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

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Oh, so this Sheki'hinah was Inanna's mom? He felt he'd heard something about this during the whole... time escapades thing a while back, but to be honest, all that had been confusing and sort of a blur. On the plus side, he'd found the muffin button during that, so... yeah.

"Alright, I'll go talk to her and see if she'll introduce me!" And with that, he rushed off to talk to Sheki'hinah. A woman he had no idea looked like or anything. Of course, there was an easy way to get around that...

"Um, hey, Sheki'hinah! Sheki'hinah! Looking for a Sheki'hinah! I'm one of your daughter's, uh... friends," he called out as he neared the souls being attended to by various... non-soul people. He recognized Jack and Nunlil, of course, so, presumably, Sheki'hinah was one of the others.

...god, Sheki'hinah was a hard name to pronounce.



Voyavoda examined his renewed body approvingly. Instead of regressing wholesale to a much younger age and being truly reborn, he had... somehow partially reversed the process and stabilized almost exactly in the middle of his prime years. Better yet, the little stunt had powered him up quite considerably, though how much of the totality of his power he could access so soon after being... semi-reborn, was unknown.

Fascinating.

Still, the process had been tiring, so he was in no mood to do anything except sit in the middle of the burnt patch of grass he was currently in. Might do to find or make some clothing soon, but... ahh, that could wait. Voyavoda flopped over onto his back and stared at the sky.

'Feeling' within himself, he felt that something had changed in regards to the flames of palingenesis... though he wasn't quite sure what, at this point. Perhaps, if he were lucky, he would someday be able to die and move on... as himself, rather than as some hypothetical close-but-not-quite future self.

One could dream, could they not?

A tall and beautiful women steps forward, nodding.

“Ahh, Totoma. Inanna has spoken of you before.”

She leans in and gives him a back cracking hug before releasing him.

“Well done defending these poor souls. You have my thanks.”

Off to the side Jack and Nunlil just chuckle.

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Truth of a wrongdoing.

Restoration of one taken.

Identity of one lost.

And curiosity of how long he could last before she could take his life.

The Fae apparently enjoyed playing dangerous games. Purposefully leading him down a destructive path that would lead certainly lead to the pressure of his goals causing him to slip. Slip enough for her to take his life.

She tilted her head to the side. He played a dangerous game, and new it. At least three of his so-called allies couldn't be trusted. Wolf God had already proven himself incapable of keeping his word. She saw no reason to believe that he wasn't aware that the others could be just as untrustworthy. It only spoke to the depths he had sunken to, if these were who he chose to help him accomplish his foreordained goals.

"How possible would it be for you to have been mislead from the very beginning? Perhaps the vision you were shown was altered in some way to lead you down this very destructive path. If these Fae enjoy playing games and making wagers off them as much as you say, I don't see them being above hedging those bets at the earliest possible juncture."

He nods slowly.

“The thought has recently occurred. Normally I’d say no, and yet........”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Zaofan, Praxat, Totoma’s body suddenly gasps and shoots upwards, breathing heavy and frantically clutching at his chest.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

There is a battle of Gods.

Of monsters.

As Ochazuke funnels some of the energy away, Banespell pauses in his hammering, eyes narrowing. A brief gleam in his eyes.

“Well done, Lady.”

——————

Amidst the explosion Inanna, you do feel that ruinous blade of Ishtar’s snake around and impale your side even as the conflagration around you explodes.

However, in that inferno that would kill just about anyone else, as Ishtar herself does as Inanna did and let fly her power, a single beam of energy expands around the conflagration and swallow it.

All of a sudden, Ishtar, Inanna, and their combined energies are gone. The molten core remains, churning but not in threat, Ochazuke sensing that the planet is safe.

He and the others also sense and see an explosion in the space just passed Darkle’s obit. A massive showcase of power that shudders the planet and sends waves of pressure down and around that nearly knocks them off their feet, trees swaying all around. In outer space ,Darkle below them, hangs Ishtar and Inanna.

And a small Fae.

Lady Binder looks upon the two wounded women. Inanna, with a stab wound that is infected and rotting, burns about her body and one eye burned shut.

Ishtar, her lower half now a mess of Ruination, her one remaining arm clasping her blade. Her half face is burned and twisted in pain, Cryomancy cooling and soothing as her legs reform in that strange orange energy.

The Fae shakes her head and forms a portal that slowly engulfs Ishtar, who screams in rage but it is soundless amidst space around them. She vanishes, and Lady Binder nods to Inanna. Thoughts enter her head then.

‘I trust you can return on your own. Good luck, Goddess Inanna!’

The Fae steps sideways and is gone, leaving only Inanna to hang above the planet Darkle.

Inanna didn't question it, when the burn of molten rock was replaced with the vacuum of frigid space. Nor did she question it when that damned sword found purchase in her side. What she did question, was the reason for her denied liberation. Though in the confusion after the Heavens buckled, the reason for it came into view.

The Fae.

"Should have let me finish it..." She groused, as Ishtar was carted through a breach in spacetime. Only to be wished luck and left to hang in the Void.

"..."

She hung long enough to staunch the rot, her own Ruination, and Hakai flowing into the wound of festering decay; and then, still burned and half blind. She appeared between blinks, behind the Forger.

Grinning.

"How does it feel, knowing you've become what you tried so desperately to stop? I want to know."

[Sub-Zero MKA]

He nods slowly.

“The thought has recently occurred. Normally I’d say no, and yet........”

"..."

Parsley looked at him in disbelief.

How could anyone just take someone's word at something so harrowing? How could he act with such absolute resolve, such unwavering conviction without first knowing that the future he put so much stock in was actually true? "How can someone so old be so stupid?"

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him with more disgust than before. "Am I to assume you didn't seek out another opinion? Another soothsayer who could confirm what this Fae told you? You just told my sister not fifteen minutes ago that the Fae's vision was absolute, and now you admit that it may not be? That this Fairy may have lied to you to set you down a path that would turn you into nothing more than a pawn for her and her daughter's amusement?"

She took a breath. Her fist, which had balled into fists, slowly unclenched and laid flat next to her thigh.

"I wonder how it will feel if you find out that my suspicions are true and you were played for a fool. How many people have you and your cabal killed before today to reach this moment? You already loosened the trammels on the most powerful being in the universe for this one moment. How many cowardly potshots have you and yours taken from the shadows, all in the name of preventing a future that may not have been slated to come to pass in the first place?"

[Sub-Zero MKA]

The explosion that ripped through the sky knocked Sarada on her ass. She had already been sitting on her ass, so... she supposed it actually knocked her on her back. Regardless of the wording she wanted to use, the point remained that she had been laying on the ground ever since. She heard Parsley and Ochazuke continuing to open Forger's ass up wide. A smirk played on her lips the entire time as she listened to him slowly admit that no, he didn't know what he was doing and was banking on what was probably a made up vision being true so everything he had done up to the point that realization dawned on him could be justified as something more than the actions of a dumbass fool who could be hooked by a fairy tale.

A child showed more discretion and caution.

She rolled her eyes and lifted herself up into a sitting position. "Absolute vision, my ass," she said loudly enough for him to hear. She didn't want to say more until there was absolute, heh, confirmation that Forger had been played for a chump. Until then, she had nothing more to say to him.

Inanna didn't question it, when the burn of molten rock was replaced with the vacuum of frigid space. Nor did she question it when that damned sword found purchase in her side. What she did question, was the reason for her denied liberation. Though in the confusion after the Heavens buckled, the reason for it came into view.

The Fae.

"Should have let me finish it..." She groused, as Ishtar was carted through a breach in spacetime. Only to be wished luck and left to hang in the Void.

"..."

She hung long enough to staunch the rot, her own Ruination, and Hakai flowing into the wound of festering decay; and then, still burned and half blind. She appeared between blinks, behind the Forger.

Grinning.

"How does it feel, knowing you've become what you tried so desperately to stop? I want to know."

She had nothing to say to this dumbass either. If they did tried to hash out the tiny, minuscule little matter of Inanna concealing that people were gunning for her life... or freedom.. or something. Sarada didn't like being kept in the dark, and she liked finding out that people were trying to kill people she loved even less. She already knew Inanna's reasons and didn't want to hear any of them. If she did, she was going to punch her in the throat.

She spared her wife a single glance to make sure she was okay - she was more fucked up than Sarada was - then rose to her feet and flew off. They would talk about it soon, preferably after she dealt with Tundra to avoid any and all distractions from that all-important battle. Until then, she decided she was going to keep her distance. While she was sure she was going to need to slap some sense into her idiot wife, she didn't want it to come to blows right off the bat. With pieces of her missing and the bodies of her slain friends still weighing heavily on her, exactly that was going to happen.

Parsley and Ochazuke could make her see the error of her ways a lot better than Sarada could anyway.

Zaofan, Praxat, Totoma’s body suddenly gasps and shoots upwards, breathing heavy and frantically clutching at his chest.

Her flight carried her to a clearing that looked like some kind of building had previously been there minutes ago. There, she found Zaofan and Praxat standing over Totoma's body. Totoma, who was... sitting and breathing?!

Joy overtook her and she quickly descended and landed a few yards away. "Totoma, you're okay!"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

He quirks an eyebrow.

“You misunderstand. I visited 1,742 soothsayers, seers, fortune tellers, oracles, and Far Sight Casters. Of them, two hundred proved actually able to forecast the future. Of those 50 proved able to see beyond mere glimpses. Of those twenty confirmed Queen Mab’s vision given to me. I did my homework, and had little reason to doubt it at that point.”

He looks once more to the sky.

“But that does not mean the vision granted me wasn’t altered somehow. I did not believe so at the time, overwhelming evidence on hand, but now.......perhaps they played a far deeper con than even I anticipated. Or not, only time will tell now.”

He shrugs and glances at Inanna.

“The dye is cast now. As to becoming what I tried to stop.......I haven’t quite sunk quite that low. I may ally with monsters, make use of them, but it wasn’t I that threatened to obliterate entire planets because my feelings got hurt or because I got pissed off one day.”

His eyes narrow at Inanna.

“The prison remains, Inanna. And next time there won’t be someone to save you. Remember that, Goddess. Your wife seems convinced you aren’t the monster I’ve seen, and I may even have some doubt now of that myself, but I will be watching. I hope for all our sakes they are right, but I won’t hold my breathe either.”

He touches his forehead and vanishes.

[grampagen]

As the final clash of Destroyer upon Destroyer reached its conclusion, Ochazuke did what he could to contain the impact and prevent it from rippling across to planet. To catch and contain this energy, the only place it could be moved to save the world was to shunt it directly upwards.

And when the light faded, the shadowy tapestry of the dark planet's sky resumed itself as the magma pooled below. Gritting his teeth, his shoulders slumped from the exertion.

“Perhaps saved Inanna as well, though her death would be less permanent.”

He hammers a few more runes into the planet to help stabilize the core a bit more, than shifts the hammer and its a walking cane again. He pulls a hat out of nowhere and places it on his head, adjusting it a bit.

“Lady Binder is quite extraordinary. Perhaps the most dangerous one of the Ulthan. ‘Twas her mother that gave me the vision so long ago of Inanna and Genesis, and long have I seen its course as straight and true. I wonder now, though........”

His eyes watch the skies above, searching.

“Powerful indeed.”

He turns and nods to her.

“Princess. Until next time, though to be truthful as I told the young man with the crimson eyes, I’d rather our paths not cross again at all. For either of our sakes.”

He bows, turns, and begins slowly making his way to some trees. He raises his hand to his for head in a familiar gesture, moving his head as if searching for an energy signal to teleport to.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Though the damage had been done, in time even such a cataclysmic wound would heal itself. Given a chance to turn upon its own power, planets would sustain life, and in stubborn resilience, grow and find their own manner.

He would not let the Ulthan escape to enact their hard-hearted puppeteering. That was a path he'd long since grown disgusted with, but Banespell in particular had incensed his already thin composure.

"All that talk about consequences, of protecting your people. They need you now."

Perhaps for an overlong, foolish moment, he'd stood in solidarity with this aged one to stem the damage. To see him simply walk off in this manner after the fact put fire into his leadened limbs as he took an exhausted step towards him.

"You killed the Guardians, for their sake. Our friends, for a greater good. Yet your very blood has need of you and you run! Have you more empty words to offer them, Forger?!"

"..."

Parsley looked at him in disbelief.

How could anyone just take someone's word at something so harrowing? How could he act with such absolute resolve, such unwavering conviction without first knowing that the future he put so much stock in was actually true? "How can someone so old be so stupid?"

Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him with more disgust than before. "Am I to assume you didn't seek out another opinion? Another soothsayer who could confirm what this Fae told you? You just told my sister not fifteen minutes ago that the Fae's vision was absolute, and now you admit that it may not be? That this Fairy may have lied to you to set you down a path that would turn you into nothing more than a pawn for her and her daughter's amusement?"

She took a breath. Her fist, which had balled into fists, slowly unclenched and laid flat next to her thigh.

"I wonder how it will feel if you find out that my suspicions are true and you were played for a fool. How many people have you and your cabal killed before today to reach this moment? You already loosened the trammels on the most powerful being in the universe for this one moment. How many cowardly potshots have you and yours taken from the shadows, all in the name of preventing a future that may not have been slated to come to pass in the first place?"

"You're hardly alone in this supposition, Parsley," Ochazuke seethed, "But prophecy, cheh, can only determine so much."

The lethal instinct seized upon him. The Old Dwarf was still there. Even diminished as Ochazuke was, he'd only need to lift a finger as he'd done countless times. There was something he'd wanted to confirm first.

"Perhaps only truly open eyes may see the path, but a true believer walks it without question," he continued. "Even with his knowledge of True Magic, he cannot fathom potential."

He returned his glare toward Banespell, lifting he left hand to the air as if reaching for him.

"Creation and Destruction both at you disposal, and you forge only chains."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The explosion that ripped through the sky knocked Sarada on her ass. She had already been sitting on her ass, so... she supposed it actually knocked her on her back. Regardless of the wording she wanted to use, the point remained that she had been laying on the ground ever since. She heard Parsley and Ochazuke continuing to open Forger's ass up wide. A smirk played on her lips the entire time as she listened to him slowly admit that no, he didn't know what he was doing and was banking on what was probably a made up vision being true so everything he had done up to the point that realization dawned on him could be justified as something more than the actions of a dumbass fool who could be hooked by a fairy tale.

A child showed more discretion and caution.

She rolled her eyes and lifted herself up into a sitting position. "Absolute vision, my ass," she said loudly enough for him to hear. She didn't want to say more until there was absolute, heh, confirmation that Forger had been played for a chump. Until then, she had nothing more to say to him.



She had nothing to say to this dumbass either. If they did tried to hash out the tiny, minuscule little matter of Inanna concealing that people were gunning for her life... or freedom.. or something. Sarada didn't like being kept in the dark, and she liked finding out that people were trying to kill people she loved even less. She already knew Inanna's reasons and didn't want to hear any of them. If she did, she was going to punch her in the throat.

She spared her wife a single glance to make sure she was okay - she was more fucked up than Sarada was - then rose to her feet and flew off. They would talk about it soon, preferably after she dealt with Tundra to avoid any and all distractions from that all-important battle. Until then, she decided she was going to keep her distance. While she was sure she was going to need to slap some sense into her idiot wife, she didn't want it to come to blows right off the bat. With pieces of her missing and the bodies of her slain friends still weighing heavily on her, exactly that was going to happen.

Parsley and Ochazuke could make her see the error of her ways a lot better than Sarada could anyway.



Her flight carried her to a clearing that looked like some kind of building had previously been there minutes ago. There, she found Zaofan and Praxat standing over Totoma's body. Totoma, who was... sitting and breathing?!

Joy overtook her and she quickly descended and landed a few yards away. "Totoma, you're okay!"

He coughs and slowly nods, looking around.

“What...what happened? It’s...kind of blurry....”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

As the final clash of Destroyer upon Destroyer reached its conclusion, Ochazuke did what he could to contain the impact and prevent it from rippling across to planet. To catch and contain this energy, the only place it could be moved to save the world was to shunt it directly upwards.

And when the light faded, the shadowy tapestry of the dark planet's sky resumed itself as the magma pooled below. Gritting his teeth, his shoulders slumped from the exertion.



"Where do you think you're going?"

Though the damage had been done, in time even such a cataclysmic wound would heal itself. Given a chance to turn upon its own power, planets would sustain life, and in stubborn resilience, grow and find their own manner.

He would not let the Ulthan escape to enact their hard-hearted puppeteering. That was a path he'd long since grown disgusted with, but Banespell in particular had incensed his already thin composure.

"All that talk about consequences, of protecting your people. They need you now."

Perhaps for an overlong, foolish moment, he'd stood in solidarity with this aged one to stem the damage. To see him simply walk off in this manner after the fact put fire into his leadened limbs as he took an exhausted step towards him.

"You killed the Guardians, for their sake. Our friends, for a greater good. Yet your very blood has need of you and you run! Have you more empty words to offer them, Forger?!"



"You're hardly alone in this supposition, Parsley," Ochazuke seethed, "But prophecy, cheh, can only determine so much."

The lethal instinct seized upon him. The Old Dwarf was still there. Even diminished as Ochazuke was, he'd only need to lift a finger as he'd done countless times. There was something he'd wanted to confirm first.

"Perhaps only truly open eyes may see the path, but a true believer walks it without question," he continued. "Even with his knowledge of True Magic, he cannot fathom potential."

He returned his glare toward Banespell, lifting he left hand to the air as if reaching for him.

"Creation and Destruction both at you disposal, and you forge only chains."

He vanished, but you can feel him in the other side of the planet amidst other Darkling signatures. He didn’t flee the planet, but actually went to see his people.

[Sub-Zero MKA]

He coughs and slowly nods, looking around.

“What...what happened? It’s...kind of blurry....”

Sarada grinned and kneeled down beside him. "Heh. I'm not sure, to be honest. I guess one of those fucks tried to body you while your back was turned, but they didn't realize what a stubborn dope you are! Hahahaha!" She gently slapped him on the back. "Glad to see you're okay. There was no fucking way I was about to look Tasure in the eye and tell her some killed her son before she could."

She glanced back at Zaofan, her favorite human. The list of reason why he was such was already a mile long, but saving Totoma was just another. "Thanks, Zaofan. Don't know how you did it, but you did."

[grampagen]

...twenty-nine...thirty!

For the third round, Zaofan leaned in, trying to determine if Totoma was breathing. His ki-flow persisted, but his pulse only carried through his veins.

With a cry of frustration, Zaofan threw his hands down on the table he draped him on.

"Dammit!"

Zaofan, Praxat, Totoma’s body suddenly gasps and shoots upwards, breathing heavy and frantically clutching at his chest.

"Whoa, geez!"

He coughs and slowly nods, looking around.

“What...what happened? It’s...kind of blurry....”

Helping him sit up, Zaofan quickly brought over the last dregs of water in the jug and offered it to him.

"Easy, pal, I'm just glad you're back, ha-ha!"

Little trails streaked down the ash and grime of his face. Hastily, the chef blot them off, but the sniffles, confound it, persisted.

"Well, looks like uh..." There was once a forest here, but it was gone now, and the signs of fighting had long since died off. "...let's call it a draw," he sighed.

"Listen...who did this to you?"

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Totoma frowns and thinks hard for a moment.

“I don’t...I don’t recall. I remember getting blasted, but after that.....”

He shrugs.

“Glad I’m ok though.”

He drinks the water and sighs deeply.

“Thanks man.”

[grampagen]

Sarada grinned and kneeled down beside him. "Heh. I'm not sure, to be honest. I guess one of those fucks tried to body you while your back was turned, but they didn't realize what a stubborn dope you are! Hahahaha!" She gently slapped him on the back. "Glad to see you're okay. There was no fucking way I was about to look Tasure in the eye and tell her some killed her son before she could."

She glanced back at Zaofan, her favorite human. The list of reason why he was such was already a mile long, but saving Totoma was just another. "Thanks, Zaofan. Don't know how you did it, but you did."

He tried to return his laughter, but it came more as like a dry heave, and his smile stretched under the tears that just wouldn't stop coming.

"...ah, boy it's smokey," he fibbed, leaning forward in the midst of a bottled-up cry-laugh, "Ah, what can I say? I'm just glad I found him, it's this guy that did all the real work!"

[MrSandman]

*Meanwhile, back on Earth*

Whatever temporal fault Etrina had tripped on her way out of the Lord Forgers Prison, she was fairly certain she had been behind Inanna.....and yet when she arrived back in the open it felt like the longest period of time had passed since she left.

"....What a bother..." The Mage sighed. Looking around for Inanna so they could proceed back to their friends and take full stock of the damage since they were gone.