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

[Sub-Zero MKA]

When reality picked back up again Lantro, and Sasheem would find themselves standing tall. Only for a metallic fist to catch the Golden State Warrior in the jaw, shattering it and launching him out of the ruined Reshlan Cityscape. Leaving Sasheem alone with the Blue Annihilator.

Who was, when he saw her fully, not doing well.

The dual tech had certainly done a number on her, the lower half of her face a regenerating patchwork of bone, and viscera, along with the half of her body that had taken the attack full on... but she was already regenerating; and from the way the space around them began to distort in a manner similar to the Shattering however, it was clear she was also, finally, beginning to power up.

... but at least they knew she could bleed.

Sarada landed next to her sister and dropped to a knee. Pain radiated from one side of her body and lower half of her face. That attack from Sasheem and the half-breed had hurt her. Badly.

The sky broke.

No, not even the sky. Though Sarada would never profess to have any kind of ultra awareness but even she could tell that it was reality itself that had shattered in the aftermath of that dunk by that annoying half-breed, Lantro. Somewhere in the middle of that absolute, unfathomably mind-boggling scene was Inanna. She knew more than anyone that even though that attack was a critical strike that they badly needed, it wasn’t enough. She could feel it. The pits of desperation Inanna found herself in may have had a bottom, but the road to that bottom was going to be a very dangerous and costly one for them if they allowed the battle to linger.

The nature of that desperation was constantly altering her body, making her hardier to the attacks that managed to draw blood. And that Omega Dunk certainly drew more than its fair share of blood. As she took stock of the god’s state when the dust settled and reality reset, she felt the corners of her mouth tug down. Half her face had been reduced to a broken canvas of shatter bone and blood. Worse, half her body was gone. Regenerating, but gone. Sarada felt the pain before seeing the cause, but it still seemed unbelievable.

Despite the critical blow, she knew that things were about to get worse. Distortions in reality similar to the aftermath of the Roaring Lion's Resounding Omega Dunk appeared. Sarada could feel it: she was powering up. She was already more powerful than any of them.

“This is getting bad,” she said.

“But she can bleed,” Parsley said. “When god bleeds, we go for the kill.”

“Parsley...”

“It’s her or us, Sarada. Any hope of things ending without someone dying needs to be abandoned or we won’t make it.” Her words were terse, but Sarada could see the regret in her eyes hidden behind the resolute determination to survive. “You know what we have to do.”

She did. She nodded and powered down to her base form. It was dangerous to do so with an incredibly dangerous enemy, one with zero qualms about taking advantage, but it was necessary to make sure everything was set up. They had never done it in the middle of an actual battle. Nothing was in sync like they needed to be.

“Get ready,” Parsley said. “We only have one shot at this.”

[Miburo]

"Eh? Huh?" Zaofan tilt forward, and the imaginary spear in his hand lobbed out of the fantasy and landed him in the moment. It was only then that he noticed Held had been stooped over his own work.

"Oh...oh no...geez," he stammered as he righted himself, "You know, I once lost a perfectly restored and seasoned cast iron pan during monsoon season...but there's a formula for smelting the alloy..."

Pausing, he corrected his course.

"Heh, I don't think she liked anyone that wasn't demonic very much, really, but you really stuck it to her, twice," he said, "That silver spear'd been with you since I can remember. Whil it won't be easy to replace, it came through for you and all of us at the right time."

Standing over him for a moment, his eyes moved from Held to the little pool gathered in the transmutated vessel before him.

"...so, what's cooking?"

"Another Spear." Held replied with a laugh.

"Or the same one. I don't really know myself." He continued nervously. "I plucked a spear similar to mine from Incenio's palace a while back....I couldn't quite figure out the runework at the time, since it's from another Nevada.....But, as I am ever-brilliant, and have had time to study in heaven, I have some inkling of what it's true power is now...."

He shrugged, as the silver vessel surged with his Ki.

"In theory, anyways...."

He paused, tilting his head slightly.

"Actually, when you say it like that, perhaps I should go somewhere a bit more.....remote. Test runs are always the tricky part...Not to mention, while I'm at it, I suppose I can make a few more modifications."

Sarada shrugged and took a deep swig herself. “Suit yourself. It’ll still be here when you’re done.”

“I would have,” she said bluntly, but also jokingly, “but I’m sure Hilda would have something to say about that.” She noticed his much shorter hair and almost raised a curious eyebrow. Not like a Nevadian to cut their mane off. I think Hilda said she took his body, she remembered. She guessed she cut his hair... for some reason. She decided not to ponder what else she did to his body while he was dead. Hilda was a strange woman, that was for sure. “Your wife did a good job taking care of you.” She grinned lecherously and elbowed him in the arm. “I assume you returned the favor when you came back.”

She fell silent and watched him look over the markings on his spear. Those, if she remembered right, were called runes. What the were and why the were needed was something that went in one ear and out the other, but she did know they were important. Every time she saw Held do his magic thing, those markings were there. She knew his other spear had been destroyed, so she was curious to see how he was going to make another one.

“You said Angels?” she asked suddenly as he was finishing up a very brief recounting of his time in Heaven. Except it wasn’t Heaven technically; it was, but it wasn’t. “You were around Angels? Then you had to have asked about Sakin and Alakazah, right? What did they tell you?”

As for herself, she shrugged. “I’m doing well enough. Got God Ki to play with now and a baby waiting for me back home. Trying to balance work and parenthood has been a pain in the ass, though.” Ever since her conversation with Zaofan, she had been making an even more concerted effort to make sure she took an active part in Kumara’s life. There had been some growing pains, including having to stomach changing diapers, getting puked on, and the headaches from having to constantly keep an eye on an infant that was more powerful than most children ten times her age.

It was worth it, though.

“Back to Hilda, I hope you two managed to reach some kind of accord,” she said as she lowered her to sit down near him, but not so close that she could disrupt his work. “She’s a fucking weirdo, but she really seems to care about you.”

" Yep. Angels. Apparently we're distant relations or something. Guys really dig Unicorns, as an aside. As all peoples should."

Held rubbed the back of his head, missing his once illustrious mane, focusing on the second half of her query, "..I...Didn't really know what a Sakin even was until I got back here, to be honest." He replied with a laugh.

"This 'Judge' character is certainly a poor judge of timing. The most I gathered was something about this being a 'sealed' universe or something. They seemed pretty surprised to see Crazy Horn and Myself, so I get the impression they don't keep up too much with us..."

Held began to laugh louder, more nervously, as if considering something.

****! I forgot to ask them about Alakazah! How in Nevada could I be so dumb! Maybe If Crazy Horn wasn't trying to drill me a new ******* I'd have gotten a moment to--

"As for Hilda..." Held began, artfully ignoring the previous topic, "Well...Even I'm not so ungrateful as to ignore the facts as they are..We'll figure something out. We didn't really get a moment to figure out discuss the finer points, since the Sky ripped open about an hour after I woke up."

I really can't catch a break, can I? I barely got a chance to stretch and grab a meal before all this.

"But, enough about all that stuff!" He added with a smile, "Kicking ass and juggling parenthood, and with God Ki no less!"

He frowned slightly, his brain making computations and correlations to Sarada's statement. Held himself had only become aware of it during his training with Whis. Given Sarada most likely didn't have an angel---Wait, did she?--to discuss the finer points of such things, it was certainly impressive to learn she had obtained it. Held certainly got the impression that one did not simply go into the local Capsule Corps and acquire it.

"How the hell did you pull that one off?" Held asked, clearly impressed, "You must have really been up to some strange things while I was gone. I'll do myself a service, and assume you learned what you did in the hopes of avenging me. I'm flattered, really."

Meanwhile, Neva has made sure her mother and the rest of the knights in the vicinity had quietly and quickly been lead into her pocket dimension. She knew what Inanna and the others were capable of, and she would not risk their lives after just defeating She Who Stalks and her army. Charco on the other hand ignites his Audra and simply watches, ghost-Hakai curling ‘round his mouth.

"Ah! Perfect timing!" Held replied, clearly oblivious to whatever was going on. So focused he was on his rune craft, that his uncanny ability to read a room vanished into nothingness. "Can I get a room Neva? I don't want to accidentally remake or unmake something I shouldn't..."

He turned to Sarada and Zaofan as the pocket dimension consumed him and his devices, "Sorry to cut the show short folks. Professional mage business. Very dangerous, and I refuse to open myself up to lawsuits...."

Held frowned deeply. "Not again. Never again."

The frown on his face faded as he saw someone approaching, his glance now away from his two friends, and into the distance.

"Oh! Speaking of Wives....Hey Innna!" Held greeted Inanna with a smile, waving at her from a distance as he faded into the oblivion of the Vathkuna, "We'll catch up later!"

OOC: Held has perfected the art of fucking off when he's most needed.

[Miburo]

"Okay. This is easy enough. Probably." Held mumbled to himself, looking over his work once more.

"I can do this. Worst case scenario, I can probably invert whatever happens if anything goes wrong, into something less wrong."

Within the area his was operating in, runes had been etched into the being of the Vathkuna, contingency plans to shield Held from any would-be folly.

He starred at the container holding the energy of the leylines, resolve in his eyes. One would see a long, thick bone submerged in the primordial soup, along with drops of blood within, and surrounding it.

The silver spear in his hand surged with mystic power, as he prepared to go to work.

He reared back, preparing to let loose his spell, and regain what was lost.

"I still do not understand why a bone of mine was necessary." Crazy Horn opined, the barest hint of annoyance escaping his dignified countenance. "If you were simply returning what was lost, then---"

"I'm not entirely sure that the mechanism that established a link between you and the spear would hold." He explained for the second time, "It's like if we broke contract. I'm not really sure simply bringing the spear back brings the contract back, and it takes less energy to simply have the spear summon you through your catalyst, as opposed to using more of my own power..."

Crazy Horn snorted, "And you needed a femur, why?"

Held sighed. "Are you still on about that? You didn't even feel it and I rebuilt your leg in less than a second."

"I assumed you wanted a tooth, or some remnants of my hooves." He informed his ally, "That was somewhat of an escalation."

"The stronger parts of you are easier to weave into the fabric of the spear." Held informed him, like a doctor would a patient, "It should help temper the spears essence into something more....umm."

He paused, fumbling for the words.

"Look, it'll be a better spear. I don't see why you're so upset about this. I put myself in the spell as well."

"A few drops of blood does not compare to a femur."

"True. As my counterpoint, unless you are able to cast the spell, and know the intricacies of runework from a dimension we've never been in, I think it's a better idea that my focus not be distracted by self-mutilation. That, and knowing how my luck has been today, I'll accidentally cripple myself again."

He could sense Crazy Horn growing bored at the perceived excuse.

"Everyone's a critic." He spun the the spear overhead, before slamming the point of his weapon into stonework below, igniting the runes adoring the room as lines of power transmitted the energy to the broth of creation.

A blinding light appeared in the center of the earthen bowl, as power manifested and coalesced into a single point.

"I'm a genius!" Held exclaimed, "It's working! I knew I could---"

It took a split second for Held to noticed that the light seemed to be emitting an immense gravitational force, sucking both Crazy Horn and himself towards it.

"HELD." Crazy Horn bellowed, clearly unimpressed.

"Yeah, Yeah. I know." Held muttered to himself, striking his spear into the ground once more. The counter measures were activated, and the spell began to fade away.

Which, perhaps is what occurred in another dimension. As things were, this merely caused the spell to increase in intensity, somehow.

"Oh." The Nevadian's eyes widened, as a miscalculation made itself evident, "Oh. Oh ****."

"HELD." Crazy Horn shouted, obviously alarmed as the white light enveloped the entire room in a blinding flash, both Nevadian and Unicorn were dragged into the epicenter of the spell.

"IT'S FINE." Held shouted back, his calm masking his utter bewilderment, "I just need to make an adjustment. Have I ever let you down?"

...Oh...It probably thinks we're part of the spear, or belong in it since.....Huh. Well. Okay...

"CONSTANTLY."

"That attitude is not making the situation better!"

[grampagen]

“We need to press every advantage we have,” she said over the comms. Her aura flared like an explosion as she lifted off no toward Inanna, but Parsley. As she flew, beams broke out of her aura and shot toward her friends. “And when we can’t find one, we make one.” With all of them having a temporary God Ki boost, they could make something substantial happen. If nothing else, they could show her that they actually stood a chance against the most powerful beings in the universe. Not because they were powerful enough individually, but because they were together.

OT: Queen's Blessing - M-Fighters have received a portion of God Ki good for 1 post.

The Queen's Blessing sped after Ochazuke, and yet while the God Ki had indeed made contact as he approached Inanna from that fracture between space-time, instead of partaking of its power, it seemed to linger for a moment about him then fade away, to no discernable effect.

No immediate effect, that is.

That's the third time I've glimpsed this energy today...

First it had been the sinister makeup of She Who Stalks; Then as he had words with Inanna, a part of the hidden nature of her strength had been revealed to him and the maelstrom of torment which had ensnared her.

Now, when Sarada gave him a portion of her God Ki to take for his own, for a moment he turned his sight inward, and using Banjakuza, commit the immutable properties from which it raised divinity to memory.

The power of a god. Manifest where they may without notice...no longer. It is another target in my way...

The Oni That Was, she was many things; but rejected by the gods she quarreled with and preying on the demons that would have flocked to her side had Hell not swiftly been emptied, her condition could not, in the least, be considered stable.

But it shall only be getting in close that I'll be able to act upon this. So be it.

OOC:
God Ki analyzed
??? Charge: 3/5

There was no mistaking the energy that pooled and emanated from Ochazuke's right hand, and though Inanna's focus was for the moment set squarely on the rotund Majin, the mounting pressure in the space around Ochazuke would speak to a slow shifting of that focus.

The unmistakable taint of magic permeating the space around him, as she began to crush the life out of him.

BGM: Dream Tag Match

Suddenly he felt the air grow heavier about him, and he felt his breath begin to leave him. This energy...a spell!

Gritting his teeth, Ochazuke recognized it at once, for he'd seen Gravity Magic in use before. That was a lifetime ago.

Certainly, he felt the effects of artificial gravity in controlled conditions, 300 times the Earth's had been the maximum he and Zaofan could go full-tilt at when sparring, and only a step beyond when in conditioning. But when weaponized to a single point, collapse within that field would be assured.

Swiftly his right hand rose before him, and a flash of energy cut upwards from it. Magic resonated with Arthur's Ring, but slashing through the air, channeling the iron winds of Kongosho, it moved far to swiftly to be the Forger's Hammer. As it passed from hand-to-hand and slunk over his shoulder, it became increasingly clear what it was.

Nunchaku. Dashing apart the air in a circumference around Ochazuke, the spell was fragmented and redirected before him, when swelled gravity streams collided with the damaged fabric of space shattered by Lantro and Sasheem, with every strike, his frame jumped forward through skipped intervals in space-time as he drew ever nearer...

Then suddenly tearing upward from the ground, fury and anguish lashed out.

Ju-ou Ken, Fist of the Altered Beast flared violently through Zaofan's aura as he crashed in upon her from the side with more than twice the swiftness than before, and an uncanny ferocity that took his features as he brought repeated katchin-edged blows upon her.

"Enough! Stop this now!" He cried out desperately, his voice raised as full as his strikes in its desperate fury, "Why are you doing this, you've shown what you can do, so stop before you destroy everything!"

The sight of her feature-shorn face disgusted him, yet not nearly as much as the guilt that burned within him; and seeing the city he'd just saved by raising the hearts of the Threshling people crumble away in an instant pushed him to the brink, and under the circumstances, he was in no way pulling back his swings.

"Not like this! This is their world! Their home! After climbing out of Auroc's shadow, they'd only just rebuilt their lives! They had enough of dealing out terror and living in fear because in a decent universe, noone should have to!"

[bruceleegreyhulk]

As Praxat is standing on the air. She feels the temporary God ki leave her body. After it's gone, Praxat puts more effort into increasing the air friction even further without the help of god ki she temporarily had. Praxat then also focuses on setting up magnetic fields.

( This is getting crazy, and what's up with these distortions my Electroreception is picking up. I can't make heads or tails of them,) Praxat said.


Railgun System

[KingofPie]

She hoped Sakin was paying close attention.

“We need to press every advantage we have,” she said over the comms. Her aura flared like an explosion as she lifted off no toward Inanna, but Parsley. As she flew, beams broke out of her aura and shot toward her friends. “And when we can’t find one, we make one.” With all of them having a temporary God Ki boost, they could make something substantial happen. If nothing else, they could show her that they actually stood a chance against the most powerful beings in the universe. Not because they were powerful enough individually, but because they were together.

OT: Queen's Blessing - M-Fighters have received a portion of God Ki good for 1 post.

The beam was on target, cutting through the mushroom cloud as it closed in on Inanna; but true to Ochazuke's revelation... what had thrown the woman for a loop before, had managed less the second time and with a motion Inanna batted the Spiral Flash away. Beam quickly leaving Reshlan's atmosphere to harmlessly detonate in the Heavens above.

Though to say Parsley's attack had no impact, would be inaccurate. It did two things.

One, Inanna's movement had been swift, but telling. The hand that batted the beam away, had been artifical... The arm she'd made from the Maven's forge; and two:

It bought Lantro, and Sasheem time.



Inanna had turned at the roar, which meant she to took the Roaring Lion's Resounding Omega Dunk to the jaw; and where the two attacks before- her own- had merely done ephemeral damage... for the first time Inanna felt pain... only for her howl of pain to be drowned out by The Shattering.

And with the laws that governed Universe 15, now null and void, the energy released by the desperation play had no where to go but forward; into Inanna.

When reality picked back up again Lantro, and Sasheem would find themselves standing tall. Only for a metallic fist to catch the Golden State Warrior in the jaw, shattering it and launching him out of the ruined Reshlan Cityscape. Leaving Sasheem alone with the Blue Annihilator.

Who was, when he saw her fully, not doing well.

The dual tech had certainly done a number on her, the lower half of her face a regenerating patchwork of bone, and viscera, along with the half of her body that had taken the attack full-on... but she was already regenerating; and from the way the space around them began to distort in a manner similar to the Shattering, however, it was clear she was also, finally, beginning to power up.

... but at least they knew she could bleed.

As Lantro was injured and sent flying, forcing a timeout for himself, for the time being, Sasheem felt two miracles happen. First and foremost, perhaps it was the impact of the DUNK or perhaps the Shattering, but the Majin had regained his regular fighting form. He had no time to celebrate as the second of these miracles came in the form of a terrifying visage. That of Inanna's regenerating half-body. The miracle came with the idea that she could in fact be seriously harmed. Good. Then horror set in as her power level began to jump significantly. Sasheem wasn't sure any of them, even together, could handle what she could dish out if she both healed up and reached her maximum potential.

That's when the third miracle set in. The god ki, from Sarada. Sasheem felt that he didn't have long to utilize it. So he had to make the best of this immediately. He would utilize two attacks in tandem. The first Utilizing his Majin magic, Sasheem shot at various pieces of rubble, or what little he could find in the flickering existence of shattered space-time he now stood in. He turned them all into a veritable garden with various plants, berries, and herbs.

Then utilizing the god ki, he powered up, his aura turning a dark purple hue, and gained a virulent temperament. From this Venomous Ki he began to utilize the Yamata no Orochi Fist but instead of eight heads, he sprouted three.

"Three Cups!" uttered Sasheem and the three serpentine heads, imbued by god ki lashed out, not directly at Inanna, not at first. No, first they slid across the ground, lightning-fast, gathering the berries and herbs and letting them dissolve around their fangs, liquefying into a texture like that of ointment. Sasheem was no herbologist, but in training to treat wounds in order to strengthen his own teachings to his students, he'd learned of medicinal herbs and berries he learned how to dull pain through use of natural anesthetics.

And as for the technique of Three Cups. The fangs would sink deep into their target like Inanna and the venomous ki would act with one goal in mind. To stave off and completely cancel out regenerative properties for a time. If this worked, perhaps it could provide the others with the advantage they needed in this sudden, desperate assault. And if not...well, Sasheem didn't wanna think of the negative repercussions at this point.

[Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ou Ki]

Miss Ish--Inanna had appeared after the climactic battle with SWS had concluded, and it soon became apparent that Totoma had missed... something while he had been dead. A falling out.

He wasn't surprised, to be honest--his little corner of the universe was pretty isolated, especially from the cosmic goings-on some of the others seemed to have gotten themselves involved in, but what did surprise him was just how fast the situation deteriorated. Somehow, he and the others now found themselves embroiled in a battle against Inanna, or rather, half those assembled were going after Inanna, while he and the rest were focused on trying to make sure the planet didn't get annihilated by that monumental battle.

With the Void Tunnels, he was able to redirect the attacks away from the planet with relative ease compared to most. Right place, right time, attacks get redirected away from the planet and, eventually, into each other, exploding and dissipating harmlessly in space. This was still the Threshlings' home, after all.

Still, he only focused his efforts on mitigation, not attack.

Why, you may ask, would a self-admitted battle-maniac, especially with how eager he'd been earlier in the day to run from battle to battle w/o much thought given to... anything except the next challenge, not jump at the chance to fight someone as awesomely strong as Inanna? Hell, for a long time, he'd wanted to have a scrap with Ishtar/Inanna, and this was the perfect chance. And yet, now, when the chance had presented itself, he had no desire to do so.

Simple, it all came down to something Sarada had said just before the situation went crazy.

“She’s confused,” she said to Mr. Ochazuke. “About who and what she is.” She frowned and fisted her hair in frustration. “Goddamn, why didn’t I look before?!” Sarada, for as much as she tried to be a good person, had her flaws. Those flaws always cropped up at the worst possible moment, often with those she cared about most being the victim. Life was a journey, but Sarada insisted on tripping herself up at the worst times.

“It won’t be long before she lets her rage consume her. Once that happens, there’s no going back.”

...simply, it didn't feel right.

Now, Saiyans did have a concept of 'finding or discovering oneself through battle', and as a Saiyan himself, that idea made sense to him on an intuitive level, and many warrior cultures had similar, if not precisely identical ideas. But in this situation, there was a catch.

Even for Saiyans, that discovery wasn't entirely... um... what's the word. From scratch? Like, they usually had some idea of where to start, and battle helped refine, direct, or test their method of thinking. It was like meditating on one's thoughts for punch-happy space monkes. And that was fine.

Two problems, though.

One, Inanna was not a Saiyan. Totoma didn't know what she was, at this point, because she had changed immensely since he had first met her years ago, but she was most definitely not a saiyan. She was (formerly?) married to one, and that did require some saiyan-like attributes, but he doubted that all-out battle could serve as the catharsis for her as it did for his kind.

And two... from what Sarada had said--and she should know, given that she knew Inanna the best--the woman in front of them had no idea who or what she herself even was. She was confused, but mixed in with that confusion was rage. Entirely understandable, and if she were a saiyan, she might be able to focus or control that rage through battle, but as said... she wasn't a saiyan. Without any idea of where to start, fighting would force her to draw on that rage. It would consume her whole, to the point that Inanna and her rage would be one and the same.

And so, despite Inanna being an awesomely strong opponent--one he'd love to scrap with under better circumstances--Totoma did not want to involve himself in this fight... at least not in the way Mr. Ochazuke, Sarada, and the others were. Especially since 'his' side had thrown the first blow, which left a bad taste in his mouth, to put it mildly.

Beating up a confused woman wasn't heroic.

Plus, ya know, as much as he wanted to test out his limits, his freakin' family was currently in severe danger--in large part because of his battle-happiness and, uh, other matters--and he wanted to get right on saving them. He owed them that much after the past year. However...

In front of him was someone that needed help. Help she was not getting. In fact, from his point of view, she was getting anti-help or... uh... hurt.

...

Point was, he couldn't just ignore someone that needed help, especially not when they were right in front of him. And being ganged up on by his friends, who should be her friends, too. Seriously, what the hell had he even missed while he was dead!?

Still, what could he even do? He was good at solving problems that needed punching--he was very good at punching, after all--but he couldn't just punch Inanna's problems out of her.

...probably. Like, he could try, but really, in this situation, it'd probably just make things worse. Especially since he wasn't entirely sure how to even do such a thing or how to target something mental/emotional like that. Plus, ya know, not a saiyan, and a saiyan-y method like 'punching your problems out of your mind' was, as said before, probably just not a good idea.

Some sappy speech about heroism or whatever wouldn't help. Of that he was sure. Not even when things were calm. Too, uh... soli... solips... self-focused. He had himself figured out pretty well, but his own point of view was just that: his. Inanna's confusion was about herself.

Muffins were out. They weren't the cure-all panacea for others as they were for him.

With everything exploding and... reality cracking and bending from ki dunks (what the ****,) he probably couldn't even physically communicate with her, at this point.

Was it all useless? Was an ending in which they died to a woman's rage and sorrow or a woman drowning rage and sorrow died to those that should be her friends the only outcomes? Neither of those sat right with him. Not at all.

Hm.

Okay. There was really only one thing he could think of to do.

Standing a fair ways away from the battle, Totoma closed his eyes, took the 'god ki' Sarada had gifted him, channeled it, focused it, and wove it... into a Kizuna.

Yes, he already had a Kizuna up, since that was pretty much a reflex once a fight began. A small power boost to the others, to aid and protect them, and sometimes a way to share information. That was the way he usually used the ability, but it was the simplest, most straightforward way. But at its heart, Kizuna was... the power of bonds. Friendship, love, companionship... it could be utilized in much more subtle ways than just 'Nakama power'.

Slowly, small particles manifested in Totoma's aura, little pinpricks of light that manifested, floated up, and then disappeared as suddenly as they came into existence.

And then... his aura exploded, spreading outwards in a nebula of gold, red, and green strands that washed over the battlefield, and then the entirety of Reshlan, those strands wrapping around the wounded planet in almost an embrace.




Many feelings washed over him. The planet's inhabitants were in their princess' little pocket realm, Vaikunthy or whatever, so it was just the psychic impressions left over from their lives. The terror of the invasion, the pain of those that had, the resolute bravery of Reshlan's defenders, and the quiet determination lingering in the air. Hope for a better future for a people that had long-suffered under a controlling god-tyrant. And the various feelings of his friends.

Confusion, frustration, worry. Oddly, he felt nothing that he could identify as definitively coming from Inanna. Weird, butshe was weird by nature.

Normally, all of this would have been overwhelming for him... normally he would have flinched and cut the connection, retreating back into himself, safe in his own mind. But now, in these dire circumstances, he let all those lingering impressions flow through his self, as if he were a mere cipher. It took a very particular balance to not be swept away and destroyed by the flow of psychic detritus, but, miraculously, he managed to pull it off.

This was all a side-effect of what he originally intended. An unforeseen consequence of totally opening himself up. It was dangerous, and he probably wanted to avoid doing this too long or too often, but for his purposes right now, it was probably necessary.

Power of Unity and Hope, Kizuna

Steadying his breathing and opening his eyes, Totoma focused on Inanna and reached out, gently. He could use all this power to try to batter down her formidable defenses, but that would be counterproductive--it would just reaffirm her need to defend herself. And given that Mr Ochazuke had struck first, from his point of view... she had every right to that.

No, this was the psychic/metaphysical equivalent to, hm, knocking on the door? No hostility, no ill will, no battering ram psychic attack. Totoma had left himself open and vulnerable, and he was asking to be let inside of Inanna's own free will and terms.

From a sane point of view, it might be the equivalent of locking himself inside a katchin room with a ravenous monster, but if he did not even attempt to save someone in front of him that was clearly suffering, then he might as well just hang up his cape. Totoma had chosen to reach out a hand instead of throw hands.

...still gonna have to turn in my official Saiyan card.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Then utilizing the god ki, he powered up, his aura turning a dark purple hue, and gained a virulent temperament. From this Venomous Ki he began to utilize the Yamata no Orochi Fist but instead of eight heads, he sprouted three.

"Three Cups!" uttered Sasheem and the three serpentine heads, imbued by god ki lashed out, not directly at Inanna, not at first. No, first they slid across the ground, lightning-fast, gathering the berries and herbs and letting them dissolve around their fangs, liquefying into a texture like that of ointment. Sasheem was no herbologist, but in training to treat wounds in order to strengthen his own teachings to his students, he'd learned of medicinal herbs and berries he learned how to dull pain through use of natural anesthetics.

And as for the technique of Three Cups. The fangs would sink deep into their target like Inanna and the venomous ki would act with one goal in mind. To stave off and completely cancel out regenerative properties for a time. If this worked, perhaps it could provide the others with the advantage they needed in this sudden, desperate assault. And if not...well, Sasheem didn't wanna think of the negative repercussions at this point.

One of the fangs would manage to find purchase, Inanna dodging the other two, and so his gamble would find itself somewhat successful as her regeneration noticeable slowed to almost nothing. Unfortunately, Inanna's Ruinic Hand had wrapped itself around the fanged tendril, and with no warning, Sasheem was held in place as she began to both siphon the energy out of him; while opening her mouth. A familiar black energy beginning to coalesce into what would undoubtedly be the death of him.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Were it not for a timely intervention.

BGM: Dream Tag Match

Suddenly he felt the air grow heavier about him, and he felt his breath begin to leave him. This energy...a spell!

Gritting his teeth, Ochazuke recognized it at once, for he'd seen Gravity Magic in use before. That was a lifetime ago.

Certainly, he felt the effects of artificial gravity in controlled conditions, 300 times the Earth's had been the maximum he and Zaofan could go full-tilt at when sparring, and only a step beyond when in conditioning. But when weaponized to a single point, collapse within that field would be assured.

Swiftly his right hand rose before him, and a flash of energy cut upwards from it. Magic resonated with Arthur's Ring, but slashing through the air, channeling the iron winds of Kongosho, it moved far to swiftly to be the Forger's Hammer. As it passed from hand-to-hand and slunk over his shoulder, it became increasingly clear what it was.

Nunchaku. Dashing apart the air in a circumference around Ochazuke, the spell was fragmented and redirected before him, when swelled gravity streams collided with the damaged fabric of space shattered by Lantro and Sasheem, with every strike, his frame jumped forward through skipped intervals in space-time as he drew ever nearer...

Ochazuke manages, augmented by the 'gift' from Sarada, is able to easily traverse the fractured spacetime; and from his position would see- and sense- it clearly; as the wounded woman held Sasheem, her Ruinic Arm glowing faintly as she siphoned away his borrowed might, while charging what was to be the death of him... and for the moment, that was where her focus lay solely. On the one who had stymied her regeneration, and dared to poison her blood.

Then suddenly tearing upward from the ground, fury and anguish lashed out.

Ju-ou Ken, Fist of the Altered Beast flared violently through Zaofan's aura as he crashed in upon her from the side with more than twice the swiftness than before, and an uncanny ferocity that took his features as he brought repeated katchin-edged blows upon her.

Which allowed Zaofan to lay into her, unopposed, the first few blows enough to break her grasp on the Majin, while also reopening those freshly mended wounds; forcing the air out of her lungs as she first slapped Sasheem away, before turning to face the Martial Chef.

"Enough! Stop this now!" He cried out desperately, his voice raised as full as his strikes in its desperate fury, "Why are you doing this, you've shown what you can do, so stop before you destroy everything!"

The sight of her feature-shorn face disgusted him, yet not nearly as much as the guilt that burned within him; and seeing the city he'd just saved by raising the hearts of the Threshling people crumble away in an instant pushed him to the brink, and under the circumstances, he was in no way pulling back his swings.

"Not like this! This is their world! Their home! After climbing out of Auroc's shadow, they'd only just rebuilt their lives! They had enough of dealing out terror and living in fear because in a decent universe, noone should have to!"

As he continued his desperate assault, Inanna would begin to lose ground as her body was injured more and more- healing too slow to ignore the damage, for now- and it seemed as if the man would win the day. Until, when a blow that might have finally finished what Lantro started was mere moments from taking her head off... a clawed hand caught Zaofan's burning fist; and she headbutted the Chef square in the face.

"Shut up."

For him to ask why she was doing this... Lifting him up by the hand she clutched in her talons, she stared at him. "Even now..." She spat, blood splattering the Cook's face as she forced the words through a broken jaw. "You-" something brushed against the boundary of her consciousness, and what she meant to say died in her throat.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

This was all a side-effect of what he originally intended. An unforeseen consequence of totally opening himself up. It was dangerous, and he probably wanted to avoid doing this too long or too often, but for his purposes right now, it was probably necessary.

Power of Unity and Hope, Kizuna

Steadying his breathing and opening his eyes, Totoma focused on Inanna and reached out, gently. He could use all this power to try to batter down her formidable defenses, but that would be counterproductive--it would just reaffirm her need to defend herself. And given that Ochazuke had struck first, from his point of view... she had every right to that.

No, this was the psychic/metaphysical equivalent to, hm, knocking on the door? No hostility, no ill will, no battering ram psychic attack. Totoma had left himself open and vulnerable, and he was asking to be let inside of Inanna's own free will and terms.

From a sane point of view, it might be the equivalent of locking himself inside a katchin room with a ravenous monster, but if he did not even attempt to save someone in front of him that was clearly suffering, then he might as well just hang up his cape. Totoma had chosen to reach out a hand instead of throw hands.

...still gonna have to turn in my official Saiyan card.

While this action was undertaken in good faith, a great deal had transpired since Totoma's death... So when he made contact with Inanna telepathically, the woman would recoil...as opened up as Totoma had made himself, he had left himself venerable in a way he'd perhaps not intended.

There would be a brief moment of 'resistance', as his offer was rebuffed; the woman outright ignoring his proffered 'hand', but he he would sense quite clearly that she was absolutely ravenous, and thanks to what he'd done, she now had an unfettered pathway to what he'd left briefly undefended, himself. Something she capitalized on swiftly, latching onto him like a leech, his Ki beginning to slowly bleed away as she began to 'eat' him. Which had the unfortunate side effect of accelerating the rate at which she purged Sasheem's Three Cups toxin. The damage the group had managed beginning to undo itself, even as she turned her attention to the Saiyan duo standing off to the side.

She did. She nodded and powered down to her base form. It was dangerous to do so with an incredibly dangerous enemy, one with zero qualms about taking advantage, but it was necessary to make sure everything was set up. They had never done it in the middle of an actual battle. Nothing was in sync like they needed to be.

“Get ready,” Parsley said. “We only have one shot at this.”

And through her still broken jaw, she spat one word.

"Cowards."

[bruceleegreyhulk]

Praxat uses electrocommunication to communicate with her fellow M-Fighters coms. ( Guys, I have set up a Rail Gun System, use it to your advantage. I'm also currently using my Bio-Electromagnokinesis to control the electrons in the air to increase air friction,) Praxat said electricalpathicaly.

( This Rail Gun System of mine is a series of magnetic fields that are tangled in such a way they result in magnetic explosions. These magnetic explosions can boost the speed, acceleration, and momentum of projectiles. the reason I'm increasing the air friction is to make a barrier to protect Reshlan. It seems to be working for the most part. I'm increasing the air friction in certain spots, not the entire atmosphere, that would be bad) Praxat said electricalpathically.

(So far I have only focused on mitigating damage from the planet, and not on attacking,) Praxat said electricalpathically

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Parsley powered down from Super Saiyan 3 to her base form. Unlike Sarada, it was an even greater risk. She was banking on Inanna being occupied with the Sasheem just long enough for them to finish their brief preparations. She accepted Sarada’s bestowed God Ki and felt it temporarily replace her normal ki. Her brief flirtation with the realm of gods was the final piece they needed to make sure everything went as it should have.

The only thing left to do was to do it, and hope that they hadn’t gotten rusty in the few months it had been since they last did it. A lot had happened in the time that lapsed between back then and right then. While she was confident they had practiced it enough for it to be like riding a hoverbike, the chaotic heat of battle guaranteed nothing.

Saiyan Enigma - Gokhan Theme

Their powers were even. “Ready?” she asked.

Their energies were the same and ebbed and flowed in unison. “Let’s do it,” Sarada said in reply, nodding once.

They stood a short distance away from each other. With time running out until Inanna was fully healed and ready to begin the battle anew, they began the ritual.

And through her still broken jaw, she spat one word.

"Cowards."

They had run out of time. On the peripheral of their preparations, the battle with Inanna raged on and the landscape had altered in ways they hadn't anticipated. With a single word, garbled by the broken jaw from which is came, predated an attack that sought to undo the very tense preparations they had hastily made. An attack that would surely kill Parsley if she didn't move in time.

Parsley's God Ki boost wouldn't last. Any action she took to defend herself would use it up and rendered everything in shambles.

Then, a red streak flashed in front of them.

Avoca landed between them. “HURRY!” she shouted before quickly turning her attention to the incoming blast. Her mouth yawned open to devour it, or at least try. Anything to delay it for just a few seconds. Because a few seconds were all Parsley and Sarada needed.

Unlimited Eat Works

The two sisters nodded in unison and moved in unison. Two woman of one spirit...

“FUUUUUUU...”

Of one mind...

“...SION!”

Of one body.

“HA!!!”

When they fingertips touched, their bodies were simultaneously enveloped in an ethereal light. It expanded without them and quickly engulfed their general area. As it faded, a lone figure materialized into being. Where there once stood two woman, only one remained.



The woman was dressed in a peculiar outfit, but she was rather unbothered by it. She look at her hands, clenching and unclenching them as she measured the power she possessed.

Her emerald eyes drifted upward toward the mad goddess and narrowed.

Observational Focus took stock of both Inanna and the battlefield as a whole.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

" Hey, Tasure, Neva, and Jack, you three want to do something with me like a team attack. Maybe it's about time we go on the offensive," Praxat said. Praxat then turns her attention towards the smoke that is coming from Caliban's cigar. Her electroreception picks up that the smoke is swirling in strange, arcane patterns. " I don't know want those patterns are, but they better be helpful," Praxat said.

" I think about going using overclock. I have hesitated to use it so far because using it takes five years off my lifespan. So I can't just pull it out willy-nilly, I should only pull it out when I absolutely have to. That's something Miras Thane told me," Praxat whispered.

"Of course, there's another thing I could do that would increase my power over time, but it affects my sanity. It's accumulating and storing ambient electromagnetic energy and adding to my own. I tried this before back on Earth, almost lost myself," Praxat whispered

[grampagen]

As he continued his desperate assault, Inanna would begin to lose ground as her body was injured more and more- healing too slow to ignore the damage, for now- and it seemed as if the man would win the day. Until, when a blow that might have finally finished what Lantro started was mere moments from taking her head off... a clawed hand caught Zaofan's burning fist; and she headbutted the Chef square in the face.

"Shut up."

For him to ask why she was doing this... Lifting him up by the hand she clutched in her talons, she stared at him. "Even now..." She spat, blood splattering the Cook's face as she forced the words through a broken jaw. "You-" something brushed against the boundary of her consciousness, and what she meant to say died in her throat.

Zaofan's last strike was stopped cold, and when she struck him, his head snapped back. Even the considerable defenses of the Sheep's Fortitude aligned with the martial lineage of ten thousand years resulted in him barely hanging onto consciousness as a line of blood sprayed from his face, and would have been sent flying away were her grip not fastened to his seized wrist. His grip on his staff was blown wide open till the blood-slick katchin of slipped from his hand, and he fell limp.

His voice sputtered through the red streaming down his face.

"-yes...even now..."

Whatever emotion coloured Inanna's stare, he would not know it, for already his own watering eyes began to mottle and swell.

"...because I know...you didn't want...this...please..."

Shakily his free hand began to reach to meet the other, as if pawing blindly at Inanna's claws would somehow move through them, until he fastened his grip on her wrist.

"...nother...way..." he murmured.

OOC: Fist of the Altered Beast: 1 post remains!

The gut rending feeling Etrina felt at her cries began to quickly twist in her stomach until a new emotion began to rear its ugly head. One she was all too familiar with.

Clutching her staff, she began to focus....even as Saradas god ki descended upon her, her mind drifted to places unknown. The spell she weaved now would not be easy, but there was no choice but to push on.

Some distance from where she stood, a hollow whistle fell through the air and struck the ground. Zaofan's staff, Bojack, dripping with fresh blood illustrated the severity of the fight currently taking place before the fractured sky above.

Ochazuke manages, augmented by the 'gift' from Sarada, is able to easily traverse the fractured spacetime; and from his position would see- and sense- it clearly; as the wounded woman held Sasheem, her Ruinic Arm glowing faintly as she siphoned away his borrowed might, while charging what was to be the death of him... and for the moment, that was where her focus lay solely. On the one who had stymied her regeneration, and dared to poison her blood.

That arm...

With every pull of the Nunchaku scattering hyper-gravity magic into the tears in fractured space, as the breaks in reality forcefully mended into stented streamlines he found his position reeled forward.

The make of the runes he'd seen, arraigned in circles where they once fed into the Gate of Auroc on Reshlan and Baradur to cast flesh to forge the morbid designs of the fallen Majin. In addition to her own formidable powers she brought to bear, Inanna was able to absorb and disperse it through this device as well.

Is that why... As the nunchacku swat the last of the gravity field away, as it passed from hand to hand he knew with but a thought, he could bring the hammer to bear. No...not yet.

Moreover, both of his martial brothers were in peril. For all the ground they covered, in this moment more than ever that had something to prove.

Kaigan*

The Nunchaku pivot on its chain, spinning as it gathered energy that passed between Ochazuke's gauntleted hands*, before they struck out at range; a glimpse, a flicker at first.

It was at this moment that Zaofan held fast and bound Inanna's position upon the Woven Path of the Spider School as he held on for dear life as a the shockwave of Zanshin Touki struck the Oni that Was to keep her there as Ochazuke closed in and struck at her directly.

The flailing ends snaked out, bit their edges in, and retracted, each strike followed by a phantom blow that redoubled the echoing power of the Forger's Hammer sealed into weapon's form as on and on the battered strikes continued.

Those scars that were rendered from the past year, it was demons that had set the mortar to stent the wound, he thought, observing the energy interactions that ebbed between fury and aching within her very soul. Yet if that is the substance, then why does it not grant subsistence?

While he indeed struck to keep Inanna pinned down, Ochazuke had become increasingly aware of the disparate elements that Inanna had adjoined to herself, and with so long in demonic company, by all appearances it seemed that malevolent nature was intrinsic by now. But despite her words, she had come to them for deliverance.

A task that would surely take nothing short of a miracle.

OOC: The Gauntlets of Zxu'ro! Actioning upon The Wolf's Prowl and The Bear's Strength have increased Ochazuke's speed and strength 5x!

Kaigan! The heightened state of battle-awareness within waking meditation!

• Shoshin Hiei ++ Evasion!
• Mushin Nehan ++ Execution!
• Daigo-Tettei ++Defensive Insights, keyed into the nature of God Ki!

???: 4/5

[KingofPie]

With the gift of god ki at his fingertips for all but a flickering moment, Blizzar's brain raced on just what to do with it. He eventually settled upon something perhaps nonconventional but ultimately necessary....at least for his own purposes. After he had left the GP, he'd divided focus between starting up his new Private Investigations office, working on future investments, and most pertinent to this current moment, training. Blizzar had once thought he was reaching his limits as a fighter, a pugilist. But one event after another had made it clear that he had no time to sit on his laurels. He would have to continue to improve.

Training unfortunately cut short once the universe began tearing itself awry. But with god ki in hand....Needless to say, on a battlefield such as this is normally no time to train, lest one had access to a room of spirit in time. But, once again, with god ki in hand....it would only take the most insignificant fraction of a second to get to where he needed.

And so, Blizzar began to shadowbox in the scattered remnants of reality, moving so fast he was a mere flicker darting across the sky...