Dragonball M, Chapter 4: Kidnapping! Invasion! A new Threat Strikes First!

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Sasheem begins grinding his teeth. "You chewed up bubblegum bastard, what you call me?!" Sasheem ranted back.



"...Does he always sound like he had a sinus infection?"

“Would you prefer third rate copy?”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Nevanlinna had remained silent until Auroc spoke.

"It is so good to see that you survived your ignoble defeat on Vocado. I trust you've prepared accordingly this time?"

Prepared for yet another defeat--and annihilation--of course, not prepared to fight this lot.

“A learning experience, former princess. We all learn from mistakes, even I am not an exception to that rule. Even gods are not entirely infallible.”

[grampagen]

"...Did he have a nose? I can't recall..." Etrina mused aloud.



".....Right." Etrina turned her head back and nodded, then smiled. "Know it needs not be said....but be careful..."

"Hey, aren't I always?" Zaofan returned with a wink. "Besides, worst comes to worst, they'll need a good spiritual heeling."

Sasheem begins grinding his teeth. "You chewed up bubblegum bastard, what you call me?!" Sasheem ranted back.



"...Does he always sound like he had a sinus infection?"

As Ochazuke examined the depths of the Threshling Spirit, Zaofan stood on guard at the mouth of the resonant chamber.

The acoustics of this place...I hate to admit it, but the Priestesses know how to captivate an audience...

Glib thoughts rose in his mind to quench the uneasiness. He knew just what such an assembly was truly meant for. Nothing was quite as it seemed...and perhaps as an aftereffect of the hall's design, he could hear Sasheem's mockery clearly.

[Tami]

“A learning experience, former princess. We all learn from mistakes, even I am not an exception to that rule. Even gods are not entirely infallible.”

"At least he ain't goin around blaming others." Dash thought to herself, as she otherwise quietly studied him and those within the room, listening carefully to what was being said.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Why would a God care for the lamentations of an ant?" Inanna asked with a yawn.

A pause, and then the voice replies, irritation in its tone.

“Very well then, abomination. Let us end this. Grand Maven..see to it.”

The tall women arches a brow, then nods and walks out through a side room. The shadowed form stands up, taller than previous, and makes its way down to Inanna and the others.

Gone is the armored form and pink skin. Instead, dripping and roiling like disturbed water, a tall entirely black humanoid steps into the light. Vaguely majin shaped, it’s eyes are mere glowing pinpricks. No mouth, though when it speaks that thick voice is still heard.

“This won’t go the way you think it will, abomination.”

[Tami]

A pause, and then the voice replies, irritation in its tone.

“Very well then, abomination. Let us end this. Grand Maven..see to it.”

The tall women arches a brow, then nods and walks out through a side room. The shadowed form stands up, taller than previous, and makes its way down to Inanna and the others.

Gone is the armored form and pink skin. Instead, dripping and roiling like disturbed water, a tall entirely black humanoid steps into the light. Vaguely majin shaped, it’s eyes are mere glowing pinpricks. No mouth, though when it speaks that thick voice is still heard.

“This won’t go the way you think it will, abomination.”

"An here ah thought Boss fights were saved for last." Dash again thought to herself as she prepared as best she could for whatever was to come.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

A pause, and then the voice replies, irritation in its tone.

“Very well then, abomination. Let us end this. Grand Maven..see to it.”

The tall women arches a brow, then nods and walks out through a side room. The shadowed form stands up, taller than previous, and makes its way down to Inanna and the others.

Gone is the armored form and pink skin. Instead, dripping and roiling like disturbed water, a tall entirely black humanoid steps into the light. Vaguely majin shaped, it’s eyes are mere glowing pinpricks. No mouth, though when it speaks that thick voice is still heard.

“This won’t go the way you think it will, abomination.”

Inanna quirked an eyebrow. "I could've told you that."

Turning away from him, the woman focused not on the proto-Majin, but the Maven.

"Out of curiosity, Maven. Did Auroc vomit on you, or are you just stupid?"

[KingofPie]

“Would you prefer third rate copy?”

Sasheem's gritting teeth were beginning to grow louder than the shout he bellowed earlier, rivaled only by the steam erupting form the pores upon his head....

A pause, and then the voice replies, irritation in its tone.

“Very well then, abomination. Let us end this. Grand Maven..see to it.”

The tall women arches a brow, then nods and walks out through a side room. The shadowed form stands up, taller than previous, and makes its way down to Inanna and the others.

Gone is the armored form and pink skin. Instead, dripping and roiling like disturbed water, a tall entirely black humanoid steps into the light. Vaguely majin shaped, it’s eyes are mere glowing pinpricks. No mouth, though when it speaks that thick voice is still heard.

“This won’t go the way you think it will, abomination.”

Sasheem was so angry, he couldn't even get in the frame of mind to insult Auroc's current appearance, which he already had one big problem with. How could he eat, for one? Instead, he began to sink through the floor. What he was hoping to reach was something he'd sensed on the way there. That aspect of Zxu'ro spoke to him and Zaofan about it, the Leylines. This planet reeked with them, they were more obvious than Earths.

And they also reeked of him too. The stench ridden self proclaimed god of the Threshlings. Corrupting the planet with tainted magic. What a disgrace to the Majin name.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

“A learning experience, former princess. We all learn from mistakes, even I am not an exception to that rule. Even gods are not entirely infallible.”

"Still laboring under those delusions that you are a god. You may have increased your strength, but you are nothing, and soon you will be less than nothing," said Neva, glaring at Auroc with a hatred that would kill weaker beings... perhaps literally.

"Yeah, you're nothing but an ugly, evil monster!" Seri added, sticking out her tongue at the "god".

A pause, and then the voice replies, irritation in its tone.

“Very well then, abomination. Let us end this. Grand Maven..see to it.”

The tall women arches a brow, then nods and walks out through a side room. The shadowed form stands up, taller than previous, and makes its way down to Inanna and the others.

Gone is the armored form and pink skin. Instead, dripping and roiling like disturbed water, a tall entirely black humanoid steps into the light. Vaguely majin shaped, it’s eyes are mere glowing pinpricks. No mouth, though when it speaks that thick voice is still heard.

“This won’t go the way you think it will, abomination.”

"Fascinating." It was Voyavoda. "You are the one who sent Jagam out into the universe all those years ago? I was expecting someone more... cogent. Tell me, you surely must be aware of this group's track record, ja? I've only heard of it second-hand from Tasure and Totoma, but I, for one, would not want to make an enemy of these fighters, as you have."

His eyes shone red as his Shingan activated, scanning the 'god' for anything that piqued his interest. "Ah, that reminds me... both Tasure and Totoma have something for you. Do you want it?"

[Sub-Zero MKA]

“If I disobey, I am killed. Again.”

He seems unbothered by the Corona Disruption.

“Auroc and the Maven have taken me apart. Literally. Bit by bit, bone by bone, they have taken me down to my individual parts and scored ancient runes upon each one muscle and bone. Runes of obedience. Of command. Control. Of Death. If I manage to break free, I am killed again, the runes reapplied, my will not my own.”

His aura snaps wider as he flies at her.

“Death is not a release. I was brought back by unnatural means, a baby screaming from pain carved into every bone and muscle and sinew. Every death I am denied the afterlife, brought screaming back into a void filled with misery. And every time I come back...less. Less able to resist. Less able to deny their will. Death is now a fear, for I know when I die they’ll just drag me back.”

He back hands her into a mountain.

“A baby was sent here, died here, and for decades I have suffered because the Saiyans wanted to conquer. To reap and rend and raid across the skies. My torment....will never end, and I cannot fight those who torment me anymore. So I shall fight those who sent me to this unending hell instead.”

For many, death was nothing but the ultimate end. For some, it was met without fear. Others cowered in fear and begged for their lives. Regardless of the emotions and mindset leading up to the end, the end came regardless. Only the privileged few got to taste life after death. She was one of them. The ones who lived on Turrip after the Tuffle's attack were others. For the vast majority of creation, sadly, death was the end and that was that.

The Saiyan conqueror named Kakarot tasted death over and over and over, but still drew breath. Effective immortality was a curse. One death haunted her for years before she finally took control of her trauma and overcame it. There was no such hope for Kakarot. The false god and his minion taunted him with death, punished him by carving him apart bit by bit. Runes of obedience, control, and death etched on every muscle, bone, and organ. Every piece of him was tied to a string that led directly back to Auroc. All because an infant in a pod crash-landed on this world with the intention of killing the entire race and placing the planet up on the Junjo black market.

It wasn't a tactic she had ever heard of. Vocado didn't send anyone under sixteen to other worlds to conquer, once they graduated from the CTC. Perhaps he was from another world like Callion. In the end, it didn't matter. His body was hollowed by endless resurrections and his mind hardened by hatred for his own race and lust for revenge. There was no getting through to him, but she could still help.

Bloodied and partially broken, she crawled out of the rubble that was left of the mountain she was slapped into. "We've shed our past," she said, breathless. "We've abandoned the ways of Otatop that damned us to centuries of tyranny." As she spoke, she used Toki Yo Tomare to scan his body for the runes that kept him ultimately tethered to the realm of the living.

[MrSandman]

"Hey, aren't I always?" Zaofan returned with a wink. "Besides, worst comes to worst, they'll need a good spiritual heeling."

Etrin quickly turned before the bemused expression was spotted and then started walking while snuffing out a snort.

[grampagen]

Dozens, hundreds of leylines run throughout the planet, deep pools of energy and soul. Nearly all with tendrils of black ooze in each one.

The very essence of Auroc permeates the air, the ground, the water, the leylines. It is no wonder why they have seen him as a god for so long.

While searching, you also find two things. Below the citadel, far below, an energy signature like NevalinnaÂ’s, but being drained quickly, tendrils of dark energy cooling up from the prison to Auroc. Presumably, NevaÂ’s mother, the Queen.

And there is also something below the entire city, a massive tube carved into the very foundations and leylines itself.

A rune of destruction.

Powerful enough if activated by Auroc or the Maven, it could destroy the planet.

The stores of hidden knowledge within the pulse-meridians of a planet had been an increased focus of Ochazuke's study of late. Within the Leylines that sustained a world with the echo of Creation, its very ki, were stored the incarnate memory-echos of the spiritual essence which made it turn.

What was revealed to him in reading Reshlan's was the collective corruption that seeped into its very lifeblood; the very same he'd forcefully torn from those on Baradur.

It seems Auroc has seen fit to make himself inseparable from Reshlan itself... He could feel it there, a hidden chamber below the Threshling citadel, and and the essence flowing through some vile aqueduct to a hidden presence. At the centre, a large presence, unmistakably Threshling, yet somehow uncorrupted, fighting. Below it all, however, an insidious array of Runic magic.

"Cheh."

Zaofan turned to his martial brother, cocking his head one way as Ochazuke shook his head slowly, and silently traced a path with his finger.

With a sharp exhale, Zaofan tapped bounced from one foot to the other, building up the Pressure Kicker, slowly building up his aura; ki coiled within his body, twisting and distorting in the air.

Ochazuke meanwhile pinged the communicator in his ear, signalling his location to Held, before tightening his fist and standing to his feet.

"Doesn't sound like negotiations are going so well," Zaofan remarked.

"Diplomacy was never on the table," Ochazuke remarked, cracking his knuckles. "You know where to go?"

In response, Zaofan's aura flared up, prepared for battle with the Fist of the Altered Beast twisting within him with the oscillating effect of Kaiten. Ochazuke rooted his stance, and Zaofan mirrored it, as they simultaneously drew upon the Bear's Strength.*

The Chef kicked upwards with a flip, and brought his foot lancing down on the pavement with precise technique and strength at the very moment Ochazuke smashed his fist into the floor, a burst of Kiai bursting decisively downward with Zanshin Touki, augmenting the penetrative force of Zaofan's formidable drilling strike.

Faster still than the issue of ki came the psychic impression to of just what it was they had discovered...for those who could pick up on it anyway.

Coursing in freefall from the mouth of the Cathedral, Zaofan took off as quickly as he could to the Queen of Reshlan, while Ochazuke moved to the Runic Array.

OOC:
* Zaofan's strength is currently amped x5 (Altere'd Beast, Bear's strength) with the initial strike x7 (Pressure Kicker)

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Inanna quirked an eyebrow. "I could've told you that."

Turning away from him, the woman focused not on the proto-Majin, but the Maven.

"Out of curiosity, Maven. Did Auroc vomit on you, or are you just stupid?"

She pauses, looks over her shoulder, and looks at Inanna.

“I am my own mind and person, Lady Inanna. Perhaps your vision is...merely limited.”

A smirk and the Maven disappears from sight.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

She pauses, looks over her shoulder, and looks at Inanna.

“I am my own mind and person, Lady Inanna. Perhaps your vision is...merely limited.”

A smirk and the Maven disappears from sight.

"Ah, so it is stupidity. Shame."

When the Maven disappeared Inanna didn't... do much of anything though. Simply shifted her weight, and folded her arms. All she needed to do for the time being, this wasn't her statement to make.

Besides... Inanna's Demensional Cachexia was a labor of love.

OT: The fabric of reality is being gnawed at by Hakai, so long as Inanna's focus is not broken.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Sasheem's gritting teeth were beginning to grow louder than the shout he bellowed earlier, rivaled only by the steam erupting form the pores upon his head....




Sasheem was so angry, he couldn't even get in the frame of mind to insult Auroc's current appearance, which he already had one big problem with. How could he eat, for one? Instead, he began to sink through the floor. What he was hoping to reach was something he'd sensed on the way there. That aspect of Zxu'ro spoke to him and Zaofan about it, the Leylines. This planet reeked with them, they were more obvious than Earths.

And they also reeked of him too. The stench ridden self proclaimed god of the Threshlings. Corrupting the planet with tainted magic. What a disgrace to the Majin name.

The more he sinks in, the more he feels surrounded by Auroc’s power.