The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin [IC/PG-13/Moved to NCM for Finale]

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

 

PATHWAY OF TRUTH

 

 

-=Tenco=-

 

And, after what seemed to be an eternity for her, Tenco emerged from the other side of the door, right into a long, pitch-black wooden corridor. At first she wondered if she did anything wrong or if she’s going with the wrong sequence of things, but then she noticed the distant light somewhere in front of her. Guided by it, she dashed across the corridor into the light, though there was that certain feeling of weird uneasiness that she felt as she ran, but Tenco decided to ignore it.

 

As soon as she entered the proper pathway, she was greeted with a beautiful display, something that she had longed to see after all this while. The bright sunlight blinded her at first, but as her eyes started to adjust with it, she was able to appreciate more and more of the beauty that is the pathway.

 

A bright, sunny sky. A strong, yet gentle breeze. A short glass bridge was stationed in front of her, which leads to a floating island, where cherry blossom trees were in full bloom; their petals soared throughout the sky. She loved the entirety of the scenery here, and wished to stay here as long as she could, but then, she remembered the reason she was there, and decided to keep moving forward.

 

Moments after her first step into the floating island, she was greeted by a little winged spirits, something that she vaguely recalled as “fairies” from the old storybooks that her father used to read to her when she was little.

 

“Hai hai~

 

I'm pretty curious...What is your size?”

 

“Hmm, let's see...

 

Last time I measured my height, I’m around 5’31, and I’m definitely quite slim~

Though, that’s quite a weird way to ask about that.

 

Say, can you tell me more about this place?”

 

The fairy didn’t answer, and probably because she think it'd be rude to push for answers from her, Tenco decided to respect her silence and move forward. But not ten or twenty steps later, several other fairies had approached her, bombarding her with questions.

 

“This is really going to take a while, huh?”

 

 

 

"I'm thirsty..."

 

Somewhat tired by the questions of the fairies, Tenco decided to rest beneath one of the cherry blossom trees. She noticed the giant mirror at the end of the path, and deduced that it’s quite obviously the next step that she should take in this pathway. Ignoring some of the fairies for now, Tenco decided to reminiscence about what she had learned about the paths so far. Aside from the fairies (which, while providing her with company, could get very annoying, and some of their questions were too insensitive for her to answer), something more intriguing that she had learned was how she was unable to tell any lies there. Her first attempt in telling one instead had her told the truth to the fairies, which flustered her for a bit, and the second attempt ended the same way. She learned to just be silent if she really didn’t want to answer a question, and thus, a third occurrence of that never happened. Though, something that she realized after those was how, after accidentally telling those truths to the fairies, she felt like there was no actual reason for her to keep those hidden, and felt that in the end, she was just merely overreacting about the sensitivity of those issues.

 

But later on, the issue that she felt was the fairies were starting to get really annoying, and she was pretty tired after answering so many questions. When one fairy asked about what she felt back then, she accidentally slipped, and told it her frustrations about them. That almost got some of the fairies angry, but for some reasons they decided to let her be for now.

 

“Ah, I better get going. I’ve rested for too long already.”

 

Grabbing her hat that was beside her, Tenco then stood up, and started to dash along the pathway once again, until…

“Ouch!”

 

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

 

Tenco, due to not paying enough attention to the path in front of her, crashed into a fairy, who was now looking somewhat miffed due to that.

 

“Aah, sorry, sorry!”

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

 

The fairy brushed off the dirt from the collision on her clothes and tried to tidy those up somewhat. Though, she didn’t seem to get hurt, in contrast to Tenco who felt like she was hit in the head by a boulder, but that probably just because she crashed into her when she’s running fast.

 

“Now,” the fairy seemed to be more relaxed now, probably, “I guess it’s time for me to ask a question to you.

 

Not really seeing the point of me, or the other fairies asking these question to you or the others, to be honest. Though, that’s like our job description, and we do kinda put our lives on the line for whenever someone gets too cranky or annoyed by us, but eh. Let’s just get this done fast so I can contemplate more about the entirety of my meaningless existence. ”

 

“Uhh..okay?” The fairy’s attitude somewhat surprised Tenco, didn’t expect one to be like this. “Yeah, I’ll answer your question as a way to apologize for bumping into you before.”

 

“Neat.” The fairy said, bored.

 

“This’d be a clichéd question that probably was already asked by a million of my kins here, but I kind of having no motivations to think about another one, so yeah, bear with it.

 

So, let me ask you this.

 

Who is the person that you actually loved the most?”

 

“….”

 

Tenco went silent. She was not sure about how to answer to that. Did she even have someone that could fill that spot on her heart?

 

Her dad? She’s quite distant with him, and he was always busy with his duty, so definitely not.

Iku? Probably, though both of them were merely friends, and despite how close the two of them were, Tenco was not sure about whether this is the right choice.

Her grandparents? They were really kind, yeah, but…

Her mom? Tenco oddly couldn’t remember much about her. Did she pass on when she was still very little?

Her sister? Did she even have one?

 

Amato?

 

“….Nah.”

 

“Hey, what’s keeping you for so long? Please don’t waste my time that I could’ve spent on nihilistic contemplation, please.

 

And since you’ve promised me about telling the truth, you have no choices but to follow that promise.”

 

Pressed by the little fairy like that, Tenco decided to just close her eyes, and just attempt to try something as an answer. Knowing how the place worked, Tenco believed that whatever the answer was, it would retcon her answer into the correct one.

 

Letting her heart to decide the answer for her. And heart would never lie, didn’t they?

 

“…

 

Tenshi.

 

Tenshi Hinanai.”

 

 

 

-=Tenshi=-

 

 

Under the blooming cherry blossoms, Tenshi sneezed.

 

Did she suddenly develop an allergy towards the petals? That would be silly.

She’s a celestial, why would she get inflicted by common human diseases and physical ailments?

 

But nevermind that.

 

The place itself was pretty silly in her opinion. The weird feeling that she got from it, the annoying, offensive fairies that kept asking her about silly, private questions that she had been ignoring for quite a while, the cherry blossom themselves, which as far as she knew, could very well be hiding a corpse or an equally horrible thing underneath them, and that gigantic mirror thing at the end of the cherry blossom pathway. Or the fact that she could not even attempt to lie in the place.

 

Tenshi sighed. There’s definitely something very wrong  about the place. Though, it’s not really her business to investigate about it unless it started to impede her-

 

“Heeeey! Hello theeere!”

 

“Ugh, not another fairy.”

 

Visibly annoyed by the incoming fairy, Tenshi almost slammed her sword into the ground with the goal of summoning stone stakes to impale it to death, but then, Tenshi thought that she should just continue her walk and ignore the fairy, not really in the mood of killing more and more things, especially if they’re not exactly impeding her.

 

With that settled, Tenshi summoned a keystone instead, and sat on it as she floated towards the giant mirror, ignoring any of the fairies that she met along the way.

 

Though, one was apparently really persistent, and kept on following her throughout the pathway.

 

“Hey hey, stop ignoring meee!”

 

Sighing, Tenshi decided to turn around to face the fairy, which seemed to be the same one that she almost killed several minutes ago.  

 

“Uh…alright, I’m not ignoring you now. But make it quick, I have only little time to waste here.”

 

Even if they’re pretty annoying, Tenshi couldn’t help but to feel bad about them, especially since she’s not sure that the fairies here would regenerate when they’re killed.

 

“Yaaay!

 

Question time, question time!”

 

“What’s with the overwhelming enthusiasm..?”

 

“Oh right, the question.

 

You’re a hero, right?”

 

Hearing that, Tenshi’s expression became brighter, and she then started to puff her chest proudly.

 

“Of course I am! Why I’d be here if I’m not one?”

 

“I see~

 

Then, here’s the real question.

 

What if…

Everyone sees you as a villain despite what you have done?

Or..what if it’s because of what you have done?

 

Can you live with it?”

 

The questions shocked Tenshi, who moments ago was still ecstatic about being called a hero. In her surprise, she immediately grabbed her sword, and pointed it at the fairy, while she was shaking with both horror and anger at her. The cheerful attitude from the fairy itself  was completely gone now, and got replaced with a more serious expression instead.

 

“Enough, enough! Stop it already!”

 

The fairy seems to ignore Tenshi’s plea, and keep bombarding her with questions.

 

“So that's that, huh?

 

I see now.

 

I can see it from that reply and your expression.

 

Your hands are bloodied by the your sins. I think...you might have killed people before you arrived here? Is that merely to achieve whatever your "heroic" goal is?

 

Do you really think that whatever your end goal is worth it?

Will you even be seen as a hero after all of that?

 

How much more people will you kill, how many more sacrifices you will make to reach that goal?

 

Can you also live the rest of your life with the guilt even after you reached your goal?”

 

“I SAID ENOUGH!”

 

In a sudden burst of anger, Tenshi sliced the fairy in half with her sword, before blasting her into shreds with a laser. After a brief period of silence, it took her a minute later to realize what she had done as she regained her composure.

 

Visibly shaken and disturbed by it, Tenshi turned around and continued to float into the mirror’s direction in silence. Even after she killed the fairy, her questions still persisted inside of her mind, even with how much Tenshi tried to forget them.

 

And for once, the seed of doubt grew inside of her heart.

 

 

PATHWAY OF REMEMBRANCE

 

 

-=Kazuya=-

 

“It’s cold here. I wish I bring my winter clothing here.” Kazuya remarked, as he tried to proceed in the middle of the snowstorm alone, couldn’t see any of his allies were around. The deep snow definitely impeded his movement, but he kept on going, on and on. Though, even with him trying to ignore the chill, it eventually got into him, and that was when he decided that it’s enough.

 

He fired his COMP on, and after he made some configurations on it, a ball of fire appeared on one of his palms.

 

“Maragidyne!”

 

As he threw the fireball into the pile of snow in front of him, it explodes into a firestorm that cleared the path for him.  With “Absorb Ice” and “Absorb Fire” skill equipped on him now, both the snowstorm and the firestorm felt refreshing for him, and he went on and continued his walk towards the stone pillars.

 

 

The stone pillars marked the end of the snowstorm area, and Kazuya decided to turn off his COMP now, wanting to make sure that he had enough battery for it to last the entire journey. Though, for some reasons, a wave of nostalgia filled him as he continued his walk, which led him into a thick pine forest.

 

Just as he entered the forest, the wave of nostalgia became stronger and stronger, and Kazuya couldn’t help but wonder about what would actually cause this.

 

“Well, well, well. Look at who’s here.

 

Hello, cousin.

 

Nah, that doesn’t sound right.

 

How about, hello, my dear brother?”

 

Kazuya’s thought was interrupted with the sudden appearance of a handsome white haired young man wearing a robe and geta sandals, not seemingly be bothered with using that kind of sandals in a place like this.

 

“…Naoya? What are you doing here?”

 

“Is that a question that I need to answer?”

 

Naoya smiled a bit as he noticed Kazuya’s somewhat annoyed reaction to his reply.

 

“…Is this really you?”

 

“Maybe? Who knows?

 

But anyway, let me show you around this place, Abel. I’m sure you’ll find this place to be pretty intriguing.”

 

“Eh..I guess why not."

 

As Kazuya followed his older cousin’s footstep, the feeling of nostalgia in the air became even stronger, and culminated with him experiencing flashes of what’s probably his memories. Most of them were his recent memories, mainly about his time during the Tokyo lockdown several months ago.

 

 

PATHWAY OF DEATH

 

 

-=Reimu Hakurei=-

 

“Alright.

 

Here goes nothing…”

 

For some odd reasons, Reimu felt the feeling of doubt, an air of uncertainty in her heart as she stepped into the pathway.

 

Had she chosen the right path?

 

Reimu, who rarely had that moment of doubt before in her life, decided that it’s probably some lingering effects from the sake earlier, though she couldn’t help but wonder about the actual nature of the place.

 

She was now standing atop a stone platform, apparently, facing towards an indecipherably dark path, with only small orbs of light as a way for her to not get lost inside the darkness. Trying to regain her composure and conviction, she decided to light up both of her Yin-yang orbs, and pressed forward against the darkness, ignoring anything that she saw or hear on the way.

 

 

Passing in front of stone statues of several cloaked figures, Reimu could feel that she was now stepping on top of proper ground instead of the previous stone platform. The darkness became even thicker as she continued onwards, but so far, she had managed to keep being on track utilizing her Yin-yang orb’s light.

 

“Wait, is that…?”

 

A ruined shrine was in front of her. At first, as she passed through its broken torii, she still was not sure about the shrine’s identity, but as she inspected it closer and closer, her suspicion was proven as true. It was her shrine, the Hakurei Shrine. How did it end up here, she had no idea. But her curiosity dictated her to investigate the insides of it.

 

Not a minute after that, outsiders could hear a scream from inside the shrine, and soon afterwards, the shrine itself was completely demolished in a flash of blinding bright light, which immediately disappeared, consumed by the darkness of the pathway.

 

 

Still shocked about what she had seen inside the shrine, Reimu walked forward, limping, dazed. The more she treaded the pathway, more and more horrible things were seen by her. The pathway itself seemed to try burying its point inside of her head, the point that was basically “Here is your future, where failure is the only option”. It gotten more and more stressful for her, at one point she decided to just turn off the light from her Yin-yang orbs, to help her ignore the entire vision, and continued her journey relying solely on her intuition and luck, as usual.

 

But even as she stumbled blindly inside the darkness, there were still the voices. The horrible, horrible voices, growing louder and louder the more she ignored them. Were they enemies? Demons? Or something else entirely? Were they only there to further demoralize her? Or were they there for something else entirely, and their demonic whispers had a deeper, or more horrible secret hidden behind them?

 

Reimu couldn’t be sure anymore.

 

 

-=Koishi=-

 

“Thank you mister door, for opening yourself to me~!”

 

The place was too dark for Koishi to see anything, but it didn’t bother quite much, kinda. Neither were the voices, probably, though for some reason she maybe could hear them as saying silly stuffs like “a, b, up, left” or something. Couldn’t really be sure about what she was thinking at the moment as she walked forward into the darkness-

 

Oh wait, she couldn’t think.

 

Several hundred meters later, probably deciding that her walking speed was not fast enough, she spread her tentacles and tried to grasp anything in the darkness that she could get a solid hold of, and used them to propel her forward, deeper and deeper into the darkness.

 

 

Meanwhile

 

 

-=Yukari=-

 

“This…is actually pretty tame.”

 

Yukari continued to stumble around inside the labyrinth of rose, and ignored the fact that she might have gotten lost inside it. So far, she only had to face some human chimaeras as any impediment to her journey inside the maze, and the fact that she dispatched of them quite easily made Yukari thought for a while that she could easily clear this out with enough time.

 

And of course, when one thought about things like that, it would get harder for them.

 

“So you’re increasing your defense here, eh?

 

Really Koishi, do you think this kind of thing will be enough to stop me?”

 

A fog of darkness swoop in inside the maze, and with it, unknown voices could be heard by her, echoing all across the maze. Summoning several orbs of light, Yukari derided Koishi’s attempt to create a scary atmosphere as childish and clichéd, and continued forward using the orbs as a way to guide her.

 

[The Warden]

|_)Red, the Arisen(_|
|_)Path of Remembrance(_|
 
Dragons don’t normally feel much from the cold. Their scales make good shields from the elements and their internal fire sacks were excellent for keeping warm. And yet, this freakish storm cut through to the bone. Red had to wrap his wings around his body as an extra shield, and to stop the slicing winds from tearing them off entirely.
 
Red’s feet sank into the snow as he trudged through the artic zone. In his past he had grown used to the snow though. The Magic Crafter’s World was known especially for its winter weather, and as a young dragon he had spent some time at Wizard’s Peak to learn magic from the Dragon Elders there. The Elders had been so numerous back then… but sadly infighting and outside threats had reduced their numbers quite a bit. But then, Red had to agree that maybe that was why the Elders just such, austere locations to live in. He himself had taken a rather unsightly hut as his domicile long ago after all.
 
Red’s claws trudged through the snow, his wavering nostalgia the only distraction from the desolate emptiness of this pathway. It was apt in a ways that Remembrance should be victim to a snowstorm; as if, the world was trying to show how easily the past could be hidden behind the turbulence of experience. Though freezing, Red still felt something beneath his feet; something strangely soft in this weather.
 
Shifting his foot aside Red saw a flash of purple hidden amongst the snow. He bent down to snatch up the little trinket. It was a rather faded and patched up plush dragon… the same one he used to play with when he was young. The same one that got torched by an Elder with hay fever. Red squeezed it tightly as a tear streamed down his face. He loved this little toy more than any other when he was young; and he could feel the inner whelp in him cry out for it. Such cruelty the past had. His hand trembling, he released the toy onto the ground as he moved on. The past should stay where it is, of course. Though, he still couldn’t help remembering the sadness he felt when the most important thing in his world had been taken from him.
 
The cold empty voyage seemed to gain a bit of light in the darkness as Red passed by two pillars. And it felt as if a calm and guiding presence had left him. It was merely replaced with the unknown of such a tall and daunting forest. Red could feel a presence pulling at him, to draw him in into the seemingly endless expanse. “Those you hold dear to your heart are here” is what the presence seemed to say.
 
 
His feet possessed, Red allowed his body to move on its own into the grove of pine trees. It was a pretty cramped fit for the tall dragon, who had to carefully squeeze between the trees. “Having fun there chubsy?” a taunting voice declared.
 
Red growled at such an insult, his head thrashing wildly for the interloper. “Over here old man” the voice taunted from nearby.
 
Crashing through the trees, Red stopped in his rampage. A rather cocky looking purple dragon was staring at him from a rock. “Nice to see you again gramps” Spyro declared.
 
Red was aghast at this meeting. How, how could he be here? Right here, right now? It was impossible. “Spyro… Why, why are you here. I thought you were safe with the others in the Dragon Realms. Please… please don’t tell me you’ve sided with the Counter Corps as well” Red declared in horror.
 
Spyro rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think that that would be a bit too convenient. Remember where you are Red” he replied dryly.
 
Red stared at the impertinent little dragon on the rock, and then it hit him. He was on the Path of Remembrance. He had been so absorbed by the feelings of nostalgia that his rationality escaped from him. He had to laugh at his own ignorance and foolishness. “Well said Spyro. I forgot myself for a moment. But, if you aren’t really here, then what are you?” he inquired.
 
Spyro smiled cheekily at his Elder. “Isn’t it obvious, your brain already knows that answer. I’m just the memory of Spyro; YOUR memory of him specifically. And you remember him as a cheeky little dragon who doesn’t quite know how to give respect. Or how to behave in character either. I’m here to be a guiding memory, not your conscience” the Spyro memory explained.
 
His own sense of memory was giving him lip. That was rather saddening really. Red hid a guilty expression, though in a Forest of Memory doing so would be kind of pointless. “Can we just, talk?” Red inquired.
 
The Spyro memory motioned to a large rock, which Red sat rather uncomfortably on. He planted his staff into the snow as he stared off with his memory. “You know, looking back on my life, I am really messed up as a person” Red remarked.
 
“Well, I wouldn’t know; I’m too busy running around kicking butt to really care much about the past” the Spyro memory replied, still playing it a little too literal.
 
“No, the real Spyro wouldn’t, would he? I don’t know why I’m so fixated on you. I guess it’s because you had the same energy and vigour I used to have. But all of that is wasted now. As time progresses the Dragon Realms, no, all of the universe I loved and cherished draws closer to oblivion. And here I am who knows how many multiverses away trying to fix it. It’s surreal when you think to the lengths I am going just to save it. And for what? What am I really doing this for? Do I actually care? Or is this just another trial I have been forcing on myself to prove I was not the same dragon who tried to conquer what I am now trying to save. Who am I trying to convince?” Red demanded.
 
The Spyro memory shrugged as he groomed at his horns. “Well, you really. I am made up of a memory of two different Spyros. And both of them forgave you for your actions. And I know that aside from Titan, so did everyone else. You just don’t feel like you deserve it, because once the Dark Gems vanished, you got off easy” the Spyro memory replied.
 
Red sighed as he cupped his head in hands. He dragged his claws along his face as his nails pulled at his eyelids. “I know, I’ve always known. Denying all of that hasn’t exactly done me any good. I keep forcing myself into this cycle of misery and remembering what I never forgot. It’s all down to guilt really” Red stated, his head pointed skyward to the branches. “I feel nothing but guilt for my actions when I was controlled by the Sorcerer, because I know that I did truly enjoy some of the reckless and evil things I did. I tried to ruin my world in a bid to control it, and I enjoyed it. I wasn’t fit to be an Elder again, and they accepted me with open arms. When you get right down to it: I’m just confused. For all my knowledge, for all my experience, I just don’t understand why they accepted me back so willingly.”
 
“Because they’re your friends. Your family Red. Just because someone in your family acts like an idiot, doesn’t stop them from being family. You weren’t completely in control of your actions, and sure, you enjoyed yourself. You got to work off some frustration; people need to do that Red. You have to stop needlessly beating yourself up Red. You can’t force the past to change, and you can’t force people to change. They accepted you because they sincerely forgave you. And if you can’t forgive yourself, then that’s your problem, not theirs” the Spyro Memory replied.
 
That sounded like someone familiar, and Red was about to draw upon it, but a sudden sound in the wood drew Red’s attention for the moment. He caught sight of a shadow on a nearby tree, but it was gone too quickly to figure out what it was. “You know” Red began, not turning his head; “you’re sounding a lot less like Spyro, and a lot more like Tomas” Red mused.
 
“Am I now?” a new voice replied.
 
Red didn’t even bother to turn his head quickly as he locked eyes with the memory of Elder Tomas. Wordlessly, Red rose from his rock and stomped over to the memory. The Elder was just staring at him serenely. His serene expression changed to sudden alarm as Red wrapped his arms around the Elder and held him tight. “R-Red, what are you doing?” the Tomas Memory demanded.
 
Red shushed the memory as he closed his eyes happily. “This is something I never got to do with the original, please don’t ruin the moment” Red replied as his emotions overcame him.
 
The rich salty tears splattered onto Tomas’ shoulder as Red held his embrace tight. “I’m an idiot Tomas. I have been wracking my brains trying to find an answer to a question that doesn’t exist. I’ve been beating myself all of this time out of regret, and out of guilt. It’s not easy for me Tomas. I wasn’t always that emotional beyond rage, so I never did get to tell you: I was terrified as an Elder. All the young dragons looked up to me, and the other Elders looked down on me for my youth and inexperience. One wrong move would destroy my reputation. And at the same time, I wanted to protect them. Not just the young ones but also you Elders as well. I wanted the strength to protect everyone. My hunger for power, and my fear is what drew the Sorcerer to me; and he twisted those feelings until I felt nothing but the hunger and need for power. I was controlled and used by that wretched dragon, and in the end, I was beaten by a mere child three times Tomas. Three times, with all my power, I lost to a child. And in the end of this long journey, I finally get it. I’m following this path not out of my own guilt, but out of my own duty. I am following what I felt was true to achieve the end I desired. I am going to obtain the power of the Door of Origin so I can save my people. No, not just my people. Everyone. I am going to save everyone; for as of right now, I am the only one who can” Red declared.
 
The Tomas Memory happily patted Red on the back as the weeping Elder finally released the memory from his embrace. “I am happy for you to finally figure out what was so obvious Red. And I'm happy to know you plan to stay true to yourself. But, isn’t there someone you’re forgetting?” the Tomas Memory mused.
 
Red blinked repeatedly as he mulled over his memories. He didn’t really need to speak to the others, especially not Titan. He wasn’t quite in the mood for the grumpy old dragon. So, who could Tomas be referring too… oh.
 
The Tomas Memory faded as a vision of white moved out from behind a tree. “Hello Red” the Memory of Alister greeted.

 

(Path of Rembrance: C3)

[Love of Ghibli]

Dorian Path of Remembrance:

He didn't know why he was doing it but it had to be done. He had to kill those four. In an oddly synchronized fashion she the two couples started to run at Dorian as well. Dorian fired a massive fireball in attempts to separate the groups which appeared to have worked seeing as the group split up immediately. Dorian jetted himself towards Arthur first for some reason. They young demi-god immediately shifted in to a dual-wielding keyblader that glowed gold. The two then became locked in close range combat. Thanks to his previous fights Dorian was more prepared to go close quarters. His opponent opened with a myriad of expertly timed slashes which Dorian didn't even know he was capable of. However thanks to Dorian's knowledge of Cosmos he was able to parry most of the attacks simply by looking at the key blades and causing very small explosions at the point where they would make contact. After a constant succession of blows it looked like Dorian was getting the upper hand on Arthur...Until he was immediately shot by a massive ball of water sending him flying.

Dorian quickly rolled and regained his composure only to be welcome to three of the same massive water balls coming at him from different angels. He waved his hand and covered himself with a tornado of black flames. The three balls evaporated against the constant current of tornado. Though it was obvious who the assailant was Dorian just need to lay eyes on her. In the distance Eria was already gathering the water in the air and seemingly made a never ending water bullets to fire at Dorian. She waved her hand and a torrential downpour began. Dorian replied with his classic Corona Feather's move trying to outnumber her attack. Long story short it didn't work. Even though his fire was supposed to be hotter than she could put out, her water eventually won out. It didn't matter though Dorian was already using his fire to launch himself at her at even more amazing speeds. The water charmer didn't have time to react to his fast approaching speed. But luckily she didn't have to.

Dorian heard the sound of what were actually missiles coming for him. Instead of delivering a final blow to Eria he flew upwards and launched a coronal loop at the two missiles. He didn't even have time to celebrate as through the smoke he noticed the second couple coming at him in what was a Gladius flyer! Seriously! Dorian did the only logical thing and flew away as it looked like this was getting ridiculous. But he wasn't about to back down for some reason. Dorian admittedly looked like Iron Man as he was bobbing and weaving trying to dodge the myriad of lasers and missiles that were coming at him. Luckily he was small enough so he didn't have to dodge to hard. He went back and forth exchanging fire with the vessel and it seemed like he might have seen an opening. With feet of aerial acrobatics he bobbed and weaved through the array of lasers and landed on top of Gladius. He raised his hand to blow up this nuisance but once again he was stopped by someone.

Somehow without him even sensing it Eria had tapped into the power Slifer the Sky dragon. She had once again fused with the creature and become this thing that he didn't know how to handle. So once again he tried to fly away but this time he wasn't as successful. The massive Erifer quickly caught up to the fire specter and swallowed him hole and Dorian was struggling to breathing in the massive ocean current that was the beast innards. He was trying hard to fight in this beast. He didn't know why, but he absolutely couldn't let them win. To add insult to injury though the water was perfectly clear, so he could easily see Arthur in his dual wielding form jump into the water and make a beeline directly for Dorian. That wasn't all, it seems that the mysterious couple from before had both held out a card. These cards shined for a split second before summoning two somewhat familiar creatures. The first was a weird gerbil knight that had the number 19 tattooed on his armor. The second was a bigger shark like creature with the number 32 tattooed across it. These two creatures also jumped in and began to come at Dorian. Though this did not dull his fighting spirit he was still going to come out victorious...somehow. 

Within seconds the barrage began. Arthur swam past Dorian taking a quick stab at his side. Dorian dodged but the rodent was already poised for a follow-up attack. Dorian actually managed to dodge that one too; however, it was pointless. The first two were just distractions for the shark to deliver a massive punch to the base of Dorian's spine. He immediately coughed up the last bit of air he had. After that it got painful. 1...2...3...the attacks kept coming. 1...2...3...no one let up as the three warriors continued to lay into Dorian while he was drowning at the same time. 1,2,3, 1,2,3, 1,2,3 Luckily the water kept his tears invisible as he was getting thrashed. Finally all three warriors attacked Dorian at the same time and launched him out of the Erifer and he seemed to have just laid on the ground...defeated. 

The two couples stood over his body holding hands with their respective partners and as Dorian wanted to move his body he just could. He could only look at them as the light butterflies proceeded to take over his entire field of vision. Finally, he began to actually sink beneath the snow and be consumed by a very familiar black substance.

(Ending B2 under the snow)
Butlerok: Path of Death

Things had gotten disturbingly violent on Butlerok's end as well. The little man in white was attacking vigorously with his blade. Ragnarok turned into his base sword form and the Kishin went into action. Hitsugaya didn't seem to possess in kind of emotion in this fight meaning his moves were all for the kill and methodical. This was something Butler could easily pick up on and he used to his advantage. Though the smell of this kid only begged questioning. Who is this Yamamoto-sir? He asked as Hitsugaya sent a wave of ice at him. Genryuusai was as closed to shocked as he would ever be. Make no mistake he understood very clear that this was some kind of construct the path had made but the novice captain's appearance was quite irksome. This caused him to pause and contemplate what this image could mean. Of course this meant he was ignoring the pleas of the others.

Butlerok rolled his eyes as the boy was not letting up. Soon his little corridor of darkness was filling with ice. Alright Butlerok said in a very dismissive tone. He was going easy on the child seeing as the Captain Commander had some unspoken sentiment towards him. But seeing as this kid was just getting in the way and the old man wasn't going to be of any help. Time for the short iceman to die. First, Butlerok fired a very powerful Screech Alpha at the boy and while the youngster was shocked at its power he easily dodged it. Butlerok looked as Hitsugaya proceeded to speed blitz over the room and with that Hitsugaya appeared behind the Butlerok. This is over! In one shallow swing Butlerok turned into a giant block of ice. Hitsugaya landed then he started to squint as it looked like a black butterfly come out of the ice he just made. Hitsugaya's eyes widened as the ice shattered and black fist holding a katana came across the young captain's face and sending him flying. 

The captain quickly recovered some distance but it was already to late though. Butlerok was already behind him and just to add insult to injury Butlerok let loose a little bit of madness for the young lad. Hitsugaya could only see the nightmares that naturally came from being so close to a Kishin. Funny I didn't think you were capable of feeling emotions. Now you can't win. Butlerok grabbed the frozen in fear captain's head, bashed it to the ground and tossed him into one of the cloaked statues. I know he was holding back, but unfortunately I am not one who practices such folly. Butlerok raised his sword and prepared to deliver the final blow....

Meanwhile inside the mind of the Kishin Genryuusai was contemplating on what was happening? Those clothes and skin color meant only one thing. Genryuusai started sulking. His name his Hitsugaya Toshiro...a fallen student. Genryuusai stated as Butlerok raised his sword for the final blow. But as the CC hung his head shame a whip tied itself around Butlerok's sword arm. Butlerok looked at this with the Alpha Stigma and he noticed that the head was some kind of flower. A second later heard a soothing melody which triggered a massive explosion. As the smoke cleared Butlerok looked reasonably unaffected to the point that he wasn't even amused by the interference. He turned around to see who was interrupting his victory. He turned to see three new figures enter combat. Butlerok looked rather unimpressed. I would like an explanation for this Captain Commander.  

[The Warden]

|_)The Evangelist Hapshiel(_|

|_)The Path of Truth(_|

 

Dark, so very dark. Someone was playing a game, ooohhhh~ Hapshiel loved to play games, especially when they involved tackling. Hapshiel’s natural aura gleamed through the dark passage, no doubt signalling to those nearby that he was here. Though, that would’ve already happened as his heavy boots struck the wooden floor as he skipped through the darkness. Towards the light. A familiar sight for an angel no doubt.

 

Bursting out from the darkness, Hapshiel found himself high in the sky amidst some floating islands. His skin drank in the sunlight as he was reminded of his time spent in Heaven amongst his fellow Celestials. What good times he had, oohhh, it made his skin quiver from the fond memories.

 

Hapshiel merrily danced across the open area to the glass bridge, ascending higher and higher to the floating island. Hapshiel purred and seethed loudly as his body limberly coiled itself around the cherry blossom trees; a testament to his bara nature, and also to his obliviousness. One such as he would never be afraid of the truth, as the Gospel of Truth is what he preached. For there were only two truths known to him: Love, and Peace.

 

The cherry blossom petals tickled his skin as he climbed the high trees; the bark rubbing his sensitive nipples. He moaned loudly as loose branches nicked at his skin, and when he a loose branch slammed him in the crotch. It was all so stimulating and sensational. He burst through the top of the tree, cherry blossoms scattering as a ring of petals formed on him like a boa. Like the graceful swan he leapt from tree to tree, feeling as free as ever in this paradise.

 

Like the others, small fairies ascended on him, but in his euphoria he brushed past them. Struggling to keep up, a fairy managed to catch up to him. Holding on for dear life the little creature bit into the nape of his neck. Hapshiel froze in place, his pleasure building again as he hugged at himself. “OOOOOOHHHHH~~~~!” he moaned.

 

The fairy who bit him gave a confused looked to her friends, who shrugged in confusion. “What are you running ahead for?” the fairy inquired.

 

Hapshiel’s shimmering eyes stared into that of the small fairy, his plump lips spread into a serene smile. “Because I want more, MO~ORE!” he declared loudly.

 

“More what?”

 

“More excitement, more euphoria. This beautiful world shimmers like a rose, and I wish to caress ALL OF IT!” Hapshiel declared excitedly.

 

The fairy clinging to his shirt felt very uncomfortable about this. The people going through this path normally weren’t supposed to enjoy this. Looks like they would have to step it up a notch. “Who do you love?” she inquired.

 

“EVERYONE!” Hapshiel declared, his voice scattering many of the fairies who hadn’t seen them.

 

“How can you love everyone?”

 

“Usually one at a time. But there’s nothing wrong with loving two, three, four or more at a time. Everyone will be embraced by me in the end” Hapshiel explained, a light breeze blowing at him provocatively as he held his arms skyward, his buttcheeks clenched tight from passion.

 

“Okay, umm, why do you wear such stupid clothing?”

 

“To maximize the pleasure.”

 

The little fairy was kind of stumped really. What kind of extra-special pervert were they dealing with? “Umm, uhhh. Why are you on this path?”

 

Hapshiel paused for a moment, that was kind of tricky. “Well, I don’t know. I’m here to simply help out Frankram-kun and Arturia-chan. They need to stop this horrible man called Protheus from accessing the Door of Origin; so, I need to stop him too. I have nothing I really want from that Door myself. But it’s always nice to help other people. And to spread love wherever I go. Speaking of which, you‘re certainly quite cute, aren‘t you?” Hapshiel remarked, suddenly grabbing the little fairy.

 

It squirmed in his grasp, but his fingers were too meaty and strong as he drew the little pixie to his lips. Half her head was stuck in his mouth as he gave her a tremendous kiss. It went on for ten seconds, though the fairy stopped moving  after five. Hapshiel released it form his grasp, and the little creature fell limp on a tree branch. All colour was drained from her, save for a ring of purple around her head. 

 

In absolute horror the other fairies had fled whilst Hapshiel almost devoured their comrade, and that saddened Hapshiel. He wanted to spread the love to such adorable little creatures. His face sagged in momentary sadness, but he lit up immediately. After all, there were more people to embrace. “ONWARDS!” Hapshiel declared loudly as he skipped once more across the trees.

 

B4

[Tesability Black]

(Meh, feel free to brick me later for not waiting until a few more people posted before I got my characters actually moving down the paths...)

 

~The Divine - Path of Remembrance - Tesability's POV~

"Kawuros..." Seeing a piece of an old friend after almost 15 years was almost enough to summon forth what beings like herself should not be able to produce from her eyes, but she did begin to suffer tearless sobs from the reminder.

Kawuros was a normal Ice Mech NetMonster that often worked with the Champion in various missions to defeat the 84 Boss NetMonster that each held their own piece of encryption code that would hopefully allow others to finally get through the powerful shield that surrounded his tower. Despite only being level 76 himself, he was able to handle certain Bosses in solid combat, at least one of them clear over level 300. His last battle, however...

~Flashback - The Internet - Near Angelfire Gardens~

"Your Hunter made a big mistake in summoning you to battle so soon," a smooth voice sounded as a pure-white muscular feline walked up to the downed dragon through the grassy field with a sly grin behind his whiskers, a blue glow surrounding him as if it was an angelic halo.

"Tawen maykes nu meestakes,"¹ the young dragonling managed to growl before the pain in one of her wings forced a whine out of her almost immediately. She could feel that it was corrupted, she could barely move it. This unfortunately would make flight impossible for her and she knew it.

"No, I take that back. You made a big mistake in challenging me to battle so soon, whelp." He raised a paw above his head and flared it out, allowing the black claws to show themselves. "Say goodbye, Tricky Dragon."

"Keep off her, Immortalis!"

"Hm?" A stream of cold blue energy flew over the dragon and toward the feline, launching the cocky cat away from the weakened reptile. A spot of light-blue rushed past her view really quick before a second thing entered it. While she looked transparent, the newcomer strained herself to get the youngling onto her feet, somehow dirtying the simple black clothing she appeared to wear.

"Sorry we're late, Tes," the transparent child-like human spoke in apology with a high voice, her eyes covered by brown plastic-framed eyeglasses and brown hair coming down to her shoulders. "Kawuros, slam that cat's lights out!"

"Already on it," the mechanical warrior responded as it engaged combat with the feline, who slashed at his fur with the gold spike on one arm while firing away with the hand-cannon on the other. The pair exchanged blows with each other, the feline known as Immortalis occasionally firing off his own bursts of white light toward his foe before finally appearing to have enough.

"Annoying Mech, I will make sure no other Boss has to deal with you ever again." A foreboding sound suddenly became heard as the cat's black eyes suddenly turned gold in color, an almost-howling sound soon following from him. Kawuros also suddenly became surrounded with the same color glow and fell to his knees, his body unfairly falling apart.

"Yu cheep---"²

"Immortalis, you cheater!" A simple smirk appeared on the Light Cat's face from this.

"Am I? You just never seen me use my Instant-Kill ability because you always fought with your 'precious Champion', Talen Avalon."

~The Divine - Path of Remembrance - Tesability's POV~

After finding the broken hand-cannon, the black data dragon decided to continue walking through the strange place of white after she stopped sobbing, somethings she recognized, and others she couldn't make heads or tails of.

The first of the items found that she recognized was a fake NetMonster Hunter license, a simple item one could find after completely wrecking a Data Node, a kind of virus, to bits. A small smile crossed her muzzle at this, remembering when her old partner throw a fit at getting yet another one of this particular kind of trophy from them.

The second was a Knowledge Crystal, this one yellow in color. Such crystals were often used to try and strengthen Champions like herself, though sometimes they instead weakened them by accident. There was no telling what would happen until after using one.

The third was a headband once depicted upon the heads of doctors, though she only knew of one Ghost NetMonster that wore one, a bluish Phantom Ghost affectionately named Doc Boo.

The final thing found...was a tape-recorder. This confused the dragon, who pulled it carefully out of the white stuff and pressed 'play'.

"It seems sad, but you're really the only one I know that I feel the need to sad 'good-bye' to. I'm at breaking point, I'm tired of always being treated like I'm nothing of value, both by the other students and even the adults that see me only as a trouble-maker. I just wish you were real, so that no one else would torture me anymore in this life, so that no one would see me as insane for thinking the way I do. Goodbye, Tesability Black."

"Ween deed dat geet wecowded,"³ the dragon, Tesability, asked of herself in shock just as the tape stopped playing. She remembered that event quite well, even though it happened just before her world's Collapse...

~Flashback - The Internet - No specific location~

"...Goodbye, Tesability Black," the transparent human, Talen Avalon, managed to say through sobs as she held up what looked like a blade almost as long as the child's arm, raising it up high above her head in front of the confused Tesability, who wasn't sure what was happening at first.

Instinct kicked in however, as she saw the blade suddenly come down toward the human's center, and the little dragon realized in time what was going on.

"NUUUU!!!!" She jumped forward as fast as she could and tackled the human down to the ground, sending the blade flying, which disappeared from view as soon as the human let go. A shocked look appeared on Talen's face with widened eyes appearing behind the transparent lenses of her glasses.

"Wha...what just... "

~The Divine - Path of Remembrance - Tesability's POV~

"I shtopped yu, dat'sh wat."<sup>4


1</sup> "Talen makes no mistakes,"

 

² "You cheap---"

³ "When did that get recorded,"

⁴ "I stopped you, that's what."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

Something was really, really wrong. Some reason, basic things most blue mages could do, such as water and wind manipulation, were now well out of Jace's reach, and it made him even more on edge than normal. He had somehow been stripped of most of his ability to defend himself when needed and it worried him. It also made him realize how right both Neos and Kallist were about him being too-reliant on his magic, a realization that made him hand his head as he leaned against the wooden wall and slid down it, falling into a sitting position.

He was nowhere near the end of this wooden pathway, and yet he almost didn't even care about moving forward. Bringing his knees closer to his chest, he wrapped his arms around the pair and laid his forehead upon them as the memory of the one person he could call his brother came at him hard.

"This enchantment's probably the only reason I keep living now," he muttered to himself. "Without me, Ravnica would destroy itself...and I don't want the end of an entire plane to be my fault." A few tears began to fall from closed eyes as he found himself forced to recall still-painful memories. "I already have enough people dead because of me...either indirectly or by my own mind..."

"Ya know, it would help if you actually got moving." Lifting his head and pulling his hood off his head to get a better look at his surroundings, not immediately seeing the voice. "You can't bring the lost back if you don't keep moving forward."

Knowing the voice he was hearing was right, though he couldn't sense where it was coming from, Jace continued walking forward, his shaken guard kept up incase of further surprises.

He wasn't expecting to see the many small blue fairies that waited beyond the edge of the long dark corridor, blinded momentarily by the bright light and the ever-familiar blowing winds, nor did he expect one of them, which looked suspiciously like his old Cloud Sprite, to float up to his face.

"Hi, I got some questions for ya and you're gonna answer them for me..."

He could already tell this was gonna be a while...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Counter Corps - Path of Death - Neos' POV~

While the others had their invisible paths lit only by tiny star-like points within the darkness, the area immediately around him was instead lit by the bright light emitted by the God Pokemon, Arceus. However, even his golden aura didn't seem to be much help in seeing their surroundings, which was almost like being in a breathable form of space.

"H...how...how are you even here," the false human exclaimed in confusion, staring up at his new-found company with widened neon-green eyes. "I thought teleporting in here was not possible!"

Arceus simply tilted his head slightly to the left at this outburst. "You're assuming I teleported, Ditto," the god stated. "For all you know, I could have been here for a long time." After a second did the large white quadruped turn around and tap the stone below him with a golden hoof, causing the platform to quake just enough for his human-like company to fall onto his ass before beginning to accelerate in pace. "As much as I would like to, it would not be wise to stop you on this strange journey."

"You sound like you've done this before," the smaller being remarked as he got back up to his feet, looking up in time to see Arceus turn his head back toward him.

"You're not the first Pokemon to walk this path, child." With this did Arceus simply face forward once more, tapping the stone below to hasten its speed once more. "I was actually forewarned about this event when I came through, seeking the power to create my own realm, just like Mother did."

"Mother," he questioned before walking up beside the large Pokemon. "Who is this Mother?"

Arceus simply looked down toward his company, his expression remaining neutral. "You know her, Neos, as Hydaelyn."

Neos almost didn't acknowledge the fact that the platform landed near a large collection of cloaked figures, one of them looking strangely familiar if he were to actually take a look at it...

[Kingdom Xathers]

[Pathway of Remembrance/Counter Corps]
 
"Now, do you remember which plant equates to Remembrance, Alexander?"
 
"Of course: Rosemary."
 
"What's a plant have to do with our being here, Cereza?  It's not like there's going to be any of that growing here...."
 
"Just having a bit of conversation, General.  Nothing more beyond that, really."  Bayonetta (along with Gabriel), Ratchet, Alister, and Alexander found each other through the near-blinding snow storm within the Path, glad to see that they had all made it to the beginning without issue.
 
"We should've brought jackets, though...," Ratchet uttered with a bit of a shiver as he looked around at their snow-covered surroundings.  For Ratchet, it would certainly not be the first time that he had wandered into a cold, snow-covered area while not wearing proper clothing for such an environment.  In fact, he was far more under-dressed back then than he is now, and his fur did not help to stave off the chill.  Heh.  Good times....  "... wait.  Why am I just now thinking about this?" he thought to himself, as though perplexed by his own sudden bout of reminiscence.  Remembering that they were on a Path literally named "Remembrance", he corrected himself. "... ... oh.  Right...."
 
"Well, this should prove to be a rather enlightening experience," Gabriel chimed in a rather formal manner-of-speaking as he sat perched on Bayonetta's shoulder.  "Being made to relive your deepest memories... I wonder how that'll turn out."
 
The two older lombaxes glanced at each other briefly, though it would be more accurate to say that Alister took a glance toward Alexander with the other sensing his gaze and glancing back.  "... hmph.  If I had known that would be the case, then Umbris and I probably should've held off on your "therapy session" until we got here," Alister scoffed, personally laughing to himself on the inside, considering this to be a bit funnier (though vastly more convenient) in hindsight.
 
Alexander simply responded with a squint in his eyes and a overly-dramatic and narmy "B!@TCH~!"  Not that Alister was wrong, of course.  Certainly would've saved three whole posts for something other than backstory.
 
"Are you boys ready, then?" Bayonetta chimed to signal that she was ready to get the party started, not the least bit bothered by the cold despite basically wearing nothing but hair for her outfit.  Well, she also had a blue-orange-and-white striped scarf wrapped around her neck as well, the same scarf that belonged to Luka.
 
Although the lombaxes knew they had to start moving, each of them couldn't help but to feel rather uneasy, uncertain of what, exactly, they would be likely to come across along the path.  It could be just about anything from their past, and they would have to confront it, one way or another.
 
"... will you be alright, Ratchet?" Alister called to the youngest lombax over the sounds of the wind, somewhat concerned as he could still see the damp marks on Ratchet's face left behind from his grieving earlier.
 
Ratchet's expression went a bit dark for a brief moment.  "... ... I just... I can't let this build up inside of me.  Yeah, I'm mourning my losses, but it's not just me, and it's not just about me.  Everyone has lost their worlds, and everything and everyone in them... but hanging our heads and crying won't bring them back.  Still...." Ratchet trailed off as he clutched a hand to his chest before quietly adding in a tearful tone, "... ... it really hurts...."  Clank looked on at his friend, looking and feeling just as mournful.
 
Gabriel nodded in agreement.  "We're all feeling that pain, Ratchet.  The trick is to turn that pain into our power," he explained.  "Not necessarily into anger or fury, but something positive that can drive us all forward and overcome this madness."
 
"The plushie's right," said Alister, earning the General a short glare from Gabriel.  "We've come too far, and been through so much to just give up now.  We have to keep going, not just for our worlds, but the Multiverse as a whole.  We cannot afford to fail here."
 
"Then it's about time we start now," Alexander spoke up.  "No matter what we face on these Paths, we must--"
 
"Ah!" Bayonetta's sudden gasp of surprise stopped Alexander in his tracks as the Umbra Witch ran off a couple yards ahead, toward something half-buried in the snow that caught her interest for whatever reason.  Curious, the lombaxes approached as Bayonetta pulled the item in question out of the snow: a shoddy, yet lovingly-crafted patchwork ragdoll in the form of a black cat wearing a nightgown.  "Oh, it's Cheshire~!" Bayonetta chimed happily as she held the toy up in front of her.  "Oh, Gabriel, look at this, it's my own stuffed animal from when I was a little one."
 
"Don't suppose this will be my new playmate, huh?" Gabriel asked dryly, seemingly opposed to the very idea yet not entirely against it.  Bayonetta, meanwhile, paid Gabriel no mind as she continued to fuss a bit over her old toy, and secretly plotting to set up a tea party between Gabriel and Cheshire.
 
Alexander couldn't help but to smile to himself as he shook his head at Bayonetta's antics.  He then gave a slightly worried sigh as he thought about those who remained on the Aeon.  "I hope they'll be alright...."

 

[spoiler=The Repentance of Miss Bellerose]

[And With Strange Aeons--Moments Before]

 

"Russell..."  The call of his name brought Russell's attention--along with that of Gabriel's and Carla's--toward a young woman dressed in kuro lolita attire and bound to a motorized wheelchair.  Despite her somewhat drastic change in appearance due to puberty and what-else-have-you, her presence seemed vastly familiar to them.

 

"... Atsuko...?" Russell uttered in a light gasp, taken aback by the woman before them.  "... oh, my god, is that really you? Wow, you've... changed."  Granted, the last time Russell saw Atsuko, she was a perfectly normal little girl, still in elementary school.

 

Carla, meanwhile, didn't know how to react; she was simultaneously gripped by relief and--more strongly--guilt.  Carla knew what had happened to Atsuko, what Archetype Earth had done to the poor child... and Carla herself felt partly responsible for it.  After struggling a bit, Carla settled on turning her back toward Atsuko, head hung in shame as she cradled herself in her winged arms.  Seeing this, Gabriel tapped Russell on the head to get him to look toward his lover.

 

"I'm... sorry, I just...," Carla stammered regretfully just as Russell was about to check on her. 

 

"Well, now, that's a look and attitude I never thought I'd see from you, Bellerose!"

 

Carla let out a startled, incredulous shriek as she and Russell almost immediately spun around to see two armored figures standing by Atsuko; one of them was a dark-skinned elderly man, most likely in his 60s, his grey hair immaculately styled in a manner similar to men of the '30s.  The other was a young girl, her long, teal-colored framing her pale-skinned, heart-shaped face which possessed large, inquiring eyes.  "ARRRRRGH!!!  YOU TWO AGAIN!!" Carla shrieked again, the feathers of her Harpie form becoming ruffled as if she were irritated by the presence of these two individuals.  Gabriel, however, could sense that, deep down, Carla was actually happy to see them.

 

"These are the souls of Syria and Lucas,"  Atsuko spoke up, seemingly unfazed, or perhaps unamused, by Carla's theatrics, "bound to me to serve out their penance. Carla would have a similar form, only she wouldn't just be a spirit. She would have a physical body as one of my summons, and I will make sure she is taken care of. If not, I understand, but I can give you two something you truly wish, if you allow me to take her from you for just a short while."

 

"... well, that's a rather... straightforward request," Gabriel uttered slowly, blinking.  Russell and Carla, too, took a moment to look away from Atsuko and towards each other.

 

"... ... I have to do this, then," Carla spoke up after a brief moment of tense silence.  "I'm partly responsible for what happened to her... what happened to our world....  It's... the least I can do, at least for a start."

 

Russell nodded slowly.  "Yeah, I hear you.  It's just... ... I mean, I just got you back.  I don't wanna end up losing you again," he plead, grabbing hold of Carla's talons.  "But, if you feel that you must do this... I ain't gonna stop you...."

 

[The Warden]

|_)Witch of Hope, Lydia(_|

|_)The Path of Death(_|

 

Darkness, a vain emptiness. Lydia was certain her feet felt stone, but she couldn’t be certain. The darkness of the Path of Death was suffocating. However, Lydia had forgotten something already. She was still wearing the scrubby clothing she had from the ship. That wouldn’t do, not at all. Concentrating intensely, her outfits changed in mere seconds. Her singlet morphed into a purple silk top with long flowing sleeves and two coat-fronts that had small jewels tied to their points. Her jeans turned themselves into matching silk leggings that went the entire length of her leg, ending in knee high heeled boots with intricate platinum wings gilded to the heels. A belt formed along her waist; two sides of a skirt form from it that drifted down to her knees. Two more belts appeared that crisscrossed over the front to keep both sides in line. Two tags bound themselves to her shoulder to allow a small lotus-shaped cape to drape from her back, bearing the mark of an eight-pointed star. Elbow length satin gloves forged themselves onto her arms. And finally, a metal circlet with platinum wings formed along her forehead. Cuestick appeared in her hand, but the metal and wood morphed, transforming back into the staff she used to defeat LERNA. No longer a magical girl, Lydia stood firm against the darkness as a true sorceress.

 

Noticing a sphere of light nearby, Lydia coaxed the little sphere to her, granting a moderate shell of vision. The platform she was on seemed to be suspended in midair, with nothing to support it. How natural for an unnatural place. With nothing but the darkness to embrace her, Lydia haphazardly walked along the empty stone pathway, demonic whispers curdling around her ears. The Path of Death, surely it would be life threatening… logically. Whatever was out in the darkness no doubt meant to harm her, but she won’t let it if she could help it.

 

She kept her grip tight as she walked along the lonely stone pathway, her boots barely making a noise on the stone. The whispering dipped from barely a whisper to nearly audible. But there was doubt about whether or not they had anything to say.

 

The pathway took a sudden turn to the left; provoking the idea that whoever designed this area probably needed to think a fair bit more about it instead of leaving it to the last minute.

 

Without warning, stone became dirt as Lydia passed onto a strange plateau of sorts. Cautiously Lydia moved through the area, unknowingly passing a statue of a cloaked being as she did, releasing her from the protective aura. The sphere of light was doing poorly as an aid, as it only barely lit up the precious few feet in front of him. Without warning, Lydia’s boot kicked against something hard.

 

Thankfully she had had the good sense to go with steel capped shoes, so she didn’t feel much aside from the bump. Squinting on the ground, Lydia had found she had kicked part of a stone building, or at least, a small fragment of it. And as if an irony button was pushed, the darkness gave a little headway for the full view: She was standing in front of the ruins of a two-story house, the one she had wanted to live in with… him.

 

Al confidence was stripped away from her as she forced herself onwards. Passing through the wreckage of the doorframe, there was an intact wooden table nearby. One she would have gotten when they went antiquing. She had always wanted to go antiquing. A damaged frame was sitting on the table, and she dreaded what was on it. But, she had to look.

 

There… there she was, with him, as she saw him fifteen years from now. With a son and daughter. She figured her son would take after Zac, and so would her daughter. She wanted that, so anywhere she looked, she could see his face. A sour feeling formed in her own face as she hurled the picture down in disgust. Her jaw and nose were fighting back against the bitter emotions that were warring across her face. 

 

And there were those faces again, hanging from a wall. There was the family at the beach. And there they were at Disneyland. And also their ill-fated holiday to South Africa that almost resulted in her dying from some tropical disease. All those happy moments she assumed they’d have together; but now all they did was make her feel sick. She struck at each picture, the glass frames shattering just like her dreams had. With a cold stare each of them lit on fire, burning away what might have been. 

 

Lydia screamed loudly, unleashing a wave of earth magic that collapsed the ruins around her; bitterness and sorrow winning out as the tears streamed down her face, forming sad little drops amongst the ruins. “WHY!” she screamed out, her words getting stolen by the darkness.

 

From above, a young girl’s bed fell from an upper floor, a small pile of ruined stuffed animals lining it. She screamed again as flames engulfed the bed, burning away Mister Flopsy and Mrs. Daffodil the Lemur (which she would’ve sewn by hand once she learned how). “What’s the point of showing me all this?!” she demanded, furiously demolishing another wall with her earth magic.

 

She unleashed another pulse of magic, levelling the kitchen ahead. Panting and sobbing at the same time, she collapsed to her knees in self-pity. “Why bother even showing me what I know I can’t even have anymore? It’s not even funny, it’s just sick. There’s nothing left for me anywhere. I can‘t go home, and I know there’s no place in the multiverse. Why torture me like this? I didn‘t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask for my future to be taken from me. I didn’t ask for my world to collapse. All I wanted was to keep my friends safe, and I failed the moment I volunteered to do just that. I have no future anywhere. Everything I know and love, I couldn’t even tolerate it anymore, not even for him. I have nothing. Absolutely nothing. I have, no, hope” she declared sadly.

 

She collapsed onto her side as the building, the future she once dreamed of, collapsed. There were other audible collapses in the darkness, but they were no doubt a representation of what she could no longer have. She was alone in some strange dimension, with nothing but the darkness and rubble to embrace her. But, what was this feeling? Rolling onto her belly, she stared through the darkness at a shape still standing. Something had survived? Against everything she was feeling, she had to know.

 

Moving carelessly through the rubble, the shape turned out to be a stone throne. Against all carnage, it had survived her whole world collapsing around her. And she knew instantly what it was. “The Throne of Heroes” she whispered.

 

The only path ahead, was but the chair in front of her.

 

(Path of Death: D2 ½)

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sephiroth<Pathway of Death>

 

Dark and solid was the ground underneath the One-Winged Angel, stopping to stand and admire his surroundings as he entered the Pathway of Death. There was almost nothing but darkness, and the one thing that wasn't darkness were orbs of light that weren't doing the best job to repel the dark. "All hail Sephiroth, huh?" A small voice came from nowhere, he swung his sword in the direction of the voice, but there was nothing. His head pounded as he started taking steps through the pathway. He soon came to two stone statues that could take shape of only two people: Angeal and Genisis, the closest thing to "friends" the Man in the Black Cape might have ever known.

 

After taking a few minutes to stare at the statues, he stepped passed them, the protective aura disappearing after doing so. As he made his way he stumbled across many things: a broken Buster Sword, red and bloody cloaks, bodies from villages he slaughtered; the sights had made his lips curl to an evil smile. Sephiroth pause at the sight of a hand and the smile morphed into a frown, of sadness possibly, but it was more probably that it was a frown of disappointment “Whether your words... are lies created to deceive me... Or the truth... that I have sought all my life... it makes no difference. You will rot.” Words echoed into his mind, he said these words, to Genisis, the corpse he was now laying eyes on. It mattered not, Sephiroth continued on the path, but he did start to think of a different sort of day and place.

 

Silver strands of hair flew behind him as he came to a set of bridges, sturdy and made of wood but the light did not expose where they might lead to. He had almost stepped one foot onto the bridge when he sensed a certain aura, a certain power. With one wing he launched himself into the sky and flew towards the source; he had no need to know where the ground was now, for he knew exactly where he was going with reflexes quick enough to do away with any sort of aerial hindrance....

 

Sykes Huegares<Pathway of Death>

 

"Here I thought you were already, and yet you stand there looking into the darkness, it's annoying." A familiar voice rang in his ears as he looked all about for its source, but found only a dark and utter black. "Isamy, no, the energy signature isn't present...an illusion then." He mumbled to himself as he continued to walk. The hand on his blade once again returned to its proper side, now that no threat was detected in the area; none that the pathway would allow him to sense, anyway. The orbs of that were about the path had only given him enough light to see in front of him at any one time, making his travels difficult as he listened to the voices of those he once called allies. "You are true in that, and I understand your concern, out of all of the Depthicana you are bound with your beliefs of loyalty and honor higher then everyone I know." This statement came from the fourth ranked Depthicana, a man who's name Sykes had long forgotten but thought his words quite amusing now; they were true, after all, and if this pathway was supposed to make him fear death it was dong a terrible job.

 

His eyes rested upon the statues, one was of Isamy and the other was of a man he knew was long dead, for at least a century now. "Why would you be here now, I don't even recall your death being of that much significance; when you perished there were hardly any of your race left to bury you, so I did the deed myself. Could it be that the path is showing me all who I have killed and all the people who have tried to kill me?" Sykes speculated as he touched the white portion of the statue, not knowing how the figure would come into play.

 

A flood of energy swept over him, letting him know that he was no longer protected by the pathway itself. It mattered not, however, for he never need much in the ways of outside protection. The path now continued into deeper darkness still, remnants of the past were crusher by his feet or walked over and ignored. He came to a pile of rusted machine parts that must have represented Ophelia, but he merely took one glance at it before walking on. "You were the perfect choice..." He turned around at her voice, but all that sat there was a pile of rust and shards of what seemed to be glass or a rare stone. "The only choice, my dear." He knew he was talking to himself, and he knew that somewhere this voice was actually in his head, or at least he thought that's what he knew. Scoffing at the bits and pieces of a memory, he started walking once more to take his leave.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sykes had now arrived at what seemed to be wooden bridges or footpaths, at the very least he knew he was to proceed down them. However, before he could take a step he rose his right hand to catch a blade in mid-air. It was a longer weapon, that was for sure, and as Sykes traced it toward the owner he sensed a sort of malice or desire for revenge from him. "Nice to see you're alive and well." Sephiroth said in an accusing tone toward the man who know held his sword. Orbs of light came in a cloud towards them, Sephiroth had used his telekinesis to force a dozen orbs to follow him as he flew; giving any others even less light to find their way. The orbs of light surrounded them in a dome-like fashion, the light was still not very bright, but they could make each other out in full now.

 

"I don't take betrayal lightly, we were supposed to come to the door together after Ophelia and Isamy were dealt with." Sephiroth said, an usual hint of edge and anger within his own voice.

 

{Flashback Begin}

An inverted pyramid shaped shield of energy was erected behind Sephiroth, to block attacking branches from his backside, not that he had needed the assistance. "And what of this?" Sephiroth said. "You seek the door, and your power is much more than any other member of either side, this is true enough. However, what is also true is that you despise that fool of a leader known as Isamy." Sephiroth smirked at the man and pointed his blade towards him. "What does that matter, regardless of whether I agree with her leadership style or not, she will take me to the door." It had now been Sykes turn to smirk. "Isamy isn't the only one who can traverse the multi-verse, join me and after we kill Isamy and Ophelia, we will take the door and both have what we want. You must keep showing a devotion to Isamy, and I am destined to confront her. You possess a spell known as "Auto-Life", cast it on me and then :kill me" in front of Isamy so that she might see your devotion. Ophelia and I already have plans to rendezvous after the key has been recovered, I'll come for you after she has been dealt with." Sephiroth thought the proposition over for a moment, and then cast the Auto-Life spell, this would resurrect Sykes after he was destroyed...

{Flashback End}

 

Sykes still said nothing to the man who attacked him out of the blue, he didn't know why the man thought he betrayed him. Little did Sykes known, Isamy's energy blast that had hit him during their battle, deleted a portion of his past, more specifically, the portion that contained his alliance with Sephiroth. A drop of blood trickled down Sykes's pale hand and disconnected from the skin. "Ah, yes, I remember you now. You're the man, that tried to kill me once before, but I've lived and shall now do to you what you tried to do to me." Just as the drop of blood splashed to the ground below, Sephiroth took his blade from its resting position and with both hands swung it at Sykes.

 

He wouldn't be able to catch it again, the first blow was just to stop Sykes in his tracks. As the blade was about to cut into him, it passed through only thick black smoke that moved away from Sephiroth. "Don't hide from me!" Sephiroth commanded, as he fed energy to the orbs to make them light the sector they were fighting within. As the light from the orbs increased, Sykes was revealed above Sephiroth, he drew Cross with his right hand but there was no blade attached. The blade had run a shallow cut on the One-Winged Angels back, who had previously thought that this kind of attack would have not been useable here. Sykes, now grasping that he could attack for certain with Cross, began making many swings at Sephiroth.

 

A barrage of cuts and slashes were made at Sephiroth as he started blocking and countering each one. However, he took much more damage than he normally would; even a master swordsman such as himself would have trouble defending against a blade that could attack from anywhere. As Sykes swung he thought to himself: "Sprinkled on the bones of the beast. Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle." Sykes kept attacking him as he flew towards him, and the crossed blades with him face to face, but this would only be to keep Sephiroth still. "Hado #63, Raikōhō!" Sykes launched a devastatingly massive wave of yellow energy that completely engulfed the Man in the Black Cape, this one being at twice the power and force than the blast he once used on Nero and Isamy herself. As Sephiroth withdrew his heavily singed wing, there was one fact floating in the air: no one has seen Sykes Huegares's full power.

 

 

ENDING LOCATION FOR SEPHIROTH AND SYKES: 3B

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

PATHWAY OF TRUTH

 

 

-=Tenco=-

 

“Hm? Is that supposed to be a boy’s name? Sounds pretty weird if true.

 

Care to tell me more about him?

 

…

 

…

 

Hey, what’s with that confused expression?”

 

“…

 

…Uh-uh, right! I’m still here. And no, it’s not a boy’s name. She’s a girl.”

 

The fairy, which really didn’t seem to expect Tenco to answer her even after her promised to do that, was seemingly more lax now, and tried to inquire further about Tenco’s answer. Meanwhile, Tenco herself was still completely baffled by the name she just said. She was now drowning in her own thoughts as she tried to figure out why she would even answer it like that.

 

From all the candidates that she could have said, why her of all people? While her baseless hatred towards her had subsided, and despite her goal to try knocking some sense towards her, that didn’t really mean that she’s romantically interested with her.

 

Or maybe she’s referring to herself? That would make things funny, if a little bit disturbing. Neither of the two choices sounded nice for her, really.

 

“Ooh, so you’re into girls too, huh? Or are you secretly a b-“

 

“…Didn’t you say that you were in a hurry for a nihilistic navel-gazing moment?”

 

“I definitely didn’t say-“

 

Just as she tried to finish her reply, the fairy’s face suddenly turned pale.

 

“Right, right, you’re right! I need to go now. Good bye!”

 

The fairy fled at the speed of light immediately, leaving Tenco alone, jaw-dropped. Immediately after she fled, Tenco suddenly felt a disturbance in the air, as she noticed that some other fairies also fled for their lives, probably because of the same unknown reason as that fairy. Their expression were like as if they had seen something completely horrible, utterly horrible even compared to what Tenco assumed to be their usual companions on the path.

 

“ONWARDS!”

 

Hearing the loud sound, Tenco instinctively turned backwards only to see the ridiculously muscled and perverted “angel” from earlier on the Inner Periphery was skipping across the trees, moving disturbingly in the meanwhile. Safe to say she immediately regretted her decision to look at that direction.

 

Completely disturbed and reminded about her last meeting with him that didn’t go exactly well, Tenco dashed away as fast as she could, as far away from the muscular angel as possible, hoping that she was not noticed by him in the meanwhile.

 

 

PATHWAY OF REMEMBRANCE

 

 

-=Kazuya=-

 

“Once again, I’m asking you.

Are you really Naoya?”

 

“Why do you keep asking such a silly question like that?”

 

“…”

 

Just like many times before, Kazuya started to get annoyed by his cousin’s secretive antics. Naoya noticed his change of expression, and started to smirk.

 

“Well, well, what’s with the serious face?

 

But alright, I’ll say it now. I’m not actually Naoya. A magical construct, born from your memories about me.

 

As for why, it’s because this is the Path of Remembrance, where your memories will haunt you, screw with you, or even if it’s unlikely, help you.”

 

“Which type of memory construct are you then?”

 

“Who knows? If I tell you now, that would only make things less meaningful for you.”

 

In response to this reply, Kazuya smacked his cousin’s head in annoyance, which he shrugged off as if it meant nothing. Though, neither of them talked to each other anymore for the rest of their trip.

 

 

Naoya led him towards an opening in the middle of the forest of memories, where an old, two-storey tower stood alone in the middle of the snowy field. After both of them were already out in the open, Naoya turned around to face him, still confused as of what actually supposed to happen there.

 

“And, here we are, brother. We have arrived.”

 

“What am I supposed to do here? Is there anything important that inside the tower or something?”

 

“No, the tower itself would not mean anything for you.

 

But, on the other hand…”

 

Without Kazuya being able to react to it, Naoya unveiled several COMPs from under his robe, and proceeded to make most of them go berserk before throwing them around Kazuya, except one.

 

“..!

Wait, what’s wrong with you?”

 

Kazuya, shocked by the development of the event, managed to respond to the situation by booting his own COMP on as Naoya stared emptily at him.

 

 “You have disappointed me, Abel.

 

Can you take this entire thing more seriously? You are the King of Bel now, but all that I can see from you was simply a teenage brat with demons on his hands, not someone who fights for the fate of his own kind and world.

 

I did not waste thousands of years of planning to see you be like this.”

 

“What the hell are you saying Naoya? That doesn’t make any sense!”

 

“Then, die. I’ll just wait for your next reincarnation to further my plans, and hopefully by then that reincarnation of yours won’t be as hopeless as this one.”

 

 

ELSEWHERE

 

 

-=Yukari=-

 

“What’s with Koishi and all these lunar rabbits anyway?”

 

Yukari had lost count of all the lunar rabbits that she had to face inside the darkening maze. At the first few waves, they only used conventional weapons against her, much to her delight as she could just dodge or teleport them back to their source.

 

Later on, they started to employ more and more powerful weapons, but that still didn’t manage to faze Yukari, as she only had to gap herself away from the blast radius, or just turn the weapon back at the shooters, trivializing the entire thing. Though, despite of all the explosive and destructive weapons thrown around, the walls of roses didn’t seem to be affected by it. Yukari sighed at Koishi’s blatant attempt to stop her from making shortcuts.

 

“Tsk, tsk.

 

And here I thought I managed to end your miserable life once and for all. Guess I need to use a bigger explosive next time.”

 

A purple haired girl with rabbit ears and military uniform appeared from the deep darkness, and was soon followed by several other rabbit-eared girls. All of them were pointing an odd-looking rifle straight at her. It took a while for Yukari to remember her, but as soon as she did, her expression changed into one filled with hatred.

 

“Oooh, still mad at me for turning your pets into bombs? Though, at least their bodies immediately disintegrated due to the blast, so you didn’t have to bury the pieces. I was pretty kind, no?”

 

“Shut up, you funking twat.”

 

Seemingly without the rabbits realized it, they were already surrounded by a barrier-like sphere made of light bullets. It took a nothingth of a second before every single one of them was buried and massacred by the bullets.

 

“And I guess, this is when you revealed that you’ve been behind me all this time, Reisen.”

 

“Sharp as ever, I almost thought that this would be too easy for me.”

 

“You know what?

 

Don’t be so proud of yourself, maggot”

 

Already positioned herself behind Reisen, Yukari wrestled her rifle away from her, and kicked her at her stomach, leaving her flying straight towards the thorny walls.

 

“Let’s see what we have here…

 

A timewarp rifle, one of the lunarian’s best mass-produced infantry weapons. While its default firepower is only comparable to a standard shotgun, its special ability of bending time itself to make itself hit a target almost before it was fired made it really deadly.

 

Guess I’ll keep this one.”

 

“Tch, so you have learned a lot since last time, huh? That’s pretty fast, I admit.”

 

“What else do you expect from me, piece of sheet?”

 

The lunar rabbit weakly smiled at Yukari’s reply.

 

“Heh, still the same prideful old hag we all hate.

 

Well then, so long, sucker!”

 

Reisen tried to grab something out of her pockets, but Yukari immediately noticed that, and opened fire. The direct hit created a big, open hole on where Reisen’s head were supposed to be, and to make sure that she didn’t suddenly return to life again like Koishi, Yukari fired several more shots at her, completely destroying her body, and a payback for last time as it was her that was on the receiving end of this yesterday, and it almost killed her.

 

It’s still far from what that girl had done to her, but eh, Yukari decided that for now, this would be enough. Not like this ‘Reisen’ that she had just brutally mauled was the real thing or something, as Yukari knew that this was only Koishi’s mind trying to keep her from reaching the center of the place.

 

Now, if only she could-

 

“Target verified. All units, fire!”

 

As soon as she heard the start of the sentence, Yukari immediately escaped using one of her gaps, as hundreds of missiles and bullets were fired at her position. Even if she dodged most of the attack, Yukari realized when she went outside of the gap that some of the bullets did hit her, but thankfully aside from several torn flesh on both of her arms and back, she’s pretty fine, definitely ended up better than last time, when Reisen crafted a huge hole on her chest and abdomen area.

 

“Tch. That’s it, when this is all over, I’ll cause the extinction of rabbits in both moon and earth.”

 

 

-=??????=-

 

“How wonderful.

 

Everyone has moved into their proper positions, even my own pieces.

 

I’d say just as planned, but this would like me ‘planning’ about something really obvious rather than actual, clever planning, which is not the case about this.

 

But really, what’s the point of getting mad at myself? I have to go now.”

 

The woman watched from the screen in front of her as people from both the Hollow Asteroid and the Aeon slowly disappeared from their places, presumably straight towards the “Pathway to Origin”, the final stage of the battle to decide the fate between the multiverses.

 

Not that she cared much about the actual battle itself, really.  At this point she couldn’t give two shits about the overall fate of the multiverse anyway. Her problems at this point were already ridiculous enough, and actually participating in this would be a waste of time for her. All she cared now was to seize the Key of Origin during the most vulnerable time of its current holder, open the Door with it, and use it for her own goals.

 

Though, that didn’t mean either of the side winning the war and seizing the gate would be bad for her. Well, maybe not the Divines since she couldn’t be sure that Protheus would actually going to let his ‘underlings’ to also take a piece of the winner’s cake when it’s all said and done, though she did know that whatever Tenshi planned to do when she said that she’d remake the world would also work to her advantage, somewhat. But the Counter Corps winning was more desirable for her, and more likely too, with the almost universal rule of heroes being triumphant over evil, which seemed to be fitting for this case. But anyway, she knew that the kingly lady Arturia planned to wish for a reset button (since she had created a familiar bond between herself and Reimu before she left, and thus, the exchange of information was pretty easy outside of the Pathway, it seems), and that wouldn’t be a bad outcome, as she still get her old world this way, and her mess would probably be fixed alongside it.

 

But well, that was for scenarios if she was unable to seize the Key or use the Door. Pretty unlikely, in her opinion, but she’d rather plan for extraordinary situations rather than get screwed up by them.

 

She then took another look at the screen, just as a blue-haired girl bowed at Arturia before entering the portal.

 

“You’re still alive, huh? Not to mention, you seems to have decided on working on the Counter Corp’s side, instead of my side like before.

 

I’d normally say that this was an act that showed your ungratefulness after I did a lot of things for your sake, but since most of the things that happened to you were my fault, can’t say that I didn’t see this coming.”

 

The woman took a deep breath, and suddenly, she started to laugh as heartily as she could.

 

“That’s actually pretty hilarious. Felt somewhat bad that I forgot to tell you this, but eh, accidents happen.

 

You won’t even get anything if the reset button is pushed. Like, your world doesn’t even actually exist, or at least, quite different from what your memories said.

 

And so do you, my dear.”

 

Wiping out a single tear from her face after she laughed her heart out, the woman’s face returned to her more serious expression.

 

“But ah, laughing about you is fun and all, but I need to go now.

 

There is a door that needs to get unlocked. By me, of course.”

 

 

[Love of Ghibli]

Butlerok: Pathway of Death

 

There standing before Butlerok were three captains from the Genryuusai's previous afterlife. Individually Butlerok was confident that he could take them out without any real effort, but combined he worried that they would cause him to get exhausted before he could traverse the rest of this path. Not only that this was probably one of those trials that wouldn't go away until the victim got over whatever was ailing them. Unfortunately he would not have time to further contemplate on the matter. The one with the mohawk launched him self straight at Butlerok and delivered a series of punches to the Kishin. Buterlok immediately tried to defend himself but the opponent was amazingly fast. Nevertheless Ragnarok had already hardened the Mad Blood so that Butlerok would feel the minimum amount of pain.

Buterlok grabbed Kensei's fist and tossed him directly into Hitsugaya. After that he pointed at the one with two fingers. The Black Rukh began to surround around Butlerok's fingers. Halflar Inflagar!The Rukh soon caught on fire and turned into a massive fireball and shot themselves at the captain causing a massive explosion. While the fighting commensed though Butlerok could actually hear the inner thoughts of the Captain Commander inside his own head. "How could this have happened? What did I do wrong? This was my fault for being defeated so easily." As Genryuusai sunk into despair he released a large amount of Black Rukh which was actually a good thing seeing as Butlerok could use them to give himself power. Sooo what's going on now? Ragnarok said trying to provide some kind of comfort to the old man.

If I had to guess I would say these are members of the 13 Court Guard Squads. From their obvious power levels I would say that are probably captains just like Mr. Yamamoto. The old man looked up shocked wondering how Butler figured out such a secret. How did you know? I've been making sure to hide my past from your madness. Butler raised an eyebrow to that statement. Meanwhile during the fight Butlerok was busy throwing the three captains around almost effortlessly. Mainly because he could tell that they were holding back somehow and he wasn't one to do such things.

Back inside his head he chose to answer the question. Well if you must know, you all are wearing uniforms with numbers on them. When I consumed Zaraki Kenpachi's soul I slightly noticed the number 11 on his back. At first I thought it was some form of ranking. If it was power ranking and that man was number 11 then can you possibly imagine how strong number 1 would be Ragnarok interrupted and concluded. Of course you came to us meaning and to be honest you do not disappoint. However. It is disappointing to take note of these three. The mohawk is 9, the longer hair is 13 and I don't know what they boy is since his manner of clothing is somewhat different but none of them are stronger than Kenpachi. Which is even more sad since this stupid path thing probably made them they probably ain't even real!

They are real to me you parasite! His voice rang throughout the vast emptiness that was Butlerok. It was then that Butler understood how their situation came to be. I see. So you were defeated in battle and this is the result. Butler noted. To think that my failure has led to the suffering of these youngsters. As the Captain Commander continued to lament he began to the three captains became more aggressive in their attacks. The man with the with whip threw what seemed to be 99 rods of purple sealing light at Butlerok which he countered with his classical Blood Needle. Black Dragon! Ragnarok shot out of Butlerok's back in his dragon form and roared at the opponents. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to slow any of them down. Even the madness seemed to lack any effect. They kept coming.

Butler then realized that the Captain's lamentation did not just give him power, his regret was fueling these three. One cannot bare the fate of the world on one's own shoulder's. To do so is a sure fire set-up for failure. The Captain Commander was trying to listen to his ally, but those words were coincedentally the same ones that Juha Bach said to him right before ending his life. So they seemed to have the opposite effect. Soon Butlerok was flooded with Black Rukh and this made Butlerok let out the heaviest sigh. The reason why he would see in just a second.

BAAANNNNNNKAAAAIIII!!!

 

DAIGUREN HYORINMARU
KINSHARA BUTODAN

TEKKEN TACHIKAZE

The three captains appeared to have transformed into some state that made Butlerok feel their would be no more holding back. I do not know how long I am expected to hold them off...now. Hitsugaya immediately froze the air around Butlerok causing him to grip his throat as his lungs started to freeze over. To add insult to injury a bunch of dancing flower men started twirling around him actually freezing him but past the point of his Black Blood's protection. As the combination of assaults started to take their toll. The one with Mohawk speed blitzed his way to Butlerok and landed a punch square on his face which caused a neverending series of explosions.

Back inside his mind Ragnarok was throwing a fit as this fight was actually damaging the body. SERIOUSLY!! THERE IS AT LEAST 13 OF THESE SUCKERS AND HE'S BESIDES HIMSELF BECAUSE OF THREE! What? Genryuusai said in a genuine inquiry. He is correct. If this is the future then that means only these three captains have fallen to the enemy correct. Do you not have any hope for the others? Honestly, the old man had never thought of that. The true mark of a leader is in the quality of their students and how effective they are when the teacher is gone. I...I never thought about that. Of course not, People like you take on all the evil themselves. Essentially you were so busy worrying about a future without your leadership that you never noticed the growth happening in the present.

Back at the fight Butlerok managed to endure the explosions and use the Rukh to surround Kensei's head and suffocate him for a second. He then flew and clashed with Hitsugaya and with a flurry of sword slashes he managed to cut off the leg of the boy. Unfortunately that didn't matter as the expert battler continued on by flash freezing the wound and then make himself a new leg out of ice. Butlerok then witnessed the dancing men again and this time their dance seemed to bring him to his knees for some reason. It was hard to split his concentration between this fight and consoling old man Yamamoto.

Genryuusai began to remember all of his remaining commrads: Shinsui, Ukitake, Kuchiki, Kenpachi, Kurotsuchi, Komumura, and even those black sheep like Urahara, Kisuke and Shihoin, Yoruichi. Finally he had to put faith in that boy with the burden Kursoaki Ichigo. I see. I have been a fool. The black Rukh that were coming from him had now turned white to show that he was no longer in despair. They danced in the air with the Black Rukh that were coming from the Mad Blood. Butlerok was soon consumed by a tornado of light and darkness repelling the three captains some distances. The tornado then quickly burst like a bubble and in its stay Butlerok stood normal with a sheathed katana. Hmm a combination of Light and Darkness. In my master's card game they call this Chaos. Chaos is a form of madness I guess.

Kensei threw himself at this new Butlerok and tried to land a punch, this time the Rukh made a borg around him and Butlerok making him safe from explosions. Inside his head Genryuusai resumed his former focus glare analyzing the enemy. Tekken Tachikaze, by using the wind you create from the blade knuckles you simply amplify the ability to make said wind explode. The flowery men then surrounded this new Butlerok again but then the Rukh began to dance around them. Butlerok was somewhat surprised at how there was not any effect this time around. Kinshara Butodan, a kido based zanpaktou that uses sound to convince the enemy of injury. Amazing how with a series of commands you can get these little butterflies to muffle sound waves. Where the others failed he would try to succeed. Daiguren Hyorinmaru....Okay, does it do anything other than ice? Ragnarok interrupted. Not really. It is the most powerful ice-type zanpaktou, if that means anything.

Butlerok gripped the hilt of his katana and took the classic Iaido stance. It does not. Time seemed to have slowed down as the three captains appeared to charge at the same time for one final attack. Though all they would hear is the soft spoken words: Reduce all of creation to ash...Ryujin Jakka. With one quick draw of his sword he set all three captains a blaze which he then quickly resheathed his sword. As the flames dispersed into nothingness there was a moment of silence for the fallen comrades.

Afterward Butlerok looked at his hand and noted the combination of both kinds of Rukh that were emmanating from him. This is...different. Nevertheless he proceed continued on down this path of death.

(End location Death : C2)

 

Dorian: Pathway to Remembrance

Sinking into the darkness after receiving that horrific thrashing from people from some part of his life that he didn't remember he rose to realize that he was no longer sinking in an infinite pool of darkness he seemed to be somewhere else entirely now. He was in what looked to be a 1920's jazz club. He awoken to a complete change of clothes. Now he was in some kind of upscale fancy suit. Soon he remembered, it was his. This suit was custom tailored and must have been over twelve thousand dollars at the least. He realized that it was a gift but what was the significance of it being worn now and once more where was he? As he wondered this many random strangers of insignificance were making there way to some seats. It seemed that there was a show about to commence. He watched all the seats at the tables fill up and he noticed there was one in the distance that was totally empty on the upper level. He walked to up some stairs and made his way to the table where he took a seat and watched the concert begin.

 

~The Show~

 

As he was listening to the artist perform he was oddly moved by the music. It was nice change of pace from that beating he just received. About halfway through the song he heard someone sit down at the table. He looked across to see who this was and what did he see across from him...none other than himself. Naturally he was pretty shocked as this other version of himself seemed to have a much more condescending and overall evil disposition. Hello this new Dorian said. We're over due for a little talk. 

 

(to be continued...)

 

[Tesability Black]

~The Divine - Path of Remembrance - Tesability's POV~

And the sound of flapping wings echoed among the trees as Tesability Black flew low to the ground and forward, weaving between the many trunks as effortlessly as she would in the many battles she had partaken in through the early part of her life, the only part that truly mattered to her. She only had a past, not a present nor a future as far as she was concerned. Her travel to the Door was so she could finally have both again as well as restore her home.

If only she had managed to get that Key...but what was that she bounced clear off of?

Black eyes remained focused ahead of her, not allowing herself to be shaken by the sudden appearances of many enemies from her past that dared to jump out and strike at her. The ones that did dare to intervene were often zapped out of existence with a blast of powerful lightning from her mouth.

The feeling of safety. She didn't even know such a feeling could exist, nor that she would even recognize it for what it was until she passed a set of pillars that lifted such a strange feeling from her. Then again, she was back in her forced element, where she was on guard for as long as she could remember, even when she rested. In a twisted way, it was a comforting though to be back on at least somewhat-familiar grounds of engagement.

She almost smacked headfirst into a trunk at something she heard and partially-recognized, though.

"And so I came to gaze upon the stars
When they were yet unborn
And consequently, tear at my old scars
And the mask I had outworn..."

"Ish dat sheengeen,"¹ the little dragon asked herself as she silently perched among the branches of one of the nearby trees, looking toward the source of the strange melody...

...and almost fell out of the tree onto her muzzle.

There was a human woman leaning against a tree trunk as she sang slightly off-tune. Her primary color of choice was black for her turtleneck shirt, jeans and boots. Her pale hands were in her jean pockets and her head was adorned with straight dark-brown hair that tried to reach the lower-part of her back. Over brownish-grey eyes were a pair of simple wire-framed glasses, which she pushed back up onto her face before shivering slightly from the cold, which was strange for something that seemed partially-transparent.

...could it be? Could it really be?

"...Tawen?"²

The strange song ceased being heard as the illusionary human stopped before suddenly standing straight up, looking around at all her surroundings in confusion. It was at this point that Tesability steeled her nerves and flew down from the tree in front of the strange transparent being.

She wasn't expecting the sudden tight squeeze of a hug that made her really, really thankful she didn't need to breath air...

"TES! How are you here?! I thought you were gone when the program code was destroyed!" The little dragon blinked a few times in confusion before pulling back, looking up toward the human, who still felt as real to her as ever.

"Pwogwam?"<sup>3

1</sup>"Is that singing,"

²"...Talen?"

³"Program?"

(Ending location: C3. Hey, she flies fast, even with the tree-dodging...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

"Ya just seem to have this thing about being with ladies that are clearly gonna outlive ya, don'cha," the little fairy in front of Jace's face asked, which pulled a stunned and confused look from him. How could it have known about either Liliana or Emmara? The Cloud Sprite he used to summon to his aid had been killed during one of Tezzeret's little 'training sessions', before she could meet either one of them. "Yoo hoo, Bele..."

...and he only knew of one being that shortened his last name like that, which annoyed him about a certain shapeshifter...

"That's none of your business," he spoke toward the little sprite with a slight growl before gently pushing it out of his way with his ungloved hand, hoping to continue through the now-bright path ahead.

"Ya didn't answer my question," the little blue creature commented as it flew in front of his face once more, annoying the illusionist.

"I refuse to," was his only response as he pushed the fairy out of his way once again, this time with slightly-less care before walking past it again. "Nor will I answer any of your questions willingly."

"We can make ya."

Jace dared to look back over his shoulder toward the blue creature, looking at it with disbelief. "I doubt you can." At this point did he see the tiny creature let loose a whistle he almost didn't hear before a huge shadow became cast over them with only slivers of light breaking though. He looked up toward the source of the shadow to see a gigantic number of pixies, fairies, sprites and other similar creatures gathered together in one area. "What the...?"

"With enough of us, we can even mind-sculpt the Mind-Sculptor," he heard with a tone of confidence before turning toward the Cloud Sprite that had been following him, glancing back toward the group above them for a moment before returning his gaze toward it with narrowed eyes. The little creature wore a confident smirk on its face, one he would like to see wiped off.

"How do you know that nickname," he asked just before the little being started wagging a finger at him.

"You won't answer my questions, but expect me to answer yours? How about this, a question for a question. We each take turns answering the other one's question. Fair enough?"

The mindmage froze. What can seem like a simple arrangement can turn into a nasty situation if handled without care. With a gulp, he lowered his head in momentary thought, allowing his cloak to completely cover his body from the neck down as he crossed his arms in front of him.

"...Fine. For your earlier question, I didn't even notice that coincidence until you mentioned it."

A single nod came from the Cloud Sprite as it floated in front of him before crossing its tiny arms. "As for your question, we were all linked to you the moment you stepped upon this path. We are given enough information to ask certain questions to make you face whatever truth you need to deal with in order to face what's at the end of the Path."

By the Eternities, this won't end well...wait, face what's at the end of this Path...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Counter Corps - Path of Death - Neos' POV~

"Wait a second," Neos finally spoke after a full minute of stunned silence. "Hydaelyn is your mother? How were you able to even create home, then? It should have been impo---" A golden hoof was gently placed over Neos' mouth to silence the confused being before lowering it back to the ground.

"Normally, it would be, but after sensing my discomfort of being in the realm she created, she told me of the Door of Origin and how it will allow the will of those it deems worthy to become truth. She warned me that not everyone made it to the Door, however. It was fortunate that she knew where the Key at the time was, so I sought it and made the journey. You already know the end result, Ditto."

The pair walked off the stone platform and onto the dirt that it had landed near, the larger beast of white appearing next to the smaller being of yellow.

"Do you know why I can't see anything in this place," Neos dared to ask the God Pokemon, whom had his red eyes momentarily closed before releasing a Flash of bright light from his body, almost blinding the human next to him from lack of warning. Unfortunately, the increase of light didn't do much to help ease the darkness of the path.

"The path toward the future is often unknowable until right before it's time to meet it," Arceus flatly stated. "There is one thing I may say to you regarding it, however. Your most-recent trainer is traveling in a damaged state."

"I've never had a trainer...wait, why did you just call Jace my trainer?" A sly smile began to cross Arceus' almost-invisible mouth as he closed his eyes once again. This time, the golden rings to either side of him began shifting colors as five shards of energy emerged from his back. One was a very-pale blue, the Icicle Plate. Another was a normal light blue, the Sky Plate. The third was a vivid blue, the Splash Plate. The fourth was a vivid pink, the Mind Plate and the last Neos did not recognize at all, which was a pale shade of pink. The five plates combined in the air and created a spherical jewel that shown with a variety of colorations, a few of them the Ditto had only ever seen in one realm.

"You will know what to do with this when you finally approach him. I give you one bit of advice, take Remembrance last. He will need all the help he can get." Before Neos can even say anything in response, the God Pokemon tapped a hoof against the ground and disappeared from view.

Neos couldn't help but look at the jewel that floated into his hand, barely larger than his palm. Giving it a tight squeeze before placing the gem into a pocket on the inside of his yellow jacket, he looked up toward one of the statues, tilting his head a bit at one of them. "Wait, who's this...?"

(Ending location: E2)

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

The Pathway of Death

 

C1 --> C4

 

"Well this is just fan-tucking-fastic! Not only do we have the presence of imminent death to worry about, but now we can't even see where it's coming from!"

 

"And whose idea was it to choose this path?! Tch, now y'know why I hate it so much."

 

"OoooOOOOOOOoooooh, big scary darkness coming to scare Azumi, oooOOOOOOOoooooh..."

 

"OW!! That was my foot, ya jackass!"

 

The Jaws of Hell sighed as it noted the tom-foolery going on inside his own cockpit. But he had to admit that the inability to see anything was disturbing. Thankfully, he had the answer installed onto him the moment he was fully-repaired from his last major battle.

 

"One moment please..." in an instant, The Jaws of Hell's eyes glowed a blinding white light, before focusing down a mighty range, revealing themselves to be extremely powerful spotlights that could see light years ahead of him. Well... according to Professor Wernstrom's calculations, they were supposed to be able to see light years ahead. But the lack of light within the Pathway of Death was so absolute that even the most powerful spotlights in the multiverse were heavily restricted.

 

"Hmm... looks like we only have eighteen meters of visibility," The Jaws of Hell stated, in a tone that'd obviously highlighted his disappointment, "It's not much, but we'll have to settle for it."

 

"What? Wernstrom said we'd have light years of visibility!" Bender protested, "That lying old bag of..."

 

"It's obviously this realm, genius," Jecht said in a sarcastic tone, before turning serious again, "Come to think of it, I'm surprised we even got this much."

 

Regardless, The Jaws of Hell kept going, scanning for the door's signature with what he could see. There was no sign of it, but there was no shortage in the number of corpses and building ruins strewn across the ground before him and his crew. This number would only grow as the crew ventured further into the Pathway of Death, but although he kept track of all that, The Jaws of Hell refused to stop. He wouldn't until he'd gotten a hold of that signature.

[Kōsuke Ueki]

And With Strange Aeons, Tsunugai & Richard

 

Soon enough, they were the last two there besides Arturia.

 

Richard proceeded to enter into the light, but stopped when Tsunugai didn't follow. "Are you coming?" Richard asked. "You go on ahead. I need to do one last thing here before anything else." Richard nodded as he proceeded to jump out of the ship, entering the White Room seconds later.

 

The Paladin slowly walked over towards Arturia, indecision in his eyes. After listening to her speech previously, it appeared that his suspicions were correct. Ever since his experience within his Perfect World, whatever he could remember has now brought about some truth that he now can no longer deny.

 

"Before you told everyone of the risk that you took, I was somehow already informed of this ahead of time. I...don't recall what I experienced in my Perfect World all that well, but it was far from perfect, considering the fact that I..." He hesitated on what he wanted to say. This was difficult for him, to say the least. "...I already knew that my universe was gone. Believe me, if this was the first that I heard of this, I would react in the same way that I did in that false world." Tsunugai then sighed, not sure how to approach this. "Unlike the others...I personally understand what was needed to be done. You took the greatest risk that you could ever do as a Counter Guardian. And I...I don't blame you for that. Even though I never got the chance to fight by Emiya's side from the start, or even Richard for that matter, I'm still grateful that I'm fighting for a cause far greater than anything I could ever imagine. Thank you Arturia. I hope to see you on the final battlefield, so that we can win this war."

 

There wasn't anything left to be said. The Paladin proceeded into the light, and left Arturia alone...

 

The White Room, Richard Mason

 

In front of the warrior was a blank canvas of a world, similar to that of the Inner Periphery before being tainted by the Madara. In front of him, were three doors differing in color and quality. The first door was pitch black with a skeleton on it. The middle one was gray and had a sword on it. And the third was snow white with the symbol of a child on it.

 

Without wasting anymore time, he proceeded to the door on the right. And thus, Richard Mason's journey of the Pathways had begun.

 

The White Room, Tsunugai

 

The Paladin pondered on which Path to take. Death, Truth, and Remembrance...

 

He has no idea as to what he could expect, even if something positive would come out of it. There's far more at stake now. He lost his world already. There was no time to think. He would just have to make up his mind on the spot, since the longer he waits, the closer Protheus gets to the Door. And he will not let that happen.

 

Without a second thought, Tsunugai chose the door on the right: the Pathway of Remembrance. What he would expect is all blind from this point forward.

 

Whatever lies before me, I hope I make the right decisions...

[The Warden]

|_)???, Lydia(_|

|_)Path of Death: D2 ½(_|

 

Lydia was staring at the old stone chair. it was doing nothing, saying nothing, generally just being nothing. And yet, tremendous rage and pain knotted in her heart as she stared at. With a furious high-pitched scream, she slammed her staff into the ground. The resulting quake destroyed what was left of the ruined house, and it dismantled the Throne of Heroes as well. She was alone in the darkness, and she still wasn't happy. None of this truly made her happy. Destroying her future so rampantly, what did it even amount too? The future was already destroyed either way; and no amount of magical voodoo would allow it to even be the same.

 

Masking her face with a gloved hand, she went off in some random direction, hoping it to be the right one. The small sphere of light followed her, bound to her will as it was the only companion in the darkness. Even though quite literally about a kilometre away, there was a five story death machine and two lovers locked in combat.

 

Companion, she realized; taking her hand away from her eyes. She looked at the small sphere of light, and gave it an inquisitive look. Shaping it with her mind, the light changed from a sphere into the shape of a small glowing boy. "What are you doing here in the dark miss?" Lydia said through the boy.

 

"Trying to find my way" she replied.

 

The glowing child put its hands on its hips as if to address her a little less formally. "Are you afraid miss? More than I ever could be. Would you like a friend to guide you in the darkness? I'd like that very much. Then I'll join you. My name is Spectre. I'm Lydia, it's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you."

 

After that unsettling act, she walked through the darkness, nothing getting in her way as her steps finally echoed on wood. She had reached the bridges just beyond Y-co-ordinate 3. Lydia retracted her foot in surprise. She hesitantly returned it. "Don't be afraid, it's safe. Go on Lydia" Spectre said comfortingly.

 

Lydia nodded as she stepped onto the bridge.

 

Path of Death: D3 ½

[Reinforce]

Path of Remembrance - Ayame

 

Walking into the deep snow that was through the doorway, Ayame couldn’t help but be struck by a vague feeling of nostalgia. After looking around carefully for a moment, she started to run through the snow, intent on moving forward as fast as possible, not paying enough attention to even notice the items buried in the snow and not caring about those looking at the items. As she passed the stone pillars, something seemed to vanish from around her, but she continued on anyway, unconcerned by the lack of it.

 

Reaching the forest, Ayame slowed down a bit, weaving around to avoid the trees as she went, only to run headfirst into some tiny slip of a person. After getting up off the ground, she turned briefly to see who she’d run into, and abruptly froze as she saw that face that she remembered.

 

“Naomi...?”

 

Ending Location: Path of Remembrance - B2

 

Path of Truth - Chandra

 

Through the door, Chandra found a dark pathway, with a faint light ahead. With barely a thought, more light sprung up around her, courtesy of the flame now sitting in her hand and illuminating the wooden pathway. As she made her way towards the faint light, it expanded and finally revealed a glass sky bridge leading up to a field, along with bright sunlight and a strong gust of wind. As she started to look around, a small group of red fairies flew down to greet her, and start asking her questions.

 

“Hello Chandra.”

 

Somewhat surprised at the little creatures floating around her, she tilted her head to look at them, even as another started to speak.

 

“Why are you here?”

 

“To save .... What’s going on?”

 

As she tried to answer, she found that the words would no longer come, before the last sentence, before her confusion at the inability to respond came out as she thought about that. Around her, the fairies seemed to giggle, before one of them responded.

 

“You can’t tell a lie here, only the truth as you truly believe it to be. If you can answer our questions, what comes later will be easier for you to defeat. So, what is your reason for being here?”

 

“I want to save ... I want to save the people I care about back in my dimension. To do that, I will help Arturia reach the Door to the Origin, so she can rewrite the universe so that dimension exists once more.

 

Slowly at first, but with more confidence as she spoke, she managed to set out her reasons, before the fairies spoke again.

 

“Is that the only reason?”

 

“It  ... No it isn’t.

 

“So what other reasons do you have for being here?”

 

“I was bored, and helping to save all of reality sounded interesting.”

 

Looking around even as she spoke, she noted with interest that there was a large group of blue fairies across the room, swarming around whoever they were talking to that she couldn’t find out who it was. Putting her curiosity for that side for a moment, she turned back to the fairies around her, waiting to see what their next question would be even as she walked to the side slightly, out of the way of anyone else who might walk down the hallway she’d entered through.

 

Path of Death - Darcy

 

Entering the pathway, the first thing noticeable to the dark witch was the oppressive feel of the darkness around her, and a vague feeling of uncertainty. In spite of being her area of expertise, the dark surrounding her was more akin to the twisted darkness of LERNA’s barrier than the energy she used for her spells and attacks. Walking forward, the witch came across the stone statues at the start of the dirt area, both curious and wary as the faint aura she hadn’t even consciously registered until then vanished from around her.

 

Looking around, she could see faint glimmers of light around, but with the lack of visibility the most she could actually find was a slight yellow form across the other side of the pathway, near the other statue, and basically nothing else ahead of her. Shrugging, she turned and walked towards the figure and statue, a small purple flame igniting in the palm of her hand to give her a bit of extra light as she made her way across.

 

Ending Location: Path of Death D3/E3

[Love of Ghibli]

Dorian: Path of Remembrance

 

Dorian looked at this other him and soon he realized the truth. This was the original him. The him before he lost his amnesia. Perplexed and riddled by the development he wondered what should he say. Well what could he say as he looked at his former self? What was weird though was how comfortable the original was. This man wasn’t phased by they fact that he was staring at another version of himself. In fact this man looked almost condescending. Was this the true Dorian?

So… you’re me? Weeellll I wouldn’t go that far. It is more true to say that you are me. Original Dorian said with a slight smirk at how complicated this situation had become. Let me explain. See this all started because I play a lot of card games and I came up with this amazing combo technique known as Sliferok. Unfortunately it required me to have my soul eaten by Ragnarok which means I had to die. Specter Dorian nodded as he was familiar with the reason he became a specter. Soo the plan was for Butler use the Necronomicon to bring me back, but it seems something went horribly wrong. Instead you went to Hell specter Dorian concluded. Yep. Luckily, Butler in his infinite insanity had kept a little piece of me inside him…probably for attachment reasons. So right before I stepped inside the portal he injected what piece of my soul he stored back into my specter body and assumed that my natural affinity for balance would bring me back to normal. Original Dorian ended he little speech with a smile.

Why are you using first person singular like I don’t exist asked specter Dorian? Because you technically don’t, or at the most you exist as me so I can say “I” and be talking about the both of us…well myself. Specter Dorian started to scowl slightly. Oh come on! If it makes you feel better you can say you’re the conscious I never had. What? Oh where did you think the “amnesia” came from? Original Dorian said mockingly with air quotes. That’s easy, in order to survive Hell I forgot about previous experiences in order to cope with the tragedy of the time. Original Dorian tilted his head to the side and made the classic “-_-“ face. When you say it out loud it sounds like even more horse****. Specter Dorian was shocked at this. Thanks to the path of Remembrance, original Dorian’s truths were more and more prevalent and powerful because they were memories.

Original Dorian let out a sigh because clearly this was the way he would have to face his demons. Okay, truth time. What you call “amnesia” in truth is the most powerful form of my stubbornness and denial. I mean, seriously I chose to forget very specific memories so I could make torture more bearable. Nothing about that makes sense. What happened was simple. I have lived my life thinking that there is nothing after death. Death is just the absence of life. So I made the fullest of my life…by making others suffer…and I had fun doing it too. I mean nothing is more fun than using money to cause harm. But once again this is under the theory that when I die nothing else will happen. Sooo you can imagine my surprise when not only did I fine out there is a Hell, but I was fated to go there. Fated, like you didn’t earn it? Anywho, the denial was strong and for the first time I actually regretted how I lived my life. So I thought that if I could do some kind of reform I would be able to escape the desolation that is Hell. But to change for a specific reason is not a genuine change. Exactly, so I basically started method acting as it were. I tried to genuinely make myself a good person. Well good in the eyes of others anyway. Eventually I became an honestly good person…also known as you.
 

Specter Dorian was a little upset to hear this is how he came to be. But then again that did make a lot of sense. That doesn’t explain everything. Like my fight with those other people. Oh…yeah….that. Umm that is some baggage I have and I chose to not take with me when I made the new persona that is “you” and I guess that would explain your “amnesia.” Original Dorian let out another sigh. Hopefully the other paths won’t cause this much stress. So before this whole adventure with the other worlds, I was a very good card player. I was selected to enter a tournament and during the course of this tournament I met a couple. Original Dorian paused as he had to rephrase that statement. No I met a boy and a girl, who over the course of two days developed a full blown loving relationship. Isn’t that a little quick to do such? EXACTLY! That was my point! I hated their cheap love bond. I found it an insult to relationships everywhere. That or I was jealous of them. Can’t remember to be honest, ironic I know. Having said all of that, I ended up loosing to them. I don’t remember the details, but I lost. I went into a rich person’s depression and I used my money to find ways to commit unspeakable horrors. Guess I never got over that.

In my depression I was approached by Isamy and offered this opportunity and I joined the Divine. Then we met Arthur. Correct, that good guy on the bad guys’ team with his pet super dog. I think Butler and I took bets on when he would defect. Butler is better at reading people needless to say. But then came that showdown in the desert. I started to see it. I witnessed that water sprite and Arthur’s chemistry…and…I think I lost it. Internally of course. They reminded me of my defeat and haven’t forgiven them for it. These cheap and tawdry bonds annoy me to no end. Though I guess it’s not their fault for making me remember bad things. I should apologize to them next time I see them.

 

So what do we do now? We do nothing. I’m back to my former self now and I guess I have to thank me/you for making me see the light. I couldn’t dream of a perfect world while being trapped in that illusion because I couldn’t come to terms with the world I had left behind. Wait…if you hated Eria then why did you give her the three God Cards? I hated that eight headed octopus wench even more. And after spending some time in her head I could see that cards would’ve been happier with her. I had one of those selfless moments that come along every once and a while. So now…Now we have to go along with the master plan that hasn’t changed since I first signed up with the Divine. Though it may have gotten more fleshed out and some parts have changed the goal is still the same.

Specter Dorian let out a slight sigh. He somewhat enjoyed this life as his own. He was enjoying using cosmos. But then again he was just a part of a whole. It was time to become that whole again. Specter Dorian dissolved into a bunch of white Rukh a became a card that floated to regular Dorian. Hmm self actualization wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. Dorian said as he held the card representing that portion of him. After a couple seconds of thought and listening to music he tore the card in half. Yeah, won’t be needing that.

 

Ten minutes later, after enjoying some more of the concert Butlerok had prepared for him Dorian arose from his Black Blood egg and he looked around at the forest of memory. Can’t imagine what more this place has for me. Buuuutttt I should probably make up for lost time. Dorian wiggled his fingers as he developed a new found appreciation for this specter body he had. He didn’t even equip his surplice yet and he was anxious to use his cosmos based powers. Dorian took off flying deep through the forest of memory bobbing and weaving around the trees hoping to close the gap with some of the other members of the Divine.

 

[Tesability Black]

~The Divine - Path of Remembrance - Tesability's POV~

Hunter and Champion, working together as one. It was as it used to be and should have stayed all those years ago. However, seeing the human in front of her looking very different than what she was used to made her wonder if this was the same Talen she once knew.

"Awe yu weawly Tawen Avawon,"¹ the NetMonster asked of the illusionary human. "Yu wook diffwent."²

The transparent woman frowned at the question, a sad look appearing on her pale face. "Tes, it's been almost 15 years since you last saw me. Hunters change in appearance as they grow older. Besides," she continued before crossing her arms and leaning against one of the nearby trees. "I was the one who kept having to bring your tail to Doc Boo after every battle near the end. Thank god you're lighter than you look."

Yep, this was Talen alright.

"Wai yu go,"³ the false dragonling asked, flapping her wings to stretch them out for a second as she grew fidgeting for being in one place for so long.

"Wasn't by choice," Talen stated before running a hand through her hair. "A virus attacked the program we hunters used to reach you guys and destroyed it. We don't know what happened afterwards, but the site we got it from had two words on it: Shade won."

A minute of silence passed between the two, neither of them knowing what to say next. "So," Talen spoke to finally break the silence. "What did happen after the NetMonster program was destroyed?"

"We fauht Shade. Beet heem, den beeg bawl of wed came owt an'...an'..."⁴ Tesability found herself burying her muzzle into the solid illusion's chest, crying though she was unable to shed tears. "...keewled evewywon an' cawapst evewydin'..."⁵

Tesability spent a few more minutes in her crying fit, the human giving the little dragon a long-overdue hug of pity. A look of guilt appeared on her own face as she felt horrible for not being able to do a thing about it. "I'm sorry, Tes, for not being there...it must have been scary being on your own for so long..."

1 "Are you really Talen Avalon,"

2 "You look different."

3 "Why you go,"

4 "We fought Shade. Beat him, then big ball of red came out and...and..."

5 "...killed everyone and collapsed everything..."

(Ending location: C3. She didn't move anywhere this time.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Jace's POV~

He did feel a slightly-familiar mind entering his range, but he assumed that it was one of the others that he warned against jumping into the portal. He was slightly amazed that anyone else survived entering into the White Room, however.

"Hey, don't you know her?" The fairy who asked that question was looking and pointing in a seemingly-random direction, which caught Jace's attention really-quick and looked toward the same direction.

His heart skipped a beat. Of all the people in the Multiverse he had expected to smack into here, she was definitely not high on the list...though he had to admit that twinning that invisible fire spell she used in Zendikar was a slightly-trippy experience.

"...I think that's Chandra," the mindmage remarked in surprise, uncrossing his arms from under his cloak. "How did she get here?"

"Most-likely the same way you did," he heard next to him, the Cloud Sprite that started this whole chain of events on this path. "There is only one way in and out of this place, after all." Gulping once, he lowered his hood and began to cautiously approach the lady in red, hoping she didn't just flat-out try to set him ablaze if it was indeed Chandra Nalaar.

 

After all, chasing after her to retrieve a particular scroll and erase the memories of it as well as accidentally releasing the Eldrazi with the aid of both her and that dragon Planeswalker were not exactly the best ways to meet someone...

 

(NEED MAP. No visual = me having difficulty with proper distance judging = me having my character pull unrealistic distance travelling sometimes.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Counter Corps - Path of Death - Neos' POV~

Though he couldn't see next to anything in this path, he still could sense those around him within a certain range. Picking up a new presence to his left as well as a minor disturbance in a small part of it, Neos allowed two tiny orbs of pale-blue light to appear in his hands. The one in his left he allowed to fall to the ground before it began to reshape itself, taking on a more-foxlike appearance with an emerald hue to its newly-shown fur. It appeared to have three tails that were tipped with a paler shade of emerald and upon its forehead was a red jewel, a ruby. The creature had a noticeable light-blue glow around itself.

"If I can still summon you, Emerald Carbuncle, I can possibly still summon the Primals as well," Neos mused more to himself as the one in his right hand began to reshape itself in something similar to an ornate polearm clearly taller than himself, soon hardening into crystalline form. While the blades of the resulting crystal weapon seemed extremely-thin, they along with the rest of the polearm glowed with a faint light of its own and would be next to impossible to destroy or even damage with traditional weaponry. You'd have to use something that disrupts soul energy to try and shatter it. Even suppressing one's ability to use most forms of magic wouldn't make the blade fade from existence now that it was forged. "See who's near, Emerald."

With a slight chirp of acknowledgement, the creature Neos referred to as the Emerald Carbuncle rushed off with unnatural speed toward the direction Neos had been facing, finding itself running up toward...

...a woman in dark-purple with a creepy-looking flame in her hand? The little creature, no bigger than a large adult poodle, stopped a few feet away from her, raising an ear up high as it tilted its head in confusion.

(Ending location: E2 Like Tes, he didn't really move.)

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

-=Tenshi Hinanai=-

 

“So is this your true nature, the path without lies?

 

This is what you truly meant by everyone having their own dark side, I believe?”

 

Tenshi gazed at the image reflected on the massive mirror-like structure in front of her. A desolate wasteland, a land devoid of any life, any hope.

 

Tenshi knew what she had to do. After taking a deep breath, she touched the mirror, and felt nothing as her hand kept on moving forward without anything stopping it. Without any hesitation, Tenshi boldly jumped forward, into the dying land in front of her.

 

 

“This is worse than I first thought…”

 

After a while of exploring the place, Tenshi found the place to be quite depressing, even for her. The stormy sky above and around her was completely grey, devoid of the lively blue color and the white clouds. Fogs obscured a lot of the landscape. The air itself was very heavy to breathe.

 

The land itself was in a worse condition than she first thought. The complete lack of life on it became more and more apparent to her, as the cracked, dry ground itself was barely able to hold itself together. Several trees still defiantly stood on the dead world, but Tenshi knew that there’s no hope for them, just as there’s no hope left for the world. The remnants of the once lively world still persisted, in the form of rotten corpses of the fairies, surrounding the barren trees. A jarring view, since just moments ago, those fairies were still very alive, insistently pestering her and others with trivial questions. While she knew that those fairies wouldn’t be the same one as the fairies from the previous part of the pathway, she still couldn’t help but feel sorry to see them rotting like this.

 

As she walked further and further there, she slowly got more and more disturbed by the place. She got sick of the sight before her, and even as she tried to ignore those, the grotesque imagery of the land kept on disturbing her. She considered to take flight, but the weather didn’t really permit her, and while she could change it at will at this point, she really did need all the energy she could get for the upcoming confrontations, and the true threats on the pathway.

 

And maybe Protheus, but she had no intention to take the risk just yet.

 

Without any other options left for her, Tenshi kept on pushing forward, further and further towards the end of the pathway.

 

-Truth, D6-

 

-=Kazuya=-

 

“Holy Dance!”

 

The rainbow-colored snake deity, Yurlungur, disposed the last of Naoya’s summoned demons, while Kazuya smashed the remaining rogue COMPs.

 

“Please stop, Naoya. I don’t really have time for this.

There is no reason for us to fight, really.”

 

Hearing Kazuya’s plea, the young man just smiled mischievously at him. Kazuya already felt that there's something quite wrong about that even before he started talking.

 

“Actually, I’m just kidding about the whole thing.”

 

“What the hell?” Kazuya was definitely not amused hearing that reply.

 

“See, the problem is, this is the only thing that you remembered about me, a distant relative that always there just to screw with your mind and being vague about whatever am I doing at that moment.

 

So no wonder if what I've doing with you all this time is only for the sake of messing with your mind.”

“What the actual-”

 

“I am not Naoya. I am what you perceived as ‘Naoya’, by your memories of me, which you remembered with some biases, and thus, the ‘me’ here is different from the ‘Naoya’ from your world.” Naoya quickly cut Kazuya mid-sentence.

 

“Is this even has anything to do with the pathway, the forest, or anything else actually?”

 

“I’ll leave that one for you to decide.

 

But now, I bid you farewell, brother!”

 

Without saying another word, Naoya blinked away from his location, into somewhere on the woods, presumably utilizing Phantasma.

 

Kazuya, still dumbfounded by the event, decided to ignore it after several minutes of speechlessness. But he decided to take some rest near the stone tower, since he wanted to make sure that he’s sane and sober enough to continue his journey on the pathway.

 

-Remembrance, C4-

 

-=Komeiji Koishi=-

 

Probably because she didn’t have any actual directions or a sense of where she had to go, Koishi ended up circling around the place, as she grabbed whatever she could solidly grab with her tentacle as a way to keep moving forward as fast as she could. Never once she questioned about what she grabbed to move around, but she did seem to get ahold of several flesh-and-bone constructs, though she probably had no interest in them anyway.

 

Before she realized it, she was already behind what seemingly to be a giant shark or something similar with arms and legs, one that looked like it was made of metal. Probably because she was fascinated with it, she decided to follow it around silently.

 

She probably didn’t even care whether the shark-thingy would be hostile or not to her. Then again, she physically couldn’t care about anything, so there’s that.

 

-Death, C4-

 

-=[ ]=-

 

“This is the White Room, I presume?

 

Elegance in simplicity.

 

Quite perfect for what its intended purpose is.”

 

The woman looked around inside the medium sized room she was in. Aside from the three doors in front of her, the room was pretty much devoid of any characteristic aside from being white. Not that she expected more, but then again, it’s not really important.

 

Using her connection with someone that had already entered one the door, presumably, she was able to pinpoint the exact entry point and destination point in the distorted existence, and that entry point led her here into the white room, a blind spot where even that connection wouldn’t be able to help her or give some information to her anymore. But she couldn’t care less about that, since she already had more than enough of the information about it to continue her pursuit.

 

“I guess I should make it clearer to myself first.

 

I should never ever reveal myself to anyone from either of those warring factions while inside. That’d just be a pain in the ass for me to handle.”

 

Satisfied with the statement, the woman inspected the doors closely once again, before deciding to enter the one with an image of a baby carved on it.

 

-Remembrance-

 

[Gαr]

Ed, Path of Remembrance

 

He and Elsa walked into the portal holding hands and appeared on the other side. He looked at the doors in decreasing order of intensity. He chose the right most door, the Path of Remembrance. Ed didn’t bother with the floating inscription, he just walked right on through. He appeared in the middle of heavy snow and in an equally snow ridden field. “Just like home.”

 

The cold didn’t bother him, it was actually rather homely in temperature, though the visibility was a small obstacle. He pulled up his coat collar a little bit because even though the cold did not bother him, snow turned into water running down his back annoyed him to no end.

 

He strolled through the field, not noticing anyone if they appeared in field of vision. Occasionally, he would almost trip over and kick up various swords. They ranged from tree branches to wooden swords to real, metal swords. He held onto one of the tree branches and continued through the snowing field. He swung it around, hitting the snow, feeling somewhat nostalgic, somehow familiar. As time went on, he practiced various sword forms he remembered, attacking invisible enemies and swordsmen.

 

It took him a while to remember that all the weapons he kicked up, including his tree branch, were the ones he used in his sword training back on Lath. When he remembered, he had already passed the stone pillars and stopped in front of the forest. He smiled and laughed at the branch. “Oh, this brings me back. Guess we all have humble beginnings.” He held onto his makeshift sword, and entered the forest.

 

The forest was a rather dank place, with the snowcapped trees and dim lighting. Ed enjoyed the silence of the forest away from the snow and wind, until it was broken by the sound of laughter. Curious, he followed the sound and hid behind a tree when he got close. What he found surprised him. He saw a couple, a male and a female, sitting on a log, but what surprised him was that they were a vampire and a human.

 

The vampire was male and had silver hair and red eyes, and the human was a woman. He was about average in height, but she quite a bit shorter than him. They were holding hands and making each giggle. They kissed before they got up and walked away. Ed didn’t bother going after them. He leaned against the tree trying to figure out who they were when he heard a familiar voice. A voice he hadn’t heard in a long time. “Hey there, hybrid.”

 

Ed ground his teeth and grinned. “And hello to you, too, Adrian.”

 

He turned around to see the silver haired vampire bastard that he so affectionately calls his rival. He hadn't changed since the last time he fought him nor did he care how he was here. "How about we just forgo the talking and get fighting?"

 

"Now you're speaking my language." They drew their swords and stood off. They stood waiting for something to set them off, to start their long awaited rematch. And as fate would have it, some snow slid of a tree branch and fell to the ground. They pounced at each other like cats, clashing swords and kicking off the fight.

 

Elsa, Path of Remembrance

 

For Elsa, what Path to take first was an easy choice, but what was on the other side was not so easy for her. The sudden snow storm was almost stifling to her. The storm itself wasn't wild or raw like the ones she used to produce when she was put under stressed, but it was just suddenness of the storm that startled and count her off guard. "To conceal, don't feel or to not conceal, and feel, that is the question." That was her mantra while she walked through the snow in heels, which was not easy, when she got an idea.

 

She brought her heel down in Kiryuin Satsuki fashion, freezing the snow in the shape of a snowflake. The single act alone made her feel powerful, but she was not quite done. She thrust her arms out and unleashed a controlled amount of her power, temporally stopping the falling snow, but she let the somewhat large amount of snow that built up in the short time fall to the ground. Her heart fluttered yet again. Her heart has been doing that a lot in the amount of time she has been a part of the CC and all for various reasons.

 

“Man, I feel stron-,“ She was cut short when she remembered the very thing that made her control her powers the way she does now. That fateful night when she was younger. The night Anna wanted to see her powers. The prophecy the trolls cast against her. She collapsed on her snowflake, hugging herself. She didn’t her emotions to create a snowstorm to protect her and express her raw emotions, there already was one.

 

Her anxiety attack soon passed, but it took a bit longer to recover some strength. Elsa stood up and brushed herself off and made herself regal again even though no one was around to see power in appearance. She stepped off her snowflake causing her to sink in the snow “Crap,” she thought.

 

She snapped off the heel of her heels by smashing them against the solid ice of her snowflake, turning them into flats. “Much better.”

 

Gon, the White Room

 

The doors were menacing, and not just because they were in appearance. Gon wasn’t exactly intuitive to things like this, but at least he knew that his decisions from now one would have repercussions. He tried to read the inscriptions under the doors, but he didn’t really get what they were trying to say.

 

“Maybe I should’ve actually paid attention to she was saying, instead of trying to figure out Killua.”

 

He sat down, facing away from the doors, trying to think, but couldn’t. He spun around and put his head in his hands. He looked at each one, trying to get a read one each one, but his eyes kept gravitating to the Path of Death. Killua said he would be taking that path and Gon wanted to follow, though he felt he shouldn’t follow. It was something for Killua to do alone, and he didn’t want to bother him.

 

He groaned and fell on his back, spreading out his arms and legs. “Killua…”

[Dad]

Kenpachi & Yachiru, Pathway of Death, Approaching A-2

 

After crossing over the border, Kenpachi and Yachiru could feel a tug around them, as if their energy had been sapped.  They looked each other in the eyes, and understood things were about to get dangerous, and quickly.

  They would tread lightly, crossing over what felt like a world of bones.  Everywhere they stepped, something crumbled at Kenpachi's feet.  And for one brief moment, Kenpachi was in total shock.  He stepped onto something hard, and metal.  The sword was curved like a scimitar, but with a much thicker, wider blade.  It's hilt was tied with a white cloth, dirtied by blood and battle.  He recognized this Zanpaktou. . . it had belonged to Ichigo.  He couldn't have died could he?  No.  No!  Unacceptable!  That bastard still owed Kenpachi a rematch!  There's nothing worse than unsettled scores.  Then Kenpachi remembered where he was:  the Pathway of Death.  This was a design intended to fault his movements and hinder his resolve.  Realizing this, Kenpachi scoffed, kicking the sword into the distance, watching it slide along the dark ground until it was no longer visible.  He raised his head, and continued forward for some two hours at a slow, but consistent walk.  Passing over the bodies of fallen comrades, he stopped occasionally, hearing their distraught voices.  Ikkaku, Hitsugaya, Byakuya.  Without saying a word, he assured himself and Byakuya that their deaths would not be in vain.

 

Coming to a bridge, a flash of light caught Kenpachi's eye in the sky above.  "Eh?  Why's it so bright now?" he said staring up.  That was when Kenpachi's blood stopped and started again.  It was him, from some time ago.  That One Winged Angel. 

 

His voice echoed loudly, interrupting the fight between the Angel and what appeared to be another Soul Reaper.

 

"SEPHIROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH!"

 

He had targeted Kenpachi before, which was fine.  But when he targeted Yachiru, remembering this brought Kenpachi into a controlled rage.  Making his presence known, he turned his head to Yachiru.  "Get down.  And put up a barrier.  Strong as you can make it," he said with blood lust in his voice.  Yachiru knew that look in Kenpachi's eye.  It was one of redemption. She nodded in compliance, standing back several hundred feet and surrounding herself in an orange bubble.  "Go get 'em Kenny."

 

Kratos, Pathway of Truth

 

The Fairies continued to pester Kratos, but he took each question with a grain of salt, attempting to maintain his temper.  Crossing the fields, the fairies finally got to the question Kratos had been anticipating, causing him to stop and sit.  Sure he was vulnerable, but honestly, who was dumb enough to attack him now?  The fairies asked again.  "Kratos!  Do you have a crush?"  He laughed a bit before finally answering.  "Yes."  The fairies looked at each other, smiling and giggling.  They buzzed around his head, joking with one another.  "Tell us Kratos!  Who is your crush?"  Kratos closed his eyes, lowered his head and kept his mouth closed.  The fairies got closer and closer, until he could hear the beat of their wings in his ear.  "Tell us Kratos!  Tell us!"  "Tell us, please!"  "Please tell us!"

 

And when he finally said something, it was not what they wanted to hear.  "I do not know her name," he said aloud.  The fairies looked at each other in confusion.  "Tell us the truth!" one demanded.  But it was the truth.  She had never introduced herself, not to Kratos at least.  "Her hair is the color of plum, and her nature is that of my own.  I wonder where this would take us," he said confidently.  Now Kratos felt encouraged.  He continued to sit, awaiting more questions from the fairies, or for someone to audaciously engage him in battle.

[Love of Ghibli]

Dorian: Path of Remembrance 

 

Since he had just gotten over that whole deal with his amnesia Dorian was flying smoothly through the forest. In Iron man fashion he was zooming through at amazing speed having some fun while he bobs and weaves around trees. This time around though the memory statues inside the forest were mostly full of specters from the brief time he was in hell. Gruesome graphics of the torture he had to endure serving as a reminder not to forget. How did the old Dorian react to this you ask. 

Skidamarink ka dink a dink skidamarink ka doo...I love you. Skidamarink ka dink a dink skidamarink ka doo...I love you. I love you in the morning and in the afternoon. I love you in the evening and underneath the moon oh skidamarink ka dink a dink skidamarink ka doo I looovveee yoouuuuu. He sang a cheery tune to past the time. Naturally he knew what the statues meant and maybe, just maybe he wanted to forget about that whole stint in Hell, but this was pretty interesting. What a persistent Pathway this is. I thought once I became myself again I would just warp to the end but I guess not. Forest is pretty long though. Dorian looked out the corner of his eye and noticed some odd tower like structure that he was just passing while it did look important he didn't want to loose focus. So he just kept on moving forward. Skidamarink ka dink a dink skidamarink ka doo...

 

(Ending location: C4)

Radamanthys & Butlerok: Path of Death

The massive specter general was suffering from something far more evil than the prospect of his future. He was suffering from immense boredom. While he didn't want to admit it he was really hoping there would be some kind of action as he walked down the path. Granted he was so used to the scenes of decay and massacre that he didn't actually notice the subtle nuances like shattered specter armor lying on the ground intermingled with the debris. Not like it would've mattered if he did notice it. In fact, one could say that he didn't notice the path for what it truly is because it was so much like his home...only a lot darker. The random flickers of light that would just show up are quite annoying and even if he used his own power that didn't provide that much light either. What a weird place this path was.

Radamanthys then heard chains rattling behind him and he wondered if this was finally an opponent for him or something to kill the boredom. He sened hostility and moved his head to the left as some weird sickle attached to a chain zipped past him. He then instantly recognized the weapon. It was the symbol of that fake Hades that the bald warrior wielded. A smile came across his face as he was hoping he could put off the rematch for  later but what a splendid gift it would be if it were to happen now. That was until he realized after his accepting of Divine Blood he remembered that this now belonged to...It's just you. From the darkness with his own flicker of light leading the way was the all powerful Butlerok wielding two Hades' weapon and chibi Ragnarok coming out of the back. 

Why you gotta sound all disappointed? We just got through fighting a bunch of Greeks and stuff to deal with Hades melodrama. It was hilarious! Too bad I couldn't eat any of them. I feel sorry for you. Radamanthys replied in a dull sarcastic manner. I take it you have not had to fight enemies as of yet. How did you know that? Because you have no problem with your future. You literally put your future in your Lord's hands removing all doubt from it meaning you have no concept of failure. This path might as well be a stroll for you Butler added. Isn't it possible that it could present a future I do not know about. I am sure self reflection does not count theories you yourself are unaware of. Well if you have seen combat then maybe walking with you will bring forth some entertainment. Couldn't hurt, safety in numbers and all. 

Even with the two standing next to each other the path didn't get any brighter. Everyone just rolled their eyes at how annoying this dimly lit path just seemed endless.

(Ending location: C5)

 

Gyouken Ren: Path of Truth

While the annoying fairies were dealt with Gyouken Ren saw this weird mirror that took her what appeared to be world of desolation and despair. Oh it was perfect. She must have entered Nirvana. Naturally she knew she was supposed to progress forward, but what was the rush. This was the scenery she had hoped for. Maybe she would take some time and relax after that daunting interrogation. Hmmm I just lied to myself. She realized. I don't need to relax I want to. Oh I can lie again. Is this world a reflection of lies? Very interesting. She commanded the black Rukh to mold the Earth around her and make a make shift lawn chair for her to sit back and relax. I don't think I've ever walked so far on my own before. Don't know why I didn't just fly. She let out a slight yawn. I think I'll take a nap for now. Surrounded by black Rukh Gyouken drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

[Kingdom Xathers]

[Path of Remembrance - Bayonetta and the Pussy-baxes]
 
"DAFUQ ARE YOU CALLING A PUSSY--?!!"
 
"Alister, uh... who are you yelling at...?" Ratchet asked uneasily as the four of them proceeded on through the snow, only stopping when the General issued his incredulous outburst toward seemingly no-one in particular.
 
Somewhat embarrassed, and hoping the others wouldn't find him (too) senile, Alister thought up a way to save face.  "Err, uh, I thought I just, er... heard someone or something make fun of us.  Might've been an echo," he fibbed.
 
Gabriel couldn't help but give a slight chuckle.  "Do any of you buy that?" asked the lion plushie in a low tone, holding on to Bayonetta's Cheshire for added company.
 
"Eh, not really," Alex whispered back, "but let's just play along--"
 
"I heard that," Alister hissed into Alexander's ear before flicking it with his fingers, making the assailed gasp out in shock.  "Alright, we've wasted enough time as it is.  Let's keep going."  He then proceeded to lead the group forward... only to trip a few seconds later over a rock hidden beneath the snow.  Alister then endured a short giggle session from his comrades as he dug himself out of the Alister-shaped snow pit he was in before taking notice of the rock he had tripped over.  Or, at least, what he had thought was an ordinary rock.  "... is that a--?!"
 
"--Surinox comet shard...?!!" Ratchet butted in, shuffling over toward the iridescent violet space rock. "... wait a sec--this is the same one we have back on the Aeon!" the young lombax exclaimed as he picked it up for a closer look at it.  "Matter of fact, I've seen this one before even that... ... it's the same one Artemis Zogg used for his Helios Teleporter."
 
"... "Artemis" Who, now?" blurted a confused Azimuth. 
 
"Long story, Al," Ratchet replied as he rolled his eyes, not interested in opening up that can of worms.  He turned his attention back to the shard in his hands.  "Wonder what it's doing here now?"
 
"Ratchet, are you really sure we should be handling that?" Alexander asked as he nervously reach a hand back to scratch the back of his head.  "I mean, we don't know if it actually came here from the ship or if it's just a facsimile created by the Path...."
 
"Even if it did come from the Aeon," Clank responded reassuringly, "I doubt it would have any function on the Pathways at all, Alexander.  Much like your own abilities, the calamity plaguing the Multiverse has most likely rendered the Surinox shard nothing more than a decorative paperweight."
 
Alexander gave a depressed sigh, once again reminded of his hindered performance.  "... yeah, I suppose you're right, Clank," he uttered as he dropped his hand to the side.
 
"Chin up, Alexander," Bayonetta chimed in, now clutching both Gabriel and Cheshire in one arm.  "Once we get this whole crisis over and done with, you'll be back to bouncing from one dimension to the next again in no time."
 
"... ... ... ... ..."
 
"Alex," Alister spoke up, sensing Alexander's unease, "are you sure you're all right?"
 
"... ... is there... blood on this thing...?"  Ratchet took one last close look at the shard, taking note of a small red splatter on the crystal's jagged surface.
 
"That... does not bode well," Gabriel uttered in a disquieted tone, worried about what the blood could possibly mean.
 
"I'd say," Bayo replied in a half-concerned, half-urgent tone before turning to face Alexander, or rather, the back of his head.  "Alex, have you always had that red stripe in your hair?"
 
"... "stripe"... ...? ...!"  Alex made to reach for the back of his head with the same hand he had used earlier, stopping just as he caught a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye: the palm of his hand, stained in red.
 
"Alex... ...?!"
 
Alex tried to make sense of what he was seeing, yet found himself failing to do so due to an overwhelming feeling of vertigo washing over him.  His vision began to fail him, it seemed.  To be more accurate, his steadily blurring vision shifted between the Path around him and the front porch of a house....  "Th... this... ... doesn't... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...."
 
"ALEX!!!"  The sound of multiple voices crying out his name was all he could register before losing consciousness, the thick snow swallowing him as he collapsed....
 
 

"... you will get BACK in here, young man, do you HEAR ME!?  ALEXANDER!!"
 
"NO!!  I am DONE with this! Do YOU hear me?!"
 
"Alex, I am giving you a direct order--!"
 
"This is EXACTLY my point!  You keep treating me like I'm one of your damned subordinates, and I am f*ckin' sick of it!!"
 
"HEY--!!"
 
"I can't TAKE this anymore, Dad!  I'm getting out of here!!"

"Yeah?!  And just what do you plan to go, huh?!!  What the hell are you going to do--?!"
 
"I don't care what!  I! DON'T! CARE!!  I don't care where I have to go, or what I need to do!  Just as long as I don't have to be anywhere near you anymo--!!"
 
CRACK!!!
 
"... Alex...?"
 
"... guh... ... ugh... ... th... this doesn't... change a thing... ... I... I still... ha... ... ... ... ...."
 
"ALEX!!!"

...

...

...

...

...

"... Alex... ... ALEX!  Please... Alex, you have to wake up...!"

 

 

"... Alex... ... ALEX!  Please... Alex, you have to wake up...!"

 

A weak groan escaping his lips, Alexander stirred as he slowly opened his eyes, seeing Ratchet, Azimuth, Bayonetta, Clank and Gabriel all circled around him, each looking down on him with a worried look on their face, some of whom made way for a relieved expression upon realizing that Alex was okay.  "Wh... what happened...?" Alexander stammered as he sat himself upright, still feeling somewhat lightheaded.

 

"You tell us, Alex," Gabriel replied as he hopped from Bayonetta's arm onto Alex's shoulder.  "One minute you were bleeding profusely from the back of your head," the plushie explained as he lightly bopped his soft hand against the spot on the lombax's head where said blood was running, "and the next moment, it was like it never happened."

 

Still confused over the whole ordeal, Alex reach his hand to the back of his head once more, then held the palm in front of his face.  No blood, just as the plushie had said.  "But... just a moment ago...."

 

"My guess," Bayonetta spoke as she helped Alex to his feet, "is that the Pathway caused you to experience a memory of yours, both mentally and physically.  Rather cheeky of it, if you ask me.  Even so, it does somewhat explain that scar you have hidden under your hair, if you can forgive us for examining you while you were... are you all right, Alexander?" she added, taking note of the lombax's teary-eyed look.

 

Alexander gave a sigh as he shook his head.  "... not really, no...."

 

 

 

"So, you're saying," Ratchet asked as they continued through the snow-covered Path, "that the same Surinox shard that was sampled to create the Dimensionators and was used for Zogg's teleportation device was first found when Alex was struck by it?"

 

"Small galaxy," Alister uttered as he pondered this as well.  "Although I guess, in a way, it explains how Alexander first received his dimensional abilities."

 

"Sounds like the origin story of a comic book superhero, if you ask me," chimed Gabriel, once again being carried in Bayonetta's arms, close to her chest (the lucky plushie bastard...).

 

"Guys, can we please stop talking about it?" Alexander asked as calmly as possible, feeling somewhat uncomfortable and agitated.  "It's bad enough that I had to relive that memory the way I did."

 

"Sorry, Alex," Ratchet replied sincerely.

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sykes Huegares/Sephiroth:

 

Their eyes were locked and their blades were raised as they were readying for yet another round in their fierce battle. However, a rush of strong energy suddenly flooded into their own; a powerful and familiar energy that couldn't help but make the two combatants change where they were looking. "Zaraki...Kenpachi?" The two had said the man's name at the same time, but only Sykes Huegares had questioned his presence. Sephiroth dropped down to the ground so he might converse with the man. "This is quite the surprise, I was sure you had perished, I couldn't sense your darkness at all." Sephiroth meant to speak another sentence, but Sykes' blade appearing from his left made him raise a quick guard, it was then that Sykes had dropped to where they were standing. "You'll do well not to forget whom you're fighting."

 

Sykes turned to Kenpachi with an emotionless stare. "You must be a version of the man from another world, the Zarak Kenpachi I've met is now dead, along with all other Shinigami from my world. I will kill this man, and if you have any intention of getting in the way of that..." Sykes pointed his blade towards Zaraki. "I've no problem killing another Zaraki Kenpachi, after all, there can't be much difference in the way of power between the two." Once his threat was made he immediately concluded how useless the words were; Sykes could tell from the look in Kenpachi's eye that he would let no other kill Sephiroth.

 

"It won't matter how we fight." Sephiroth, who was now at Kenpachi's right side, spoke before swinging at him. "Because you will both soon be memories..." The Masamune clashed with Kenpachi's Zanpaktou. Sykes, however, would decide to take advantage of both of his targets being in the exact same spot. "Hado #91 Senjū Kōten Taihō." Several spears of light were summoned at the two as they clashed blades. When the spears connected there would be a devastating explosion. "Hmph." Sephiroth sounded, taking off straight up to dodge the spears and leave Kenpachi exposed. Sykes blade had appeared at his right and the block Sephiroth rose was to slow to save him from a small injury on his arm. The two locked eyes once again, but there was now a third to worry about.

[Reinforce]

Path of Truth - Chandra

 

"Hey, do you happen to know that guy, he seems interested in us?"

 

Glancing to the side at the fairy's words, all her thoughts seemed to jam to a halt. It was him, the man mentioned by that CC before she'd entered the portal and the man she still wanted to beat in a fight. Turning towards him, her eyes narrowed as her gaze fell solely on the blue-robed man. With barely a second thought, her gauntlet started to glow with infused mana and flames blossomed into life over both of her hands. As they did, she moved, starting to run towards the man, and two words burned in the forefront of her mind as those same words roared through her throat as an unusual battle cry.

 

"Jace Beleren"

 

-----

 

Path of Death - Darcy

 

As the dark witch approached the form she could see in the distance, it seemed to resolve itself into a man wearing a ridiculously bright suit and hat. As she moved though, she could see something coming closer too, what appeared to be an emerald fox. More interesting was the intelligence it seemed to have, stopping and simply looking at her rather than outright attacking. 

 

"You're an unusual one, not many people bother to change the colour of foxes, even if they're capable of it."

 

She made sure to speak loud enough for her voice to carry, wondering if either would get offended by the words. Even if not, just the colour of the suit would give her an easy point to pick at if needed.

 

Location: E2

[Dad]

Kenpachi

 

 

He was wary of the other Soul Reaper.  And by his words, he had already killed Kenpachi in another universe.  But not now.  Not this Kenpachi.  Not that Kenpachi didn't understand this man was a threat, but by no means was he interested in his words.  And after Sephiroth had approached Kenpachi, walking past him with that same attitude as before, it ignited a flame in Kenpachi.  And this talk of darkness.  What exactly was Sephiroth trying to sense?  The only darkness here was the Path of Death.  Or perhaps Kenpachi wasn't as wary as he believed.  Regardless, it was finally time for a bit of payback, and if this Soul Reaper decided he was going to be an innocent in the crossfire, it was fine with Kenpachi.  

 

 

"Hado #91 Senjū Kōten Taihō."

 

 

A high ranking Hado spell.  He hadn't seen it coming, so he had no choice but to brace for the impact, as Sephiroth swiftly dodged it.  After the initial explosion, Kenpachi kicked away the spears, breaking them and shaking off the singe from his arms.  He was irritated, and refused to let this sudden third party stand in the way of his promise.  Before Sykes and Sephiroth could clash again, Kenpachi cut them off at the middle, now facing Sykes.  He pointed his Zanpaktou at the Soul Reaper’s face, proclaiming, “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t really care.  But me and Sephiroth got a score to settle.  So if I were you,” Kenpachi’s reiatsu slowly leaked out from his soul.  Now the air was much heavier, and thicker than before.  His golden aura slowly began to climb, from the sole of his feet, until it engulfed his entire body.  “I’d stay outta my way!”  He brought down a heavy, one-handed, overhead swing, as the brawl ensued.

 

 

 

Kratos

 

 

For some time now, Kratos actually continued telling all of his secrets, deepest truths, fears, and even regrets to these creatures, and he had no idea why.  No one else was around to hear him besides the fairies, but it was strange even to him.  Perhaps Kratos was finally maturing, and coming of age.  Still, he couldn't help but feel he was being watched.  Kratos finally stood up, leaning now against a cherry blossom tree.  He listened patiently for the sound of footsteps, but he could not hear anything of mention.  The bridge he had crossed come time ago was barely in view in the distance.  He could make out a shadow of others crossing it, but he wouldn't be able to tell who was who.  He turned back to the upcoming end of the field, expecting to see and endless plain of trees, animals, and fairies.  Instead, there was a rather abrupt end, and a large mirror that did not seem to reflect the world he was seeing now, but a more desolate land that he had not yet seen.  As Kratos got closer, the mirror reminded him of something.  It was very familiar.  This magic reminded Kratos of the way the Sister's crossed time, through their own mirror.  And when the Sisters of Fate were finally killed, Kratos had crossed into their mirror, rewinding time and reaching a point at which the Titans had not yet been defeated.  He had sought to use the Titans to defeat Zeus, but they only got in his way.  Yes, this mirrored world was very familiar.  It looked much like Tartarus.  Bleak, burned, vast, and empty.  Kratos wondered what lie in wait on the other side.  A challenge?  Surely, some formidable foe lie in wait on the other side of this mirror.  It took him one hour to reach the mirror from the center of the plains where he had picked up from.  Placing a hand over it, Kratos could feel his hand move through the mirror and onto the opposite side.  Once he was sure, Kratos took a footstep in, and jumped through.

 

 

The air was thick, and smelled strange.  It was almost as bad as the sulfur fumes of the Pits, or the brimstone of the Underworld.  There was a harsh wind that kicked up a powerful dust in every direction, but it wouldn't cloak his skin any more than it already was.  This mirrored world.  This was where Kratos would find what he was looking for.  The bodies of the fairies he'd left behind were scattered throughout, and decaying quickly.  Staying here for too long would be a bother.  Kratos pressed on, en route to find the next objective. 

 

 

Wesker

 

 

He was disgusted.  Upon leaving the dark, wooden corridors, he found himself. . . in a plain of flowers, fairies, and pretty trees?  What was this nonsense?  There was a glass bridge he could cross, but he simply leaped past it.  The Pathway of Truth eh?  "Truly disgusting.  If I could be anymore honest, this is really offensive.  I mean, honestly."  Wesker took his time, only spotting the occasional shadow in the distance.  When he had leaped, he spotted a gray pathway ahead, but it was some kilometers from him.  He began a quick paced walk, attempting to rid himself of this cutesy bullcrap as soon as possible.  But before he could get too far, he was bombarded by the fairies of the pathway.  They began to bombard him with questions, annoying him immediately.  And such rude questions.  Instead of answering, Wesker swiped his hand left and right, killing six of them faster than a blink.  The fairies grew angry with him, and began to attack him with stingers and . . .more questions.  He continued to swat them to death, cursing under his breath as he proceeded towards the exit.

 

 

Wesker had been annoyed before, but this was worse than trying to get Iluminados to capture Ashley.  “She’s just a girl!  Only Leon Is protecting her!” he’d say.  “But she was wearing a suit of armor!” they would reply.  Why the devil would she be wearing a suit of armor!?  Those God damn fairies now had the faces of Leon and Ashley, and irked him even more.  A hidden tentacle found it’s way out of his coat, and severed the heads of more fairies as he went.  “Insubordinate.  And churlish.” He may as well take a few samples of these. . .creatures to experiment with.  You never know what a few pieces of flesh could do.  Not with the virus at least.

 

Killua

 

“What the—“ there was an abrupt roar coming from the northwest of Killua’s location.  It was best to avoid that, considering he could feel the rage behind the bellowing, even from a kilometer away.  He had finally made it past the safety barrier, as he felt the ‘life force’ leave him.   The ground was more stable now, and easier to traverse.  He couldn’t see much further than before, and it had gotten darker since he entered the pathway.  It had been near six hours since he started, and now Killua began to wonder what had become of Gon.  He didn’t expect Gon to take the same path as he did.  Secretly, Killua had hoped for it, but he knew that Gon was strong with or without him.  The last time they took separate paths, in Trick Tower, they came out on top.  The same strategy may not apply now, but it had a strong probability of success.  And that was their goal.  A highly probable success.

 

 

“Good luck, Gon,” he whispered to himself, as he dashed forward, heading north-northeast.  He moved quickly, but found himself slowing down when he began to see oddly familiar trash below him, in his peripheral vision.   “Is that—“ he picked up a large needle, with a yellow bob on it’s end.  One of Illumi’s.  But why was it here?  That’s when it hit him.  Could he have been pinned again?  After Gon’s revival, and their separation at the World Tree. .  .what had happened?  Suddenly, he couldn’t remember.  Killua began to panick.  His breathing got shallow, and he took rapid breaths.  Another Universe?  Magical portals?  Space ships?  He had to be pinned!  There’s no way any of this was--!  But the wound was healed.  He pressed two fingers against the back of his head, where he had pulled one of Illumi’s needles from, once before.  The scar was still there.  No denying that.  Still, he had to be wary. 

 

Calming down at last, Killua gathered himself.  He had to retain his composure, in order to be in top fighting form.  There was no telling who or what he was going to run into on this bleak pathway.  It would be some time before Killua reached the bridge, which was still over two kilometers away.  Deciding to preserve his energy, Killua went into a light jog, slowly gaining on what seemed like endless darkness.