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

[MrSandman]

When Nevanlinna had told him that Auroc's presence had been woven into the very foundations of the Threshling world, he hadn't thought that the statement would be quite this literal.

"Auroc has a measure built for mutually assured destruction, should he or his Maven fall," Ochazuke relayed to the others. "If a protracted battle does not go their way, they claim to have the means to preserve their consciousnesses, even if their bodies and very world should crumble."

As they had seen on Baradur, Vocado and Earth, they very much had the means to seize a new world. And they may not encounter such resistance...should they succeed.

With the area secure - at least for now - Ochazuke, ever mindful of the flashes of power on the surface level, sat near the magical seal. The language remained cryptic to him, but the length and issue of its power he could infer.

"Held, Etrina, where are you? I'm going to attempt to neutralize the ward*."

"Ochazu~Gao!" A yell washed over him as he was at last joined by Erosa. "Sorry, late.....had to deal with stupid guards.....here to help."

The Id glanced in the direction of massive Rune, and then back to Ochazuke. "......So stupid majin is gonna blow up entire planet.....meh.......coward, not wanna fight fare." The Id struggled for a moment with something. "Just a moment...I bring help...."

A moment later she revealed the Red Foci that had been tucked away into her clothes. "Sister Etrina gave me one...just in case her smarts were needed."

"Reeeeporting for duty!" The Foci saluted with a grin. "Since you clearly need my help....you don't even need to beg this time. Now...lets see what we're working with here..." The foci turned its attention on the rune and scanned it over, looking at its make up, how its power was linked and for any weaknesses.

[grampagen]

“A...pleasure.”

Her clothes are tattered, and while her skin is already healing thanks to her biology, patches of exposed skin greet ZaofanÂ’s eyes as she stands up with his hand.

“Help? I can...help with...mage raft...to a degree.”

As soon as the Queen raised herself to her full height, the wandering chef found himself briefly transfixed by her intimating poise that seemed to smoulder with as much disdain as beauty when he became all to aware of her rather immodest condition.

"Oh...uh...*ahem*."

Without a further word, Zaofan expanded a capsule. Decoupling the drapery off of the weighted mechanism of the Z-Cape, he mumbled as he handed the long cloth to her.

"...right, well, it seems my friends have cleared out the worst of your servicemen," he said, "While they're fighting Auroc up there in the Maven's cathedral, we've got to take the rest of the planet back. And if anyone knows this place well enough to do it, assuredly it would be you, Highness."

[grampagen]

No other servant disrupts OchazukeÂ’s concentration.

Seated before the spell's foundation, as Ochazuke sat in silence before it, slowly gaining a heighten awareness as his Battle Meditation field expanded. Following the course of the corrupted leylines across the entire planet, it took a great deal of concentrated effort to sort through the rush of stimulus, the sheer outpouring of information and subtle energies there.

Filtering through the flood of sensation, it was akin to feeling without seeing, and with a discipline as abstract and chaotic as this kind of magic, he focused on what he could understand. If it was at all like the sacrificial font on Baradur, he attempted to find the source of the spell's power if it too was drawn from the devoted...or the enslaved.

Held twitched slightly as the voice of his friend echoed in his mind, the ionic communication established between them. The Nevadian knew it would be only to herald victory for the team, or news that was nothing if not unhappy. And as Auroc's presence could still be detected, he was hardly surprised to hear the former.

I'm not too surprised to hear something like that. Held replied grimly, I was wondering how he managed to link up the leylines of the entire planet to do his bidding...He's even using it to absorb the essence of the lifeforms of this planet.

The Nevadian grit his teeth in effort, as veins protruded from his skin, his aura flaring to with an uncharacteristically potent Ki. Unrelated to those efforts, the energy constructs above the spears twirled and pulsed with a dazzling light that was blinding to behold.

The Nevadian stared his opponent down, his resolve steadfast and iron clad.

The response came from Held across the collective psychic connection; just as well, Ochazuke would find it difficult to do much more than speak in his current state.

If he's unified the planet itself like part of his body, it would only take a fleeting thought for him to change it to suit his whim. Depraved, but clever scheme. The worst of it is he's seemed to convinced his most faithful that becoming part of this united corpus is a means to transcend death.

Preoccupied. The Nevadian responded simply, I'll deal with the leyline problem in a moment, if I can.

"You fool, that's exactly what I expected!" He bellowed with a determined sneer, ready to unleash the technique unseen by Threshing eyes thus far.

"You're within the range of my true attack! Prepare to witness the secret technique of the Unicorn Clan!"


OT: One post remaining.

The raising fighting spirit stoking lethal intention before Held's announcement was more than enough to earn his silence.

See it done. We'll need your expertise to examine this problem directly from another angle.

"Ochazu~Gao!" A yell washed over him as he was at last joined by Erosa. "Sorry, late.....had to deal with stupid guards.....here to help."

The Id glanced in the direction of massive Rune, and then back to Ochazuke. "......So stupid majin is gonna blow up entire planet.....meh.......coward, not wanna fight fare." The Id struggled for a moment with something. "Just a moment...I bring help...."

A moment later she revealed the Red Foci that had been tucked away into her clothes. "Sister Etrina gave me one...just in case her smarts were needed."

"Reeeeporting for duty!" The Foci saluted with a grin. "Since you clearly need my help....you don't even need to beg this time. Now...lets see what we're working with here..." The foci turned its attention on the rune and scanned it over, looking at its make up, how its power was linked and for any weaknesses.

Ochazuke was silent where he sat, his eyes closed, but upon hearing that familiar, boisterous voice, the corner of his mouth raised in a small smirk.

"The Silver Knights chose their battles poorly, I suppose it was a matter of course," he said, "all the same, we cannot win this battle if we have no ground to fight it on."

Along with Etrina's proxy, Ochazuke continued to examine the spell in tandem, all the while gathering what vestiges of power remained innate to the planet itself.

OOC: Genki Charge: 2

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"It seems you've succeeded where others have failed." Inanna hissed, as she fought against her new bindings. "It's a rare thing, someone surviving long enough to **** up a second time."

The woman's hands gripped the ethereal chains.

"Hakai."

Black energy welled up and began pouring out and down Inanna's body, eating through everything it touched as she coated every inch of herself in it.

The chains shatter into nothingness, the portals closing as the old man stumbles.

He slams the staff end down into the earth and grits out.

“Your mind is Weary, your bones are Vexed, Be Weak.”

A wave of weakness, exhaustion, sickness, and malaise washes over Inanna’s senses.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Kind of dead wasn't much of an answer. If he could still sense her body, that meant she was still alive, and yet somehow she was a spirit floating over her body. Her having a halo wasn't encouraging, nor did it clear up this mystery. There should have been no reason for her...

Unless...

She looked down and saw the bracelet Hilda gave her. The bracelet. Hozon! Hilda told her that it worked by preserving something in its current state. Meaning...it was preserving her body in the last state it was in, that being alive. That was why she hadn't crosses over yet.

Damn it. I really am dead. No! There has to be a way I can fix this.

She attempted to will herself back into her body, even as Goku went Super Saiyan. "Hm? Yes, like that." She, just as casually, went Super Saiyan. "I haven't mastered the form yet, but I'm close. And I saw that there's another two levels beyond Super Saiyan, so my training isn't done yet."

“Oh, you mean Super Saiyan Three right? Wow, I’ve only managed to make it to that level twice so far. Ascended, or level two, is a lot easier to maintain because three eats power real quick.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The Nevadian was more than aware of the actions of his enemy, but it was not through sight that he discerned those intentions.

In the moment between the Sneer and the rapier appearing, Held had prepared his ultimate technique. In the scant micro seconds between the pursuit, the Nevadian had already unleashed the most splendid technique of the Unicorns.

It was said that a Unicorn could never be captured by any except the most virtuous of beings, and even that was a voluntary surrender. Was it due to speed? Or power? Or some otherworldly technique?

Yes. But also no.

The Nevadian had already turned around by the time the Noble had decided to advance, flying away at a blistering speed. His aura burned with translucent white power as he rocketed through the stratosphere, focusing every bit of energy not dedicated to the preparation of his attack.

The world became faint as buildings, mountains, monuments faded in and out of existence in the second between seconds. The earth below shook from the force being released from the sky, the Nevadian crossing miles in moments.

Prudence was the most valuable power of the Unicorn clan, and the Unicorn---although quite willing to gore it's enemies into oblivion--was also quite willing to simply avoid trouble entirely.

Damn. I was hoping he'd pause for a split second to give me slightly more time, but even his shifting tactics slowed him down, if only slightly.



The Nevadian was vaguely aware of his murderous intent, but was more concerned with rapidly vacating the vicinity as swiftly as a person of his species and abilities was physically capable of.


Come on.....Just give me a little more time.....

The power being surging into his spears reached their zenith, the orbs above the tips of the spears rotating at a breakneck pace, as the tendrils connected to them began to spiral madly, resembling the head of a drill as the energy construct released a high pitch whine as energy of purest white radiated.

I have to time this just right.... Between Auroc, this guy, and those Leylines, I might not get a third shot at this...


OT: Attack fully charged

The Noble keeps up and lunges artfully, rapier aimed at Held’s neck.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Praxat stays calm and maneuvers her tongue to grab the two Threshlings. While at the same time using her Bio electromagnetism to attempt to levitate the pikes, The Threshling knights were previously swinging at her. ( Okay, I have to stay calm, but ****, how did one of them managed to encircled my neck. It's incredibly short, so short that I can't even move my head, yet one of them managed to encircle it,) Praxat thought.

You manage to lift the weapons up.

You grab one, but the other, with the flame whip, wide steps and tightens the burning choke it has on your neck.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Reaching out once more, Rex's saurian hand clenches into a fist as if seizing something and by drawing his arm back, the remaining scraps of ghost hakai are drawn between Rex and Sasheem and the black energy streaming towards them.

"Even for a false god, my hakai still burns..." He noted to himself.

"Heh. Sasheem'll need way less than hakai to wreck this jabroni," The Majin noted, eyes narrowing at the black Ki beams. He pulls his arm back and unleashes the second part of his Cobra Curse, shooting the sharp wave of venomous ki, double his own power into the air. The venomous razor energy wave honed in on Auroc, sending itself on a collision course with the black energy beams in the process.

The black energy taken care of, the rain eventually stops and both notice Auroc is not present.

Sasheem, a kick lands in the middle of your back that slams you into Rex.

There, floating, is a mostly normal Auroc. His old majin body has returned from the torso up, but the bottom half is still coated in writhing darknes.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Elsewhere in Reshlan...

Blizzard was idly strolling the planet, seeing that all the others had the Threshlings' attention, he's decided to conduct a little planetary investigation. Nevermind the burlap sack doing over his shoulder.

The Arcosiam hummed a jazz tune as he hopped into a Thrahling shrine dedicated to Auroc. "Babbada-do. A dee-dum-dum-this looks expensive-adoobada-dee!" he sang, picking up a golden goblet and tossing it into the sack. "Doobidee-doo..I'll take you too-tatatta-tatatta-tattatta..." He sang on, ripping several jewels from a mural of Auroc.

Blizzar, your senses ping on something invisible just as chains of burning red wrap around your neck from behind you.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

As soon as the Queen raised herself to her full height, the wandering chef found himself briefly transfixed by her intimating poise that seemed to smoulder with as much disdain as beauty when he became all to aware of her rather immodest condition.

"Oh...uh...*ahem*."

Without a further word, Zaofan expanded a capsule. Decoupling the drapery off of the weighted mechanism of the Z-Cape, he mumbled as he handed the long cloth to her.

"...right, well, it seems my friends have cleared out the worst of your servicemen," he said, "While they're fighting Auroc up there in the Maven's cathedral, we've got to take the rest of the planet back. And if anyone knows this place well enough to do it, assuredly it would be you, Highness."

She nods her thanks.

“Lead..on to the tune...below. I shall...help to stop it.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Seated before the spell's foundation, as Ochazuke sat in silence before it, slowly gaining a heighten awareness as his Battle Meditation field expanded. Following the course of the corrupted leylines across the entire planet, it took a great deal of concentrated effort to sort through the rush of stimulus, the sheer outpouring of information and subtle energies there.

Filtering through the flood of sensation, it was akin to feeling without seeing, and with a discipline as abstract and chaotic as this kind of magic, he focused on what he could understand. If it was at all like the sacrificial font on Baradur, he attempted to find the source of the spell's power if it too was drawn from the devoted...or the enslaved.



The response came from Held across the collective psychic connection; just as well, Ochazuke would find it difficult to do much more than speak in his current state.

If he's unified the planet itself like part of his body, it would only take a fleeting thought for him to change it to suit his whim. Depraved, but clever scheme. The worst of it is he's seemed to convinced his most faithful that becoming part of this united corpus is a means to transcend death.



The raising fighting spirit stoking lethal intention before Held's announcement was more than enough to earn his silence.

See it done. We'll need your expertise to examine this problem directly from another angle.



Ochazuke was silent where he sat, his eyes closed, but upon hearing that familiar, boisterous voice, the corner of his mouth raised in a small smirk.

"The Silver Knights chose their battles poorly, I suppose it was a matter of course," he said, "all the same, we cannot win this battle if we have no ground to fight it on."

Along with Etrina's proxy, Ochazuke continued to examine the spell in tandem, all the while gathering what vestiges of power remained innate to the planet itself.

OOC: Genki Charge: 2

"Ochazu~Gao!" A yell washed over him as he was at last joined by Erosa. "Sorry, late.....had to deal with stupid guards.....here to help."

The Id glanced in the direction of massive Rune, and then back to Ochazuke. "......So stupid majin is gonna blow up entire planet.....meh.......coward, not wanna fight fare." The Id struggled for a moment with something. "Just a moment...I bring help...."

A moment later she revealed the Red Foci that had been tucked away into her clothes. "Sister Etrina gave me one...just in case her smarts were needed."

"Reeeeporting for duty!" The Foci saluted with a grin. "Since you clearly need my help....you don't even need to beg this time. Now...lets see what we're working with here..." The foci turned its attention on the rune and scanned it over, looking at its make up, how its power was linked and for any weaknesses.

Between the two, you see multiple intricate layers to the spell work, and it does indeed go far into the planets surface.

There does not appear to be a weakness that can be exploited, save perhaps a changing of the runic structure. Such an art is dangerous and must be done with excellent precision, however.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

The chains shatter into nothingness, the portals closing as the old man stumbles.

He slams the staff end down into the earth and grits out.

“Your mind is Weary, your bones are Vexed, Be Weak.”

A wave of weakness, exhaustion, sickness, and malaise washes over Inanna’s senses.

"Fetters of magic." Inanna spat, as she stepped forward on shaky legs.

"Now these 'words of power'." The woman dropped to her knees and vomited up a mixture of Hakai, and her own blood; but that seemed to be the extent of the withering spell as she rapidly began burning through the magic powering it thanks to her very nature. "Fuh..." Pointing to this Threshling Spellweaver, the woman lifted her gaze. "Little more... than stopgaps."

Exhaling slowly, her pointed finger bucked as if it were a gun.

"You're out of your depth."

[Yun Lao]

The black energy taken care of, the rain eventually stops and both notice Auroc is not present.

Sasheem, a kick lands in the middle of your back that slams you into Rex.

There, floating, is a mostly normal Auroc. His old majin body has returned from the torso up, but the bottom half is still coated in writhing darknes.

A snarl of surprise rumbles from Rex as the Majin smashes into him, yet the old dinosaur quickly turns it into his advantage, whipping Sasheem around him before launching him back at Auroc.

"The more I see either of you in action, the less appetizing I find you majin."

[Sub-Zero MKA]

“Oh, you mean Super Saiyan Three right? Wow, I’ve only managed to make it to that level twice so far. Ascended, or level two, is a lot easier to maintain because three eats power real quick.”

"Super...Saiyan...Three?" Not the most imaginative of names. Then again, neither was Super Saiyan.

Parsley frowned. It seemed that she and Sarada were way behind if Kakarot, Goku, and likely Emperor Rhusong all were well beyond the standard Super Saiyan form.

"Show me how to ascend the the next form. I'll need the power if I'm to kill this god."

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

There, high above in the top of the cathedral ceiling, an invisible foe is invisible. She is the culprit.

———

Seri, some of the black stuff starts falling and then swirling towards you.

Aha, an invisible foe--from what he could tell, a priestess, most likely. Spreading his hands, fiery energy began gathering in the palms of his hand, forming into two fireballs. Larger and larger they grew, as the air around him distorted from the heat. Once they were of ample size and intensity, he thrust his hands upwards and released a massive wave of ki and burning shingan energy... his Phoenix Nova Star attack.

What remained of this rather impressive, if profane cathedral above him would certainly be destroyed. Along with, hopefully, that bothersome priestess.