of any intent but self-preservation. "How can you be so certain, do you have eyes in your head?"

[Yun Lao]

She was coy, and the clinical manner in which she spoke with such fixed certainty struck deeply within him as the winter chill knotted through his wounded flesh. Perhaps like many a damned thing they found on the mountain, the corpsed hue of Islay's frame might have been taken from frost or thinning air. Her icy words dripped with a measured arrogance, and yet the simplicity of her examination concealed how little it spilled over the deeper matter.

And yet she would presume to invoke the enigmatic Lord of All Things and speak of the truth?

"The Saurian had his chance, growing fat on the misery of generations of victims," Ochazuke replied. "Rex's influence, cheh!"

His heavy shoulders found new firmness through their shuddering.

"The moment Charco's forefathers struck him down, he who proclaimed himself 'Strongest' was undone by the very same savage laws he tread into this world. It should have ended there. He died, and has only endured by clasping upon the fears of the desperate, and in a moment's weakness..."

He trailed off for a moment, silent as he examined Islay's ki. Reaching his sense awareness about her frame and permeating into the scattered halo adorning the air about her, it was with a measure of solicitude to his sensibilities that she was not, apparently, party to the fallen magi.

Yet she knew my name. There is Something about this one...

"...he saps the living will of others to sustain his own, the gall to say Rex has a right by spirit." As the battle raged, toothed maw screamed, and the declawed arm lashed out, wild, desperate and divorced of any intent but self-preservation. "How can you be so certain, do you have eyes in your head?"

She laughed, not to mock Ochazuke's words, but rather because of how close he was to the truth, yet still so far from truly deciphering it. As much as she enjoyed being cryptic, even she knew that Ochazuke was not one to suffer any form of foolishness for long.

"Ethically, you have all the right to be outraged by his existence; for as long as he lived, he has spurned multiple chances to change his ways to indulge in his selfishness..." Islay began, "However, Rex has become a vital part of Charco's bloodline. The night they celebrated his defeat by consuming his immortal flesh, they unwilling bound man and beast together." Ochazuke's senses would find no resistance nor defensive measures made by the woman to hide her presence or power; however, it would be up to Ochazuke's knowledge to understand what she was. Neither God of Creation nor Destruction, she was similar yet perched upon a high plateau of power: an Angel.

"I can be certain because I was the one who helped orchestrated Rex's fall all those years ago... but that is a story for another time."

[grampagen]

Through his connection to the source below....Ochazuke bore witness to the manifestation of something dark below. A beating heart, pumping the blood of magic through hollow veins spread throughout the hollowed mountain. The tomb was stirring while he and the others toiled in the grand stage play far above.

Realization struck....this was as much a distraction as it was Persephones grand finale.

A wave of vertigo struck Ochazuke before he could attempt to focus on his realization, and he was falling....or it felt like falling. The mountain seemed to be rising to meet him, opening its top like a cavernous maw and swallowing him until all that remained was the glowing heart in the darkness and the infinite black abyss.

"...Tsk...Tsk...Your a stubborn one..." A voice assaulted him from every direction. "...I wonder...what drives such resolve. Surely you can see the futility of the world you live in.......no, how could you. Shortsightedness is the mottar that holds your fragile existence together....Asha'rahs gift to her lowly creations. Its so tragically laughable.....is it not?"

In his desperation, his oversight invited the gaze of some abyssal thing that staring straight back at him from the chasm. Where he sought some sublime insight, instead silence stole his breath as he felt the touch of this hing. If his body remained on the ascending platform he would not know it, for he felt his spirit dragged swiftly to the heart of Amdapor with all of his sense and higher faculties.

The voice echoed in these astral environs, and in this hollow place it shook through him as it spoke.

Asha'rah's gift?
Whether she spoke of the Creation or life itself, to Ochazuke, the realization that these Voidling Others existed outside of the sphere of the principle qualities of this universe was something he was growing increasingly more cognizant to, and with it an according level of dread.

Though Creation would be opposed by Destruction, there was a cycle of balance between the two that had been disrupted. Yet the very concept of 'being' could not exist without a 'nothing' from which to distinguish itself.

What was magic but a realization of this? A kingdom built on a barren of snow, sustenance drawn from dead fields, and matter twisted by scheming vision instead of knowledge? Nothing short of miraculous, this upending of the natural order; all it took was absolute surrender of the soul to sate the things in the darkness.

The darkness twisted around him, laughing.

"You will die, your friends will die, your loved ones....everything you strive for, everything you believe in, everything you leave behind, every life you save, every choice you make, every effort. Nothing remains in the end. This isnt a threat, nor a prediction....this is the cold reality. The realm of the gods has no pity or remorse....and you cling to it like a rat on a piece of driftwood, not because you wish, but because you cannot conceive any other way. I've seen your past....your future....you cannot deny the truth laid out before you. The senseless loss, the history wasted....so many petty squabbles over survival, knowledge, power. Fighting to serve the ego, and the now....because the future is too unbearable to look at. How many comrades have you lost, how many have you taken from others."

Shortsightedness? Was that what she called mortality? It would be futile to deny it. This all too mortal life had much to be desired

Arjan Kaibyo, Kri Kenshiko...

As he lost sensation to his mortal frame, again his mind turned to mortal thoughts and the memories he held so near. The life he'd lost, and the lives he'd abandoned. From the scions of the Fallen Tiger to the students he'd reared in the discipline of the Crane, he'd fought to desperately reclaim what the world had taken away from him.

Charco

But had his efforts to rediscover the Ten Schools of Zxu'ro been only a fleeting dream? Many lives had been scattered to ash, like burning feathers in the wind. The Death within Life of faded memories, drawn from substance without subsistence.

The story of mankind was written by those who scurried under the shadows of giants; those who stoked fear and shepherded hope. Asha'rah herself once lauded those who built towers of monumental ambition, with only a fickle lament for how these champions stood atop their lessers and kept them gated within these fixed, helpless boundaries. The eyes of the Creator, and the very savage universe burned cold, indifferent in their gaze set in the stars above. With but a whim, it would all come to nothing from a fear as consequence from desire.

Dragged along to this place where the quintessance of the Void had no barrier encroaching into this world yet unseen,, Ochazuke could do little more than grit his teeth shuttering his eyes futilely as he was sent hurtling along its path.

A great shape looms out and around the heart, an image, and idol....one whose form is as vast as the abyss, skinned only in the vaguest semblance of humanity.

maxresdefault.jpg

"I know your pain....I do.....I lived as you lived. Struggled to keep those close to me from harm....strived to be powerful enough to protect them from harm. But its futile....because we were made to die, every fiber of our beings is made to burn bright and sputter out. But that age is closing.....renege your false hope, your struggle....accept what I can offer you, and be reborn in the form the gods deny you."

Around her, thousands of forms slowly materialized.....many ochazuke did not recognize, but some he did. Some he had fought here, in the ruins....draped in familiar vestments...but human in appearance. Among them, he could see Angravein.....even Morgan.

"Don't be afraid....I am your queen, your guardian. I will craft your a form more fitting then anything the gods could ever dream...and we will shake the foundations of their law until in crashes around them....."

Several more vague shapes materialized in front of Ochazuke, these not of Amdapor however.....these were, with sickening realization, far closer to the forms of his companions.

....and the form in front of him, adorned with the soulless vestige of his own steeled face, beckoned him....beckoned his soul....

As much as he fought the visions that poured in, the honeyed words of the Queen beckoned. Upon a small, insignificant mote like so many others, she offered protection from this finite arrangement, a warmth and light in its cold, cruel procession.

Arrayed in a line from birth to death in succession, crossing this life upon the stage of a shattered universe, disparate in all its struggling elements, to say this was the work of an intelligent design would be tandamount to...

...madness.

But Persephone, she was once human. Distant kindred, she was so much more now, but even then she was one who also saw the cracks in the firmament and sought a power to mend it. Despite his transgressions, she offered it to him still.

In silence, Ochazuke's frame stilled as his eyes closed, given over to a moment's serenity. His guard dropped and his hands fell to his sides in silence.

OOC: [2]

[grampagen]

She laughed, not to mock Ochazuke's words, but rather because of how close he was to the truth, yet still so far from truly deciphering it. As much as she enjoyed being cryptic, even she knew that Ochazuke was not one to suffer any form of foolishness for long.

"Ethically, you have all the right to be outraged by his existence; for as long as he lived, he has spurned multiple chances to change his ways to indulge in his selfishness..." Islay began, "However, Rex has become a vital part of Charco's bloodline. The night they celebrated his defeat by consuming his immortal flesh, they unwilling bound man and beast together." Ochazuke's senses would find no resistance nor defensive measures made by the woman to hide her presence or power; however, it would be up to Ochazuke's knowledge to understand what she was. Neither God of Creation nor Destruction, she was similar yet perched upon a high plateau of power: an Angel.

"I can be certain because I was the one who helped orchestrated Rex's fall all those years ago... but that is a story for another time."

"The strong become fodder for the weak. Wish or otherwise, why should it be any different for him?"

That had always been the maxim not just of the Beast, but of all the primal ways of the universe. Where higher reason and sophisticated purpose failed, it always descended to an atavistic violence their lot felt especially attuned to in the very makeup of their souls. There was a less of a remove for they who called themselves warriors, but some things he'd found were well worth fighting for.

But what she spoke next was something he had not been expecting.

You were behind this? Ochazuke's hands curled to fists at his sides. Deceit and concealed purpose seems to infect all the higher spheres.

As he analyzed her, he found Islay's haughty distance from where she floated above to be only a subdued measure of what she truly was. Harrowing as the dark depths of the Mountain Kingdom were, when he placed his examination that lofty perch, he felt a different sort of trepidation altogether.

This creature...there is more to her I cannot glean...like gazing upon the rippled surface of a well...

Wholly alien to his sensibilities, hers was a particular and unique embellishment consisting of a subdued brilliance that seemed to be...held in check. In all his experience he had not born witness to something remotely similar.

Nothing, save for fragments of a psychic vision, wrest from something else coiled likewise in unseen obscenity.

...Parasite...

About them the struggle of the battlefield paled to that of the inner turmoil that sounded itself in wild screams as the creature threw itself into battle.

"Do not lecture me on matters of will while this usurper is pushed from his own presumed conquest. You said it yourself. They were unwilling." His heated words fogged the air. "And yet you seem as invested in this desperate struggle as Rex himself. Why?"

[Yun Lao]

"The strong become fodder for the weak. Wish or otherwise, why should it be any different for him?"

That had always been the maxim not just of the Beast, but of all the primal ways of the universe. Where higher reason and sophisticated purpose failed, it always descended to an atavistic violence their lot felt especially attuned to in the very makeup of their souls. There was a less of a remove for they who called themselves warriors, but some things he'd found were well worth fighting for.

But what she spoke next was something he had not been expecting.

You were behind this? Ochazuke's hands curled to fists at his sides. Deceit and concealed purpose seems to infect all the higher spheres.

As he analyzed her, he found Islay's haughty distance from where she floated above to be only a subdued measure of what she truly was. Harrowing as the dark depths of the Mountain Kingdom were, when he placed his examination that lofty perch, he felt a different sort of trepidation altogether.

This creature...there is more to her I cannot glean...like gazing upon the rippled surface of a well...

Wholly alien to his sensibilities, hers was a particular and unique embellishment consisting of a subdued brilliance that seemed to be...held in check. In all his experience he had not born witness to something remotely similar.

Nothing, save for fragments of a psychic vision, wrest from something else coiled likewise in unseen obscenity.

...Parasite...

About them the struggle of the battlefield paled to that of the inner turmoil that sounded itself in wild screams as the creature threw itself into battle.

"Do not lecture me on matters of will while this usurper is pushed from his own presumed conquest. You said it yourself. They were unwilling." His heated words fogged the air. "And yet you seem as invested in this desperate struggle as Rex himself. Why?"

"I am no puppetmaster seeking to deceive others into acting out roles for my own benefit," She began, reading Ochazuke's intimidating features like a novel. A long sigh came from her as she recollected, "A goddess of creation once managed to convince a charge of mine that Zeno's ways were unjust. Because of that, we were left stranded here, and that silly fool managed to get eaten by a dinosaur. In most cases, that would have been that, but that dinosaur had an annoying talent of adaptation. Combine that with a wish from the Dragonballs and you have an immortal tyrannosaurus rex with a belly full of hakai." Gesturing to the saurian man hybrid, it was apparent whom she spoke of.

"Humanity was woefully unequipped to handle such a beast and so I helped them. They took in the power of the old dragon only to do the same to Rex. Ochazuke, I do not blame you for your repulsion to Rex, nor your distrust of me, but just know that this is the path Charco must take. It is not a kind path, but it is one that we both know that only he can handle."

[KingofPie]

Ro bend south of the way of Sasheem’s attack, flowing like a snake himself.

He nods to Zaofan.

“Observe.”

As Sahseem and he continue to spar, the two acolytes would see how Ro’s used the schools teachings.

It was a perfect synthesis. No one form was exactly from one school: instead, Ro would take a stance that held notes of the Lion and Tiger, but would then bend and dodge in the same moment with elements of the Snake and Crane. When he counterattacks, it wasn’t with the strict structure of the Turtle or the Dragon, but with elements of them all. A turned first from the Spider intermingled with a shifted hip from the Phoenix school. A kick angled high like a Wolf, but more forceful like a Bear.

Zaofan and Sasheem can see, as the spar continues, the root of each School and how Zxu’ro took excerpts and pieces of his Chimera School and helped his students found the Ten.

"Okay..."Sasheem exhaled. "That about it...?" he sat upon the grass, his stomach starting to rumble. "Sasheem doesn't know how long we've been here, but he's famished! But...your techniques weren't nearly as worthless as Sasheem thought," the Majin...complimented? "But what's next? Any parting words, 'great teacher'?"

[KingofPie]

Ochazuke returned Held's jest with a steadfast glower, hard eyes falling as if he could see through him.

"If it goes well, I may consider it celebration enough," he replied. "Where we're going, victory may only be a relative matter."

When they and Blizzar gathered within the aura Damask cast around himself, at the moment Jack gave the Golem the command the partition of ground they stood upon suddenly began to feel hollow beneath them. It was strange, a quality of weightlessness they'd all known well before when they took to flight. Still, there could be no mistaking this sensation, and though they were to move, it would not be ascension. The ground swelled, shifted, and enveloped them, and all of a sudden gravity seemed to lose its bearing as they were dragged along the leyline into a descent into the Earth.

It starting as a sinking feeling at first, in an instant the rush of falling pulled the group downward were drawn along the Golem's path. Through the hidden passages through the world, the magical wake wake pulled them into the slipstream of a subliminal ether, and the ebbing remnants of Creation Energy that animated Damask now brought them dangerously close to an altered state of being.

As they fell through the world, and in turn felt it pass through their bodies. It was in a word, disorientating. Without a bottom to ground their relative position to fall or any glimpse of the height from which they fell, the Golem's spell sent them hurtling until they stumbled into a stretch of long dark.

Then in a shifting instant they emerged at their destination.

The sky was dark with rolling thunderclouds above, the foaming sea spitting cold brine at their backs as it crashed into the jagged, sable crags. Jack stumbled to his feet as he crossed the beachhead, struggling to breathe in deep as sweat dripped over his pale brow. Given the circumstances of his late departure and sudden return, perhaps it was the only natural response to having effectively been buried alive.

"Where are we?"

Damask's aura parted, his shape shambling over the beach head. At first his humanoid shape appeared to kneel, his hollow-eyed face bowing forward as he said a single word.

"Home."

Though the distance between parcels of land was great, there yet remains a connection, even to this sequestered corner of the world. The warriors gathered here initiated to the mysteries of ki would know that well, for even the insubstantial bears weight where there is will to gather it. This ancient creature was not the artefact shell, he was begotten from the Earth, only he could tread upon these subliminal causeways and create for them a road.

It was then they would notice Damask's body seemed to dissolve from the waist down. Merged partway into their landing sight, the Golem was feeding upon it, absorbing stone and mineral into his latticwork frame, swelling to his original might.

Ochazuke in the meantime looked toward a lonely mountain in the distance, his hard gaze transfixed to that spot so near.

Hidden there, beneath a fallen hill of aged rock was the fallen Kingdom of Vermilion, where the Red Raiders made their lair, codename Charlie Base.

"Not a bad trip at all, all things considered," Blizzar noted. This method of travel....it was remarkable. Leylines. Why such a thing, if made widely available could supplant many more mundane means of public transportation throughout the galaxy. But...such schemes were best left to the back of the mind at the moment. For now, there was...

"The Kingdom Or Vermillion...such as it were," The Arcosian commented. "We're my systems properly working, I could have a satellite layout the schematics within seconds," he sighed. "Not thay I mind taking the manual route, I just never got the chance to play with my satellite systems as much as I'd like..."

Blizzar looked over the rocky hill towards the ruin below before, turning to Ochazuke. "Following your lead."

[grampagen]

"I am no puppetmaster seeking to deceive others into acting out roles for my own benefit," She began, reading Ochazuke's intimidating features like a novel. A long sigh came from her as she recollected, "A goddess of creation once managed to convince a charge of mine that Zeno's ways were unjust. Because of that, we were left stranded here, and that silly fool managed to get eaten by a dinosaur. In most cases, that would have been that, but that dinosaur had an annoying talent of adaptation. Combine that with a wish from the Dragonballs and you have an immortal tyrannosaurus rex with a belly full of hakai." Gesturing to the saurian man hybrid, it was apparent whom she spoke of.

"Humanity was woefully unequipped to handle such a beast and so I helped them. They took in the power of the old dragon only to do the same to Rex. Ochazuke, I do not blame you for your repulsion to Rex, nor your distrust of me, but just know that this is the path Charco must take. It is not a kind path, but it is one that we both know that only he can handle."

As Ochazuke studied her pristine refinement, it seemed as if an uncanny perfection settled upon her features as she spoke. Far from being reassuring of the matters she spoke of, this only further raised a visceral rejection her testimony as presented. Falsehood could very well be framed in cordiality. He said nothing at first, parsing the words internally as they came.

Hakai. Fukushuu. The Black Fires of Destruction left the smudge of Grey in its wake. Unable to eradicate on its own, it seizes upon the innate catalysts to fuel the need to destroy.

Certainly it was true, then, that they could be from another world apart from theirs, for their God of Destruction had died. Asha'rah betrayed and murdered Inda'ren. Allegedly it had been at the behest of Sakin, their mutual overseer, but in her own words, for the greater good of the Universe as she saw it, she would kill him again for a cause worth more than the life or friendship.

There on dying Terra they encountered Hammer who said as much about Asha'rah as Islay had recanted. There had been so much that transpired in that clash of universes across the ages that it became muddled. Concealed deeply within memories of such a selective meditation, it was far too easy to forget much of them, the multitudes drawn up in such vainglorious posturing and cast asunder.

"So you were there during the war in heaven," Ochazuke pondered, "Then what does that make you? Another Destroyer's keeper, perhaps?"

At a glance he could not say for certain, only that her ki was of the same issue that lay in the mercurial form that burst from Fife's ashes so long ago. Islay's innate power was far more distilled, however, more direct than that mindless one. Her direct manifestation at this moment showed she would not shrink before what stood before her, but the means she had enacted to get this far roused further suspiscion.

"Your help led the Ogatan to the Old Dragon? You don't mean...That Man...?"

What was there in a beginning seemed to stretch back further to a far more eldritch origin, a heinous blight that spread itself in the very fabric of all things.

"A wish is useless without the will to act upon it. Just as a moment's remembrance was enough for Rex to possess the boy, in his triumph he'd forgotten who tempered the foundations of his vessel. It will be memory in turn that shall serve just as well to pry the scales from his flesh," he smouldered. "Yet you haven't answered me."

"You helped the Ogatan once, but standing before one in need, you idle now. To what end? What is your stake in all this?"

[Miburo]

Ochazuke returned Held's jest with a steadfast glower, hard eyes falling as if he could see through him.

"If it goes well, I may consider it celebration enough," he replied. "Where we're going, victory may only be a relative matter."

When they and Blizzar gathered within the aura Damask cast around himself, at the moment Jack gave the Golem the command the partition of ground they stood upon suddenly began to feel hollow beneath them. It was strange, a quality of weightlessness they'd all known well before when they took to flight. Still, there could be no mistaking this sensation, and though they were to move, it would not be ascension. The ground swelled, shifted, and enveloped them, and all of a sudden gravity seemed to lose its bearing as they were dragged along the leyline into a descent into the Earth.

It starting as a sinking feeling at first, in an instant the rush of falling pulled the group downward were drawn along the Golem's path. Through the hidden passages through the world, the magical wake wake pulled them into the slipstream of a subliminal ether, and the ebbing remnants of Creation Energy that animated Damask now brought them dangerously close to an altered state of being.

As they fell through the world, and in turn felt it pass through their bodies. It was in a word, disorientating. Without a bottom to ground their relative position to fall or any glimpse of the height from which they fell, the Golem's spell sent them hurtling until they stumbled into a stretch of long dark.

Then in a shifting instant they emerged at their destination.

The sky was dark with rolling thunderclouds above, the foaming sea spitting cold brine at their backs as it crashed into the jagged, sable crags. Jack stumbled to his feet as he crossed the beachhead, struggling to breathe in deep as sweat dripped over his pale brow. Given the circumstances of his late departure and sudden return, perhaps it was the only natural response to having effectively been buried alive.

"Where are we?"

Damask's aura parted, his shape shambling over the beach head. At first his humanoid shape appeared to kneel, his hollow-eyed face bowing forward as he said a single word.

"Home."

Though the distance between parcels of land was great, there yet remains a connection, even to this sequestered corner of the world. The warriors gathered here initiated to the mysteries of ki would know that well, for even the insubstantial bears weight where there is will to gather it. This ancient creature was not the artefact shell, he was begotten from the Earth, only he could tread upon these subliminal causeways and create for them a road.

It was then they would notice Damask's body seemed to dissolve from the waist down. Merged partway into their landing sight, the Golem was feeding upon it, absorbing stone and mineral into his latticwork frame, swelling to his original might.

Ochazuke in the meantime looked toward a lonely mountain in the distance, his hard gaze transfixed to that spot so near.

Hidden there, beneath a fallen hill of aged rock was the fallen Kingdom of Vermilion, where the Red Raiders made their lair, codename Charlie Base.

"Well, that was a new one..." Held replied, speaking more to himself than to his comrades, "It was like...Flying in reverse, or something like that. I'll have to add it to the list."

These Leylines...Are spread all across the planet? I wonder what else this planet holds...For that matter, is this something specific to Earth?...Whatever, I got a decent enough look at them, but everything was so swift, I couldn't entirely make sense of it all....Though, that's a secondary concern, I suppose.

The Nevadian went silent for a moment as he overlooked the fast ruins of a fallen kingdom, more rubble than anything else.

".....This is your home?" Held asked, arching an eyebrow, "It's....Not what I expected..."

Then again, I suppose I didn't think too hard on it.

"Or rather, I suppose that's the difference between knowing, and seeing..."

It shouldn't have been a shock, after all. If there was one tie binding Kenshiko and The Red Raiders, it was the heartrending losses at the hands of war, the hands of That Man in particular. It had been some time, but Held had studied the briefing on her, and the information from Ochazuke--As reluctant as he was to discuss the past--made it obvious enough that his story, was her story, in some parts anyways.

As such, if Kenshiko lost her home to war, it was only natural that Ochazuke did as well. Yet, only now did his mind make the connection.

".....If I didn't know any better, I'd think she chose this place out of nostalgia, more than anything...." He mumbled, casting his gaze deeper downwards beneath the cliff facing.

"Not a bad trip at all, all things considered," Blizzar noted. This method of travel....it was remarkable. Leylines. Why such a thing, if made widely available could supplant many more mundane means of public transportation throughout the galaxy. But...such schemes were best left to the back of the mind at the moment. For now, there was...

"The Kingdom Or Vermillion...such as it were," The Arcosian commented. "We're my systems properly working, I could have a satellite layout the schematics within seconds," he sighed. "Not thay I mind taking the manual route, I just never got the chance to play with my satellite systems as much as I'd like..."

Blizzar looked over the rocky hill towards the ruin below before, turning to Ochazuke. "Following your lead."

And now there was some nostalgia of his own, it seemed.


"You're still doing that Satalite thing?" He contined, smirking somewhat, "That makes me reminisce about the day we met and how I generously decided to donate to various charitable causes..."

Who could forget the day I had to bribe you to get my name cleared, after all....Then again, it's more like you bribed me....The payments are set on Automatic now, but at this rate, I should have an entire space station named after me.....

"Did they ever build the Debon Hall of Justice?" He asked, half-jokingly, "Then again, I suppose it would be poor form, considering my allegiance and occupation..."