Dragonball M, Chapter 5: Clarion’s Call! The Signal! The Fate of the Universes!

[Miburo]

The orb that houses her seems to constrict slightly, Karine falling to her knees inside as if in pain. Held, you also see (with your Shingan, as normal eyes all you see his blackness) three black shrouded figures float up to the orb and magic fill their hands. A spell of some sort strikes the orb and Karine seems to writhe in pain. They do this again and again, some sort of grey essence escaping from the orb and entering the three as they do this.

If one were to have a bird's eye view--assuming this Bird was blessed with the Shingan-- they would see The Galloping hovering in the darkness, impassive, oblivious to the spectacle before it. Karine's suffering went unnoticed, as despite the sentiment of its owner, sapience was something that eluded it.

However, while the Galloping was unmoved, the one who made The Galloping, gallop was of another mind entirely.

If one could see through the darkness, they would see the Nevadian standing on the hull of the ship. His spears stood before him as he took his measure. It only took the seconds between seconds for him to do so, such was his skill.

Even had a bird been able to see through the void, they would have missed the moment when The Nevadian launched his spear like a Javelin from the heavens towards the enemy. It simply vanished into the ether.

Then another vanished.

And then another.

And the Nevadian vanished with it, seated neatly on the weapons handle as if he were a witch riding a broom.

Three spears. Three Enemies. It was simple enough math.

The tools of batle fell towards the surface like a shooting star towards their marks, the Nevadian with them.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

"Quite a scathing judgement of the old boy. Just as well for Goddesses akin, holding themselves aloft upon a divinity couched in spite," Koorimaru chuckled, "I suppose you would not forget your children so easily. They are as much a Royal responsibility as your departed wife had been."

Always presuming to lead the charge, that will be a boon...

Sarada steps visibly faltered before she managed to correct her stride. "We'll be up ASAP."

The three Saiyans descend into darkness, the ball of illumination held aloft casting only a small pool of light. Separated from the others, the line light seems small and insignificant compared to the darkness.

Eventually, they get to a downward staircase that leads to the ritual room. They cannot see what is in the room from this angle, nor can they hear anything going on below.

The moment of truth was literally right around the corner. As darkness creeped in from all around, only Sarada’s meager ball of light staved it off from consuming them completely. With that darkness came the anxiety. Multiple lives were in immediate danger - immediate, because everyone’s life was very much in peril - and they had very little time to save them before Cancer caught on to what the other group was doing.

What they were doing was making their way up to her, and Sarada could only imagine a confrontation would break out. She could only hope they could hold out long enough for them to conclude business down there and join them. She hated to leave them to it alone for the time being. There wasn't even any point in pretending it was entirely for the practicality of cutting Cancer off from a potential energy source - assuming she was indeed feeding off the rituals that had been taking place down there. She needed to save her niece. She promised her nephew that she would bring her back and she couldn't break another promise that day.

Koorimaru's remark about her wife cut deeper than even he knew. She had failed as a wife in every possible way and had no way of making up for it in any meaningful way. She couldn't even so much as listen, to anything that had nothing to do with the task at hand. She did nothing right and everything that transpired was her fault, no matter what Zaofan or Etrina or anyone else said. She knew it, and deep down, she knew they knew it, too. She touched her breastplate as a pang of guilt swelled in her chest. No matter how sorry or guilty she felt, it wasn't going to change anything.

Keep it together, Sarada. There's no time for that. She took a deep breath to calm herself and shoved all her guilt and self-hateful feelings down into a little bottle to be opened later.

"You okay?" Avoca's near disembodied voice cut through the relative silence like a knife.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. She didn't say more until they reached the bottom of the second set of stairs. She tried to peek around the corner to see what was going on, but it wasn’t possible. “Can’t tell what’s going on,” she whispered. “Now what?”

Parsley’s sigh was terse and tinged with burgeoning desperation. “We wing it.”

Not the answer she had been expecting in the slightest. She was the reasonable one, the pragmatic one, the one to never go in half-cocked. Parsley was never the one to just “wing it”. That was her schtick. If she was saying that even then... I hope she doesn’t do something stupid. “Alright. Here we go.”

She stretched her hand out and unleashed an endless stream of tiny crimson globules of ki that flowed into the ritual room. The firefly-sized globs hung into the air like a thick mist and clung to everything in the ritual room like the morning dew. She could sense each and every one of them, which meant her senses gave her a mental picture of what they were dealing with. If nothing else, they weren’t going to be fighting blind.

“Follow my lead!” she said as she charged into the room. Her brown hair turned crimson as the fiery aura of the Saiyan God form wreathed around her.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

OOC: Sorry for the like, three month absence. I've more or less been working overtime every day for the past month (and... semi-often even before that,) with... very little time off, and very little energy when I do. Lotsa money, but... yeah. Anyway, continued from that part 4 crap...

IC: Another sense of movement, and Totoma found himself back in the room of whatever the fuck it was called. He blinked. Okay, that was weird, but it had definitely been real. How much time had passed? Looking at his PDA, it turned out to be...

...more than a few minutes. Fuck, everyone was probably long gone now! He had no way to actually get to Karine. Ah crap.

'Oh, I'm sure you'll figure something out' came the Dark King's voice in his mind. 'Oh, and... just to make things, hmhm, "fun", I think I shall pick you apart from the inside. A memory here, a technique there... until you have no choice but to cede control, both of Narayana's power and yourself, to me. Let's see how long you last with, hm... Hitozaru shall do, for now."

A burst of psychic pain erupted in his mind and he simply... forgot how to use the hitozaru form, how to meld it effortlessly with Super Saiyan, control it... everything. That awesome power that had allowed him to briefly go toe-to-toe with a God of Destruction... gone!

Bastard.

...ah well, he'd manage with 'just' Super Saiyan, somehow. Right now he had to figure out a way to get to... wherever Karine was.

Totoma sat down, closed his eyes, and concentrated on Karine, reaching out with Kizuna towards her. Not his normal one, which he'd felt that pain through, but rather trying to make a genuine connection with her, in her entirety, even across great distance and... alternate dimensions or whatever. If he could manage that, just, for the briefest moment, make that connection, he could get to where she was with his Void Tunnels.

Probably? He'd done it to get everyone to Darkle like a year ago, though he'd been tapped into Ochazuke's ridiculous senses at the time...

Please...


Super Hitozaru has been rendered unusable.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Long ago, a handful of heroes were called upon to protect Earth. That call, that initial twist of Fate that lead them all to meet and team up, guided by a quasi-divine hand, left a small tether that connects them all to said quasi-divine person.

Evangeline, now more like she was back then than ever before thanks to being connected to the Big Ghetti Star, opens her mental third eye and sees Totoma.

She reaches out, and beyond time and space, the Kami of Earth who had plucked Fate’s strings and taken burden upon burden upon her shoulders, reaches through the gap and touches Totoma’s mind. Golden light flares from her eyes and Totoma can feel silver butterfly wings against his cheek. That old psychic link, when she had removed his poisoned memories, connects them deeper than most.

‘Follow Totoma! I shall be your guide!!’

And that connection lets Totoma see a path forward, to get as close to Karine as possible.

His void tunnel will spit him out atop one of Held’s thrown spears, surfing towards Karine and her captors if he so chooses.

————

Held, you fly towards the three in dark robes and one turns suddenly and raises a hand. Dark-Grey magic gathers from it and lances toward the flying spears. The other two begin chanting, no noise in space reaches your ears but a painful psychic pressure seems to attempt to break into your mind.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Sarada steps visibly faltered before she managed to correct her stride. "We'll be up ASAP."



The moment of truth was literally right around the corner. As darkness creeped in from all around, only Sarada’s meager ball of light staved it off from consuming them completely. With that darkness came the anxiety. Multiple lives were in immediate danger - immediate, because everyone’s life was very much in peril - and they had very little time to save them before Cancer caught on to what the other group was doing.

What they were doing was making their way up to her, and Sarada could only imagine a confrontation would break out. She could only hope they could hold out long enough for them to conclude business down there and join them. She hated to leave them to it alone for the time being. There wasn't even any point in pretending it was entirely for the practicality of cutting Cancer off from a potential energy source - assuming she was indeed feeding off the rituals that had been taking place down there. She needed to save her niece. She promised her nephew that she would bring her back and she couldn't break another promise that day.

Koorimaru's remark about her wife cut deeper than even he knew. She had failed as a wife in every possible way and had no way of making up for it in any meaningful way. She couldn't even so much as listen, to anything that had nothing to do with the task at hand. She did nothing right and everything that transpired was her fault, no matter what Zaofan or Etrina or anyone else said. She knew it, and deep down, she knew they knew it, too. She touched her breastplate as a pang of guilt swelled in her chest. No matter how sorry or guilty she felt, it wasn't going to change anything.

Keep it together, Sarada. There's no time for that. She took a deep breath to calm herself and shoved all her guilt and self-hateful feelings down into a little bottle to be opened later.

"You okay?" Avoca's near disembodied voice cut through the relative silence like a knife.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. She didn't say more until they reached the bottom of the second set of stairs. She tried to peek around the corner to see what was going on, but it wasn’t possible. “Can’t tell what’s going on,” she whispered. “Now what?”

Parsley’s sigh was terse and tinged with burgeoning desperation. “We wing it.”

Not the answer she had been expecting in the slightest. She was the reasonable one, the pragmatic one, the one to never go in half-cocked. Parsley was never the one to just “wing it”. That was her schtick. If she was saying that even then... I hope she doesn’t do something stupid. “Alright. Here we go.”

She stretched her hand out and unleashed an endless stream of tiny crimson globules of ki that flowed into the ritual room. The firefly-sized globs hung into the air like a thick mist and clung to everything in the ritual room like the morning dew. She could sense each and every one of them, which meant her senses gave her a mental picture of what they were dealing with. If nothing else, they weren’t going to be fighting blind.

“Follow my lead!” she said as she charged into the room. Her brown hair turned crimson as the fiery aura of the Saiyan God form wreathed around her.

The room is houses the Arcosian vampires Koorimaru had spotted. However, more merge from the walls, like Sasheem can, and Sarada’s charge is meet head on as far more than they thought were in there go to meet her.

The two innocents, bound and covered in cloth, are not moving upon a black stone alter.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

( Hmm, with my partially working electroreception. I can sense the walls move, plus I'm hearing something coming out of the wall, but it's faint. There has to be a pattern here. I just have to figure it out. Well, time for on-the-fly guesswork,) Praxat thought.

Praxat quickly gets on all fours and quickly hops forward. ( During my time on Amperior. I learn from my uncle Bulllick that to maximize my ground speed and agility in my physical state. I should be on all fours instead of two,) Praxat thought.

( I can if I need to bounce off these walls if I time it right. Easier said than done when the walls are moving. Plus with my electroreception working as it is right now. I have to guess the layout,) Praxat thought.

A vampiric beast, an Arcosian hybrid with four arms, rises from the ground and gives chase to Praxat.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

A vampiric beast, an Arcosian hybrid with four arms, rises from the ground and gives chase to Praxat.

Praxat hops at blazing speeds on all fours. ( I have a strange feeling something is chasing me. No way can I face it with my electroreception partially working,) Praxat thought.

( The only thing I can do is run, well hop. Dammit, what would Uncle Bulllick do if he were in this situation? ) Praxat thought.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

Long ago, a handful of heroes were called upon to protect Earth. That call, that initial twist of Fate that lead them all to meet and team up, guided by a quasi-divine hand, left a small tether that connects them all to said quasi-divine person.

Evangeline, now more like she was back then than ever before thanks to being connected to the Big Ghetti Star, opens her mental third eye and sees Totoma.

She reaches out, and beyond time and space, the Kami of Earth who had plucked Fate’s strings and taken burden upon burden upon her shoulders, reaches through the gap and touches Totoma’s mind. Golden light flares from her eyes and Totoma can feel silver butterfly wings against his cheek. That old psychic link, when she had removed his poisoned memories, connects them deeper than most.

‘Follow Totoma! I shall be your guide!!’

And that connection lets Totoma see a path forward, to get as close to Karine as possible.

His void tunnel will spit him out atop one of Held’s thrown spears, surfing towards Karine and her captors if he so chooses.

————

Held, you fly towards the three in dark robes and one turns suddenly and raises a hand. Dark-Grey magic gathers from it and lances toward the flying spears. The other two begin chanting, no noise in space reaches your ears but a painful psychic pressure seems to attempt to break into your mind.

Success! Not entirely his own, however. Totoma feels a presence touch his mind, and who it is quickly registers--Evangeline! Always doing her best to help him... he really owed her a thousand times over.

Thanks, Eva... again.

A rip in space opened, engulfing him, and he dropped out atop... something? Looking down, he noticed he had landed upon a spear in flight. He couldn't see much else beyond that, though. However, ahead of him, he could feel Karine. Steadying himself with his tail and a rather, uh, surfer-like position. He felt ridiculous, and definitely looked ridiculous--although when did he not--but that wasn't important.

Alright, just go to full p--

...oh right, no Super Monke form. Uh...

Totoma's hair spiked up, turning gold in an instant, and lightning sprang into existence as he transformed into his mighty (...but probably lacking for what he'd just gotten himself into) Super Saiyan 2 form! He would go to Super Saiyan 3, but he'd save that for an actual fight. Not that he'd mastered it--it was still way more draining than any other form her had--but he could transform pretty quickly. Quickly enough that he had an idea of how to use the form while maintaining, uh... ki economy?

...whatever. Not important. He had to focus on saving Karine, as well as his kids... and kid brother. Also dad.

It was the least he could do, after his stupidity had gotten them all into this mess.

Still, wasn't there any way he could speed this up? Void tunnels, maybe, but...

Ah, the void tunnels... a technique freely taught, yet originally stolen by an avaracious Arcosian. I shall be taking that.

The Dark King's voice ringing in his mind, Totoma's knowledge of how to perform the Void Tunnels (and, by extension, Void Lens) simply... slipped away? Damn it, that was his best option for closing the distance quickly...

The Void Tunnels technique has been rendered unusable.

Totoma closed his eyes, the wind ruffling his hair, and a distant memory bubbled up from within him.

~~~~

"He's talented," said Voyavoda, sitting a ways away watching him practice. Next to him was Vocado, his father (...ah, so this was from his previous life?,) eyes trained on him and arms crossed. His expression was... unreadable.

"Already grasped the basics of the ma-tobashi. Not quite as good as mine, of course, but for a child... quite remarkable."

His father did not respond, instead focusing on him, watching and... presumably judging every move (...and mistake, he felt) he was making. Already, his style was beginning to take shape--a mixture of his grandfather's flames of the golden ruler and his father's saiyan-do. Combining the finesse and techniques of the former with the focus on raw might and effective simplicity of the latter was... a tall order, but he was a saiyan (well, half-saiyan) so nothing was beyond him when it came to fighting!

Even his dream: surpassing his legendary father.

But before then, he had to pull this off. Flare his energy, hot... hotter, until it simply burned away the intervening space. Simple enough, but he hadn't gotten to the point where it was pretty much teleporting, like with grandpa. His was more like a speed boost, at best. Still cool, but not as cool.

...a young prodigy, struggling in the shadow of a legend, in the hopes of eventually stepping out of that shadow. The same name, the same... circumstances. It's like my life is a repea--no, not a repeat... it's like it's rhyming with his.

Still, I can use this, can't I?

~~~

Focusing back on the task at hand, Totoma summoned the Nine-toothed Rake. He didn't have grandpa's burning shingan and he didn't know how to use the Flame of Palingenesis yet--could it even be used consciously? He had no idea. Still, he could maybe use the Nine-toothed Rake to bullshit his way through the "NEED HOT" part... maybe? Only one way to find out...

Making sure not to life the rake fast enough to lose balance or change course, Totoma channeled his ki into it, and flames burst into existence all around him and the spear. Focus his will on the rake and its flames, he willed them to compress into a sphere... and then even further, into a small ball, situated on the tip of the spear. Nothing happened, so he redoubled his efforts, and the ball compressed even further, until it had become a tiny, insignificant speck of white-hot... it wasn't even fire at this point, really. And then, it happened...

The space between the spear and its target--well, most of the space--simply... disappeared? Or something. It wasn't an exact replica of what grandpa did, but more like the imperfect kid version that gradually (albeit quickly) cut the space instead of doing it all at once.


Totoma and the spear jolted forward much faster than before... and he realized he had not created some sort of Ma-Tobashi knockoff.

No, he had created a technique that would make him throw up if he used it too often. Urk... fine, the name. Since the only guy he knew that used spears was Held, he assumed he was around here somewhere, so...

Combination Technique: Hurling God-piercer!

God he was glad he hadn't had anything to eat for... a while, because otherwise that name would be literal.

[grampagen]

Koorimaru, watching through your drones you see Cancer stir and her eyes open. In the dark throne room, you see a slight smile tug at her lips as the tendrils connecting her everywhere pulse slightly.

Your senses, having once been Remnant, can feel the strange pulse of hakai travel through the fortress, along the tendrils, as a truth reveals itself to you.

The entire fortress is an extension of Cancer. A body, where she is the heart.

"When a buncha Saiyans and a talking ice box blather on and on, it puts Sasheem to sleep," the Majin retorted. "But, to answer your question..." the Majin cracked his neck from side to side before lurching both hands forward to crack his fingers as well. "Ain't no walls Sasheem can't 'swim' past," the Majin stated. "Sasheem doesn't really get it but...this place. It's connected to....her someway right? Like some sorta outer nervous system or whatever?"

The Majin smirked. "Nothing worse to the nerves than a dose of venom," he sneered, opting to instead of getting lost in the maze of dark hallways to simply 'swim' through, phasing through the walls. He had no particular goal in mind, he simply never stayed in one place for long, attempting to break havoc everywhere he went, using his Resounding Roar in tandem with Venomous Ki to 'infect' cancer. A thought Sasheem found ironic enough to be amusing.

A dark chuckle left Koorimaru as his feature twisted.

"Indeed...as the brain is to the nerves, or blood to the heart, so is Cancer to this moon. All feeds back to her-," light laughter followed as Sasheem dove into the walls. "Ah-ahhh...I like how your twisted mind works, fu-fu-fu..."

He gets a reaction.

Sasheem can see the ‘veins’ contract from his poison, her vision within the fortress dimming as the venom works on her.

What he is surprised by is he is now being chased. Through the walls he can feel himself being pursued by something, a golem like avatar of Cancer, made of the strange black stone the fortress is made of, able to pass through the walls like he can.

It was then that he though to himself, of all those gathered here, he would perhaps miss Sasheem the most...provided they did not survive. Nothing to do with sentiment, and all to do with impeccable execution.

He'd maintained an eye on the situation. Extraction would not be a problem - least of all for himself.

With the attack goin on below and tumult being spread through the walls, Koorimaru traced the shift of the Hakai-tainted energy, Cancer's presence, through the place.With the attack goin on below and tumult being spread through the walls, Koorimaru traced the shift of the Hakai-tainted energy, Cancer's presence, through the place.

With swiftness of thought she reaches after him...the walls may shift to mobilize or expedite passage, yes...

Hakai vessels transporting manifestations, perhaps they shift and transformed to suit her needs.

But you haven't moved. Despite Sarada's claim of what happened in your battle, you're not taking this very seriously at all, are you...now why would that be?

[grampagen]

The Nevadian had considered several scenarios during the flight to to wage war against Cancer, to save this universe against the darkness encroaching upon it.

Normally, he would have chided himself for considering these scenarios. Against a barely known enemy, unknown and unseen, allowing ones imagination to run rampant was to get distracted, and to lead to error. And yet, the darkness that lingered in this space was so potent, that it seemed to create illusions out of nothing, and to allow ones thoughts and fears to manifest themselves from the depths of ones mind.

"....Gotengo." Held reported, his expression grim as he examined the captured individuals, attempting to surmise what was being done to them. "I'm going to have to touch down for an evacuation. Assuming that we're in accord with this, anyways."

Be that as it may, Held had never considered this. It had hardly crossed his mind that Cancer would---Well, he did not entirely know what she was doing. Were they captured for sport? Were they hostages? Trophies? Nevertheless, it had never occurred to him that Cancer had any interest in living beings. All that the opposing party spoke about were Dragonballs, or remaking the world, or destruction.

"I didn't think Cancer was the type to take prisoners, but today has been full of surprises. Please advise as---"

Despite his cool demeanor, he felt his heart skip a beat as yet another realization dawned upon him as he surveyed the sphere. It had been years since he had last seen her, but one did not easily forget a comrade.

The Nevadian cursed himself as the word stumbled from his mouth. He was a warrior. An Admiral. He knew the consequences for speaking too loosely, to suddenly. It could discourage or rattle the others in a moment. Some more than others.

The surrealness of the scene was such that even a consummate professional made a blunder more fit for a novice.

"--Karine?"

Shit.

Holding their altitude above the Dark Moon, the Gotengo received the Galloping's message.

"Karine?" On the bridge, it was Zaofan who repeated it. "Oh, you've found her!"

Why would they leave her out in the open like that? Is it because she's something of a vampire herself?

Then suddenly a lighswitch went on in his head.

"...Listen, you've got to get her out of there, man. They might have been after her kids, yeah, and we're on their turf right now...on Earth she bit right through one of their throats, took their blood. If you get a win here, Cancer will have made the biggest mistake of her life."

Ochazuke, your senses alert you to an unknown energy signature approaching from the Forsworn World.

Fast.

Wait, no, flickers of Asha’rah and another signature race towards you. They are blended, mixed, and on the Gotengo’s screens you can see the person known as Remnant barreling towards the ship, sheathed in a golden destructive aura. The features switch constantly between Inda’ren and Asha’rah, the creature known as Remnant apparently let loose from its chain to deal with you all.

Meanwhile, Ochazuke remained seated in his meditation, and the moment Remnant emerged with all speed from the Forsworn World, he felt its presence emerge. Godly energies, flecked with Hakai, he'd begin to recognize them, but this signature in particular was unique. None of the harmony of Angels, not the particular balance of Dragons...this one exists in a liminal state.

Divinity, of a fashion, and perhaps there was a trace of the mortality it had been raised from. Whatever this creature's story sordid account was, at this moment, the only thing standing between the revenant God of Destruction and the moon was this ship.

"One victory over a God of Destruction cannot be taken for granted. Taking on two at the same time is a fool's errand. So our task will be to stop it from moving"

The Phoenix Wings of Houyokusen alit the Gotengo, pulling in a host of cosmic energies. Channeling it once more into the bow drill of the Gotengo, the spend energies of Cancer's own defense began to gather.

Taking the components of the spider's net for his own, he'd repurposed it as a snare.

Saifa Kensaku

It takes a few moments, longer than perhaps Ochazuke would have liked, but three ships pop out next to the Beast God’s smaller craft. Two bear the Galaxy Police logo, the last a battered but hardy battleship belonging to the Kitani. Ochazuke, you can feel familiar friends on one of the GP ships.

The Coldlight sails in not too long after, trailing a dozen other ships, all from the destroyed worlds Sakin had decimated only so recently.

A few more start trickling in as well, and the M-Fighters will know that the universe heard, and answered, the call.

"Oh! We've got company!"

Zaofan was beside himself, allowing his attention to waver for just a moment as the assembly slowly trickled in. As the Gotengo's maser howled, his eyes might even have watered a bit.

The wave of Heka...does it remain?

[KingofPie]

He gets a reaction.

Sasheem can see the ‘veins’ contract from his poison, her vision within the fortress dimming as the venom works on her.

What he is surprised by is he is now being chased. Through the walls he can feel himself being pursued by something, a golem like avatar of Cancer, made of the strange black stone the fortress is made of, able to pass through the walls like he can.

"Well, it's not like Sasheen expected this to be easy...wouldn't have it any other way if he's being honest!" The Majin smirked as he swam through the walls, pulling a pair of goggles from his pocket and snapping them onto his face.. "Pilfered this from an engineer on the Tengo. Doubt he'll miss 'em. As for you. Best be prepared to hang ten!" the Majin cackled, launching a Samehada and leaping upon it as it sped off through, diving further in to spread the venom faster, all the while taunting the golem as he turned around and raised to it, his middle finger.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

The room is houses the Arcosian vampires Koorimaru had spotted. However, more merge from the walls, like Sasheem can, and Sarada’s charge is meet head on as far more than they thought were in there go to meet her.

The two innocents, bound and covered in cloth, are not moving upon a black stone alter.

They were crawling out of the fucking woodwork, literally. They were coming out of the walls and moving in to face Sarada head on. Had she been alone, she would have been somewhat concerned. If only because she could watch those two kids while fighting off the horde at the same time.

Parsley, then wreathed in blood red with magic wisps flitting around her aura like lightning, quickly moved to flank Sarada. She moved a little ahead and prepared to meet the incoming Icer vampires. Three glowing green runes rotated around her wrists.

The Midas Touch. Flesh > Transmute> Stone

She pushed her speed to its limit and reached out to touch the first grouping of Icers on the forehead, maintaining physical contact for only the briefest of seconds; just long enough to initiate the transmutation.

Sarada followed right after this with Crimson Flashes aimed at the transmuted flesh.

Meanwhile, Avoca quickly made her way to the hostages to attempt to free them from their bonds.

OOC: Do those wisps of magic energy in Parsley's aura do anything special?

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Praxat hops at blazing speeds on all fours. ( I have a strange feeling something is chasing me. No way can I face it with my electroreception partially working,) Praxat thought.

( The only thing I can do is run, well hop. Dammit, what would Uncle Bulllick do if he were in this situation? ) Praxat thought.

Whatever it is, the Arcosian abomination closes in, Praxat you can feel it just inches behind you.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Success! Not entirely his own, however. Totoma feels a presence touch his mind, and who it is quickly registers--Evangeline! Always doing her best to help him... he really owed her a thousand times over.

Thanks, Eva... again.

A rip in space opened, engulfing him, and he dropped out atop... something? Looking down, he noticed he had landed upon a spear in flight. He couldn't see much else beyond that, though. However, ahead of him, he could feel Karine. Steadying himself with his tail and a rather, uh, surfer-like position. He felt ridiculous, and definitely looked ridiculous--although when did he not--but that wasn't important.

Alright, just go to full p--

...oh right, no Super Monke form. Uh...

Totoma's hair spiked up, turning gold in an instant, and lightning sprang into existence as he transformed into his mighty (...but probably lacking for what he'd just gotten himself into) Super Saiyan 2 form! He would go to Super Saiyan 3, but he'd save that for an actual fight. Not that he'd mastered it--it was still way more draining than any other form her had--but he could transform pretty quickly. Quickly enough that he had an idea of how to use the form while maintaining, uh... ki economy?

...whatever. Not important. He had to focus on saving Karine, as well as his kids... and kid brother. Also dad.

It was the least he could do, after his stupidity had gotten them all into this mess.

Still, wasn't there any way he could speed this up? Void tunnels, maybe, but...

Ah, the void tunnels... a technique freely taught, yet originally stolen by an avaracious Arcosian. I shall be taking that.

The Dark King's voice ringing in his mind, Totoma's knowledge of how to perform the Void Tunnels (and, by extension, Void Lens) simply... slipped away? Damn it, that was his best option for closing the distance quickly...

The Void Tunnels technique has been rendered unusable.

Totoma closed his eyes, the wind ruffling his hair, and a distant memory bubbled up from within him.

~~~~

"He's talented," said Voyavoda, sitting a ways away watching him practice. Next to him was Vocado, his father (...ah, so this was from his previous life?,) eyes trained on him and arms crossed. His expression was... unreadable.

"Already grasped the basics of the ma-tobashi. Not quite as good as mine, of course, but for a child... quite remarkable."

His father did not respond, instead focusing on him, watching and... presumably judging every move (...and mistake, he felt) he was making. Already, his style was beginning to take shape--a mixture of his grandfather's flames of the golden ruler and his father's saiyan-do. Combining the finesse and techniques of the former with the focus on raw might and effective simplicity of the latter was... a tall order, but he was a saiyan (well, half-saiyan) so nothing was beyond him when it came to fighting!

Even his dream: surpassing his legendary father.

But before then, he had to pull this off. Flare his energy, hot... hotter, until it simply burned away the intervening space. Simple enough, but he hadn't gotten to the point where it was pretty much teleporting, like with grandpa. His was more like a speed boost, at best. Still cool, but not as cool.

...a young prodigy, struggling in the shadow of a legend, in the hopes of eventually stepping out of that shadow. The same name, the same... circumstances. It's like my life is a repea--no, not a repeat... it's like it's rhyming with his.

Still, I can use this, can't I?

~~~

Focusing back on the task at hand, Totoma summoned the Nine-toothed Rake. He didn't have grandpa's burning shingan and he didn't know how to use the Flame of Palingenesis yet--could it even be used consciously? He had no idea. Still, he could maybe use the Nine-toothed Rake to bullshit his way through the "NEED HOT" part... maybe? Only one way to find out...

Making sure not to life the rake fast enough to lose balance or change course, Totoma channeled his ki into it, and flames burst into existence all around him and the spear. Focus his will on the rake and its flames, he willed them to compress into a sphere... and then even further, into a small ball, situated on the tip of the spear. Nothing happened, so he redoubled his efforts, and the ball compressed even further, until it had become a tiny, insignificant speck of white-hot... it wasn't even fire at this point, really. And then, it happened...

The space between the spear and its target--well, most of the space--simply... disappeared? Or something. It wasn't an exact replica of what grandpa did, but more like the imperfect kid version that gradually (albeit quickly) cut the space instead of doing it all at once.


Totoma and the spear jolted forward much faster than before... and he realized he had not created some sort of Ma-Tobashi knockoff.

No, he had created a technique that would make him throw up if he used it too often. Urk... fine, the name. Since the only guy he knew that used spears was Held, he assumed he was around here somewhere, so...

Combination Technique: Hurling God-piercer!

God he was glad he hadn't had anything to eat for... a while, because otherwise that name would be literal.

As the two three dark-grey magics at the spears, the one Totoma rides on lurches faster. He slams into the third figure, the one closest to Karine, and the foe simply……..ceases to exist, the Hurling God Piercer obliterating the entity with little effort.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

A dark chuckle left Koorimaru as his feature twisted.

"Indeed...as the brain is to the nerves, or blood to the heart, so is Cancer to this moon. All feeds back to her-," light laughter followed as Sasheem dove into the walls. "Ah-ahhh...I like how your twisted mind works, fu-fu-fu..."



It was then that he though to himself, of all those gathered here, he would perhaps miss Sasheem the most...provided they did not survive. Nothing to do with sentiment, and all to do with impeccable execution.

He'd maintained an eye on the situation. Extraction would not be a problem - least of all for himself.

With the attack goin on below and tumult being spread through the walls, Koorimaru traced the shift of the Hakai-tainted energy, Cancer's presence, through the place.With the attack goin on below and tumult being spread through the walls, Koorimaru traced the shift of the Hakai-tainted energy, Cancer's presence, through the place.

With swiftness of thought she reaches after him...the walls may shift to mobilize or expedite passage, yes...

Hakai vessels transporting manifestations, perhaps they shift and transformed to suit her needs.

But you haven't moved. Despite Sarada's claim of what happened in your battle, you're not taking this very seriously at all, are you...now why would that be?

Closer and closer, Koorimaru keeps a careful watch on things. He watches the veins in the fortress pulse and write, Hakai traveling elsewhere.

There!

Behind the throne, behind Cancer, an object so black it is near impossible to see. Veins of Hakai come from the ground and pulse into the object, and faint traces of a familiar energy flow into it as well.

Karine, Totoma’s wife’s energy.