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

[Kōsuke Ueki]

Pathway of Remembrance, Richard Mason

 

The extremely cold temperatures and violent Arctic-like winds were harsh, but just barely tolerable. And much to his surprise, his armor hadn't started rusting the moment he started traversing the storm. But considering that where Richard was wasn't natural, there really isn't anything to be surprised about.

 

If it wasn't for the harsh winds, the amount of time that passes would be cut by a decent amount. But who is he to complain? He needed to keep moving.

 

Hours have passed; how many is unknown to him, but Richard has narrowed it down to at least three. He had only reached the halfway point of first area, and still had much ground to cover.

 

However, suddenly, he took another step, and he heard a clang. Metal on metal, it seemed. He took his foot off where he stepped and bent down to dig into the snow. After some digging, he came across something that brought back some tension that he thought he came to accept. It was a sword, cold to the touch, coated in dried blood. And not just any blood. Werewolf blood. He knew very well what happened with this sword, and when...

 

Lath, 20 Years Ago

 

A child, created for a mysterious purpose, born into a secret legend misinterpreted over many generations.

 

The legend originally speaks of the "City of the Dark" unleashing a mysterious plague when the full moon "glows like the crimson blood of the impure". As a result, a phenomenon takes place when humans begin to take the form of unspoken abominations that host the plague within them to be able to infect other humans, with a nature like an unrelenting predator.

 

It is not known as to how the plague is possible, but theories explain that the plague is a form of viral mana that takes away the will of the victim and replaces it with natural predator instincts. The legend says that it will start in a certain point in time and continue to happen annually.

 

The legend also speaks of a man who has a special mana from birth which has the power to resist and destroy the viral mana of the plague. He would come in contact with a "Cave of Gods" and be granted the godly power of the elves of old to push back the plague for good.

 

Over time, though, the legend had become nothing more of a myth to the people who believed that this man was a destroyer of worlds and the "Draconic Beast" was sent to protect the people of Lath, creating an army to do so. But, very few people know the truth. This man, is the one with the power to return peace to the "City of the Dark", otherwise known in Lath as the dark city of Noirlune.

 

That man, is Richard Mason...

 

Pathway of Remembrance

 

Surely enough, Richard examined the sword for a while. He never forgot about what happened that day, when he should have been with his parents during the time of the Eclipse.  But everything happens for a reason. If not for what had come of his parents, he wouldn't be where he was today.

 

But surely enough, the gruesome memory still remains fresh in his mind...

 

Noirlune, Lath, 9 Years Ago

 

18-year-old Richard Mason stood in Noirlune's main square, where an announcement was taking place, though his parents couldn't make it as they were busy. The strange phenomenon that had plagued the city annually for the last two years was now to be expected to happen on this day. The leader of Noirlune's City Council, whose name escapes everybody's memory, has prepared to speak about this crisis. His plans would benefit all who knew someone to have fallen victim to the plague and prevent more casualties. But young Richard, he believes that if the plague are to be avoided, the source would have to be unveiled and be rid of.

 

"Thank you all for coming." began the leader of the City Council. "Today is the day in which the new phenomenon that started two years ago will come about again. As of now, there's no sign of the crimson moon taking place, but here's what you can do to avoid becoming infected with this plague and becoming one of 'them'." He then took out a piece of paper holding a list of actions. "Firstly, if you are unaware of when the crimson moon shall take form, the bell tower will ring three times to indicate it's begun. Second, you must all board up all open areas of your homes, including fireplaces, to ensure you don't come in contact with the crimson moon, or 'them'. Now any questions before I continue?"

 

He waited a few seconds to make sure he didn't miss anybody wanting to ask something. "Nobody?" he asked the crowd. Sighing, he continued to read off the list. "Thirdly, if any children or parents are left out of their homes the moment the crimson moon comes about, it's already too late to save them. Either they will be found by 'them', or become one of 'them'. Finally, do not confront or fight any of 'them' if they enter your house. It'll be too late once they find a way to reach you and infect you, or possibly devour you." He then put down the list, finishing his point. "Now, who would like to input on these new rules? Anybody?" Waiting a little longer, he noticed Richard's hand go up.

 

"Ah, you have some input young man?" he asked. Richard nodded as he walked up to the stage and lifted himself onto it. The City Council Leader then gave Richard the stand and he proceeded to the pedestal. "Actually, there is much that I'd to touch upon, if you do not mind?" The Leader then gave Richard the 'go ahead' gesture. Richard nodded as he looked out into the audience, all diverse with humans and vampires alike. "The day that this phenomenon took its course two years ago, was a day that brought confusion, but also a great relief to my life. Why? Because I was unaffected by this plague in its entirety."

 

Confusion and conversation spread amongst the crowd as the City Council Leader was shocked. "But how?" he had asked. "I cannot explain it, but it seems as if I'm the only human who is completely resistant to this plague." Richard began. "But I'd like to touch upon my opinion to these new rules. What I believe is, we should not have to cowardly hide ourselves in order to live another day. We should be able to fight back with every ounce of strength within ourselves, to make sure that we try to push this force, whatever it is, back into the chasm in which it originated." The conversations began to grow louder, and Richard had begun to chuckle.

 

"Your skepticism is healthy." he told the crowd. Silence then ensued as Richard continued. "But if we don't fight, how will peace be achieved? The coward's way out of a battle is either suicide or just letting the enemy finish you without any clear hesitation. Do you all want to be seen as cowards? Cowardly actions are foolish even in the face of death. These abominations are nothing more than savages that can be hunted down. Once one of your family becomes one of them, it's already too late to save them. They become complete animals, and will do nothing more than eat your flesh if you don't fight back!"

 

Richard's anger had become to take over a little, but he sighed and calmed himself as more silence continued through the crowd. "All I am saying is, you shouldn't let your lives be in vain. If you fight, you'll know that you did what you could to stop this plague. That's all I have to say. Thank you." He then walked off the stage and left through the back of the stage, returning home. "Well, that was an interesting opinion." said the City Council Leader.

 

About half an hour passes, and the streets have become quite silent all of a sudden. Then, Richard heard the Bell Tower ring once. His heart stopped. If it rang three times, it's time to run. He heard the bell a second time, and then a third...

 

Not hearing a fourth, Richard ran with a rush of adrenaline bringing him to his house. He then sees the moon glow crimson red, and begins to hear screaming from behind him. But, he knew that he wasn't effected, so that was something. But, he was the only one, and so his life is at serious risk, and most likely everybody who is outside. Because he was running so much, he could hear snarls from behind him, and the abominations were chasing him. But, because he didn't want to look back, he barely saw what those things had on them. Rough brown fur, claws, and fangs. Just like a wolf. He had the perfect word to describe them. Werewolves.

 

Getting a pretty good distance on the human-wolf hybrids, he slams the door in his house and seals it up with a wooden bar. Breathing heavily, he begins to search for his parents. "Mother, Father!?" he called, though there was no response. Entering the largest room in the house, mainly where the front door is, he kicks down the door to see if his parents are there. They were there, alright. But the door was open, and the only thing in the room, was blood, his parents' corpses, and a werewolf devouring both of them. The Werewolf had noticed him after Richard kicked down the door, and had begun to snarl at him.

 

The blood, the death, and the predator. Rage had consumed Richard as the werewolf had lunged on him, Richard keeping the beast's fangs at bay with his hands having a strong grasp at its neck. His anger has gone over the edge. He struggled the push the werewolf off of him using his feet. He eventually knocked it off and pushed it back pretty far, far enough to recuperate and look to his right. There was a sword, a longsword to be exact, used mainly for display purposes, that would be the perfect weapon. He then jumped for it and barely grabbed it, as the werewolf had lunged again. Richard then stabbed the beast through the stomach, and it howled in pain.

 

Quickly pulling the sword out of its wound, Richard dodged a swipe from the werewolf and rolled behind it. He then proceeded to swing at its neck as it turned its head. Before it could attack, Richard decapitated the beast, breathing heavily as the human-wolf hybrid corpse fell to the ground lifeless. He proceeded to close the door and placed the bar down to prevent any more break-ins by those beasts. Richard then dropped the sword and walked up to his parents' corpses. He dropped to his knees in despair. Tears had begun to flood his face, and he now wished that he was home when this happened, and that this would be the most tragic plague out of them all.

 

Pathway of Remembrance

 

A single tear was shed. But it froze seconds after. He didn't shed a tear because of the pain, nor by the fact that it happened. Rather, he has to live with this pain for the rest of his life, but it would be used for the right reasons. 9 years have passed, and the pain is nothing new. But now, the pain has become numb to him after so long, but it still hurts nonetheless. One thing can be assured, is that Richard will have to face far more than he realizes. 

 

"Maybe one day..." Richard said for the first time since he left the Aeon. "...maybe one day, I'll see them again. And when I do, I'll know they'll be proud of me for how far I have come."

 

Without saying another word, the warrior advanced on through the storm, soon entering into a dense forest, in which the storm seemed to escalate...

 

(Location: C2)

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sykes Huegares/Sephiroth:

 

The battled had begun, and after Kenpachi made it clear that he wasn't made dead nor heavily damaged, he charged in with impressive strength. He brought a massive downward cut on top of Sykes, who rose his own blade to defend. Initially he absorbed the blow of the sword, but allowed the radiating reitsu to push him back a short distance from Kenpachi. However, orbs of darkness had just then fallen from the sky, originating from Sephiroth, and slammed into the middle of the two combatants. The resulting blast pushed them even further apart while dealing slight damage.

 

"I see you won't stay out of this confrontations, unfortunately, I am the few who believe that three is a crowd."  Sykes tossed his blade into the air so that it would be spinning. "Casting an Honorable and Judgmental Glance..." Sykes's own sleeve and glove from his right arm deteriorated, there was no skin, only a bone caught the new version of the blade. This blade had been light blue in color, with a red and handle and a ruby decorating the bottom of the hilt that was as black as the bottom of some deep dark ocean. "I will deal with you for a second time in just a moment."

 

It was as if Sykes was still there, Kenpachi would still be able to see him, and yet there was a clash from two blades overhead in the same instant. Sykes and Sephiroth had clashed once again, but it was only an afterimage that Sephiroth was clashing with. For at the the next moment, Sykes had been above him, the black ruby giving a slight glint before firing a brilliant stream of black energy that engulfed the One-Winged Angel and forced him to the ground. Just as some recovery might have started for Sephiroth, Sykes was already in front of him, and with one diagonal slash his internal organs as well as his black wing had been cut through. "Go now, and be forgotten." At those words, the same Sephiroth had said to Sykes just before killing him the first time, the Masamune fell with an almost inaudible sound as it hit the ground. Soon after, The Man in the Black Cape met the same ground that his weapon had.

 

With the seemingly killed Sephiroth now out of his way, Sykes had turned his attentions towards the man who he had killed once before. "You should feel accomplished, well, more accomplished than the other version of yourself." Sykes announced, taking small steps towards Kenpachi but after a fourth step he stopped, but Kenpachi would feel a moderately deep cut on his right shoulder. "My blade wasn't released to kill you the first time." His voice now came from behind Kenpachi, it wasn't teleportation, it was pure speed.

[Dad]

Kenpachi

 

Sykes had parried the blow, but it was to be expected.  Separating himself from Kenpachi, the Soul Reaper made a move towards Sephiroth.

 

"I see you won't stay out of this confrontation, unfortunately, I am the few who believe that three is a crowd."

 

His arm became destroyed and his Zanpaktou had transformed.  This was Sykes' shikai, and with that new weapon, he seemed to have vanished for just an instant, incapacitating Sephiroth.  Kenpachi watched the One Winged Angel fall quickly, in shock to say the least.  These movements, that cocky attitude, and the power that backed it up.  Kenpachi was disgusted, because he was reminded of Byakuya.  It was that same moment that allowed Kenpachi to be caught off guard, as Sykes vanished behind him now.  He looked over his shoulder to the Soul Reaper, at the same time that a deep gash appeared on his right shoulder.  Kenpachi scoffed, irritated more, now than ever.  Not because he had taken the blow, not because he was reminded of Sephiroth.  He was being dishonored by a man he didn't know.  It was disrespectful.  And no one, no one, dishonors a Kenpachi.  "You may have killed another version of myself," Kenpachi spoke as his reiatsu began to build.  "But I can promise you this:  he and I are not the same."  Still facing away from Sykes', Kenpachi channeled that anger, his reiatsu spilling over completely now, as he barreled in a ball of light at the Soul Reaper.  They dueled.  Kenpachi let loose a flurry of heavy strikes, jabbing Sykes once across his ribs, while the others were parried.  When their blades clashed again, Kenpachi forced both their blades to angle just enough so that he could get in close, and see Sykes' face.  Growling, he demanded, "Who are you!?"  Sykes' only chuckled, before being greeted with a headbutt.  Kenpachi followed fast as Sykes reeled backwards, and tried to rend the Soul Reaper in half with a swing to his now exposed mid section.  

 

But Sykes was fast, avoiding the swipe, and kicking Kenpachi in the chest in one, smooth roll of his body.  However, Kenpachi did not flinch from the kick, and instead grabbed Sykes by his leg, swinging the Soul Reaper over his head, planting him in the ground.  Kenpachi turned around and brought his blade up once more in a downward point.  With both hands on the hilt, he stabbed at Sykes' chest.

 

Wesker

 

Finally reaching the middle of the fields, Wesker had claimed a number of fairies as victims, at which time they stopped pestering him.  He could now clearly see the mirror from this point in the pathway.  It was silver, and reflected and alternate version of the world he was currently standing in.  "Another portal," he claimed as he began walking towards it.  As he passed trees, he would snap them at their roots, kicking the sakura trees to the ground.  "Stick me in some childish world will you?" he asked no one.

 

Kratos

 

He could tell now that the pathway was going to get harder to cross.  As he braced the weather, the air got harder, and harder to breathe.  Approaching what was once before a row of sakura trees, were now lifeless, barren sticks.  The plains had dried up, cracked where ever you would look.  The sky was dreary, and it didn't help that Kratos felt he was being watched.  He had an eerie feeling that eyes were on him, but he had no idea where from.  He turned around, and could barely see other figures approaching the mirror.  Was it them he felt?  That was his best guess.  He decided to ignore the feeling for now, and try to quickly get out of this hellish place.Over the course of two hours, he would climb the slope of the plains, past the withered trees, and barely reach it's top, where he could see the bridge he had crossed before.  Beyond that, the former wooden halls that had guided him to these fields in the first place.   Was there something behind it?  Was he going in circles?  It was a bit annoying, but he had no choice but to find out for himself.  Turning back was a waste of time, and would give the opposition an advantage.  

[Tesability Black]

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

 

It had been far over a decade since this has happened, a Champion flying alongside her holographic Hunter, ready to take on the world around them. Tesability had missed this greatly, almost not wishing to leave the path in case her long-lost partner couldn't follow with her if she were to leave it. While the NetMonster had a happy smile on her muzzle, the transparent human had a serious look on her face, as if thinking about something.

 

Not that Tesability took notice anyway.

 

"Skidamarink ka dink a dink skidamarink ka doo..."

 

Both Hunter and Champion stopped in their tracks as they approached the stone tower ahead of them in their flight at the words they heard once close enough, causing the pair to exchange looks with each other in confusion.

 

"That sounded like something from Blue's Clues, da hell?"

 

"Bwue'sh Cwuesh?"¹

 

"...nevermind. Let's just see who that was."

 

"I think not."

 

The human flickered out of view for a brief second while the dragon almost went white in the same amount of time. They both looked back toward the stone tower just in time to see someone come out of it. The person wore black robes that hid every part of their anatomy, even the face couldn't be seen under the hood because of how dark it was under it. Around the waist was simple robe tied around like a belt and a curved staff was held by this newcomer, even though the hands were covered by the sleeves. An faint aura of red light surrounded the stranger that almost didn't seem to be their own. Tesability entered a battle stance and began growling upon seeing the red orbs that glowed faintly underneath the darkness of the robe's hood, her own black eyes narrowed as her partner entered a combat stance of her own, ready to strike back should things go south.

 

"Yu be ded, Shade,"² the dragon roared before lunging forward toward the strange mage, who simply raised his staff and summoned up a wall of earth between them, forcing the little dragon to go nose-first into it with a resounding 'SMACK!' that anyone in the tower would have heard. Tesability bounced off the wall and landed once more with her tail in the air and her eyes with spirals, her Hunter fast at her side to make sure the dragon was alright.

 

"Ah, the Tricky Dragon still lives. I figured Nemesis would have destroyed you as well as the rest of the Internet world, but I seem to be wrong."

 

1 "Blue's Clues?"

 

2 "You be dead, Shade,"

 

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

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

 

"Jace Beleren"

 

Chandra had began to run toward him, causing him to drop a few foul litanies in his head as he readied a counterspell in his ungloved left hand incase the fire mage tried flinging any flames at him.

 

"Calm down," Jace shouted back as he tried to summon an illusion to make himself look like he's somewhere else in the area. "I do not wish to fight." He managed to make it look like he was still calm, but he was actually panicking. He already knew his Water and Wind manipulation abilities were shot, but now it seems like his illusions weren't working, either!

 

"You cannot lie on this path," he heard behind himself as he began to back up as Chandra rapidly approached. "Illusions are a form of lie."

 

With this in mind, Jace about-faced and bolted further down the path as fast as he could run, even though Chandra was quickly catching up to him, proving which of the two was the more fit. The whole time he ran, he let out quite a few swears under his breath one would not believe he knew...

 

(Permission granted to tackle and pin him down to the ground, Sim.)

 

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

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

 

"You're an unusual one," Neos had heard from the darkly-dressed lady that was now barely in his view due to Emerald Carbuncle's glow. "Not many people bother to change the colour of foxes, even if they're capable of it."

 

Neos found himself mentally wondering what a 'fox' was when he glanced back toward the little creature, who was sitting calmly near her now while keeping its little eyes on the lady in case she tried anything.

 

Before he could even open his mouth to respond, he heard a sudden bellow, almost as if it came from a great distance away to his left with a large tone of rage to it, prompting him to turn his head in that general direction.

 

"What...on Earth...was that?" After a second, the brightly-dressed man shook his head before returning his gaze toward the newcomer, the lance held in his right hand next to him, the bottom end resting upon the ground with the bladed end reaching just over his head. He didn't recall her being among those of the ship he had been on just before starting this chain of paths, which means she was most-likely one of the Divine he had been hearing about. "And what you call 'unusual' I now call 'pretty-normal'."

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sykes Huegares

 

They had been clashing forcefully for many minutes now, and many more minutes still they clashed. Until, at one moment, Sykes had found himself on his back and now facing the thrust of Kenpachi's sword. To which, Sykes gave a smirk as a barrier of black energy intercepted the stab in its entirety; it was so thin that Kenpachi would still be able to see the man, and yet so powerful that Kenpachi's attack hadn't made any damage, not even a scratch. In one moment the energy expanded and pushed Kenpachi back, and in the next, Sykes had brought down a slash onto Kenpachi. Their blades met but not before a shallow wound had been made on Knepachi's opposite shoulder.

 

The two titans disengaged and stared each other down for a short while, it was then that Sykes decided to respond to Kenpachi's inquiry. "Who am I, you ask. A trivial question at a time such as this, in the heat of battle. You must be different from the Kenpachi I once killed, for he would not ask such questions if the battle was enjoyable. Perhaps I've misjudged you, and for that I issue the slightest of apologies." Sykes rambled, and continued on with his speech before Kenpachi could respond. "My name is Sykes Huegares, and you might think we're similar, and you might think that you could properly gauge my powers based on the tiers of power that Soul Reapers are based upon. However, this is where you've misjudged me." Sykes explained as he started taking slow steps towards Kenpachi.

 

 

 

"I might seem a Soul Reaper to you, but that would be an incorrect assumption; my race is not any you might know, and you won't find any others for I have killed them all. The Depthicana were a race of creature that hated life, wanted to destroy it all. Our first opposition, the Arrancar and Hallow were quickly exterminated, we conquered Hueco Mundo and destroyed it. Though we had defeated most powerful Soul Reapers by this point, they hadn't been completely exterminated as of yet; this was the next step that we had accomplished. After, we vanquished all human life and existences, with all of their souls simply disintegrating. All was finished, we had gotten what we wanted, and the other Depthicana were satisfied, but I could only mourn; for after everything had been reduced to rubble and there was nothing left...that was it, only our own horrors remained. This was why I decided The Depthicana could no longer be an existing power, I slayed them all and when I was the only remaining power in that world I was approached by two figures. Emiya and Isamy, who made their respective offers, both of which I declined after hearing about the door; I decided to search for it myself and correct my world as well as being the guiding force of justice throughout existence." Sykes explained, his past seeming to be a rather dark and destructive one.

 

"And as for my power." Sykes pointed his blade at Kenpachi now, signifying his next movement would be an offensive one. "Since this might appear to be some sort of Zanpaktou, and since you've already assumed I was a Soul Reaper, you must have also assumed that this would be a primary release; a Shikai, I believe that is the name your lot has bestowed to the power." Sykes contined, shattering any idea of Sykes power and person that Kenpachi might have formed. "I've only one release, and it's what you see upon you now, and in comparison to the Soul Reaper power tier, it far surpasses the rank of a mere Bankai; allow me to demonstrate." With his still incredible speed, Sykes clashed with Kenpachi again, only to be at his back the next moment where he delivered a powerful kick that forced Kenpachi forward.

 

Sykes tossed his blade into the air and moved in on Kenpachi, to which Kenpachi swung his sword blade across Sykes which seem to run right through him but didn't injure. In actuality, Sykes had used his speed to swiftly duck and create an afterimage effect of him still standing there, before it was realized an uppercut into the Kenpachi's stomach was already delivered. After that, it seemed as though Kenpachi could do nothing escape the flow of Sykes's punches that landed all over his upper body. Sykes then landed a powerful punch to Kenpachi's face that had him on the ground, this was when Sykes caught his blade and used the black Ruby to create yet another powerful stream of powerful black energy. The dome of power that was created engulfed both Kenpachi and Sykes and left them in the resulting crater. Sykes appeared at the edge, his smoking and tattered cloths revealing that he had done damage to himself with his last assault, but Kenpachi had taken much more. "Do you see now, that I am no Soul Reaper?"  Sykes announced, chuckling at the mere thought.

[Dad]

Wesker

 

Just on the other side, there was someone who had already crossed into the mirrored world.  Was he brave, or foolish?  Being one of the first to cross a field leaves you open to all sorts of attacks, not to mention being dragged into last in one swift movement.  This was opportune for Albert, however.  He had many options with this lead man.  He was crossing the border of decrepit trees, making his way to the open field.  It was there Albert could make his move.  He could observe from afar, study the target.  Gathering weaknesses was something Albert enjoyed.  Exploiting a target until they simply begged for death was a very sweet, and satisfying joy.  The look of pain, anguish, and fear.  That stray tear that falls from their eyes as they whimper and whine was always the saltiest.  Or he could eliminate the competition immediately.  Judging from the man's appearance and his own memory, this one was not part of the Divine.  Wesker still chuckled at the thought of a faction name of self-absorbed wannabes who's only goal was to get a reset button on their lives.  How distasteful.  Regardless, he was going to move much more swiftly now, since he had a lot more play things to look forward to.  He began to dart towards the mirror when he heard a rush behind him.  One member of the Divine Albert recalled, as he heard the man's name shouted across the fields now.

 

"Jace Beleren"

 

"Hmm?"  This came from another's mouth, one he did not recognize.  Wesker's mouth turned up into a sinister grin as he watched the events unfold from a nearby tree.  The other, Jace, had cast some kind of illusion in an attempt to evade this female who pursued him.  But it had failed, and the chase continued.  Wesker wondered how they would feel about having a little fun.  This was his chance to collect more data, and perhaps use the virus he carried to a greater extent later.  Wesker crumpled so fairy bodies in his hand, molding their soft flesh together in a disgusting heap of meat and wings.  A tentacle slithered from under his sleeve, and pierced the mold, injecting it with the virus from his body.  He saved some fairy bodies for later, just in case.  The clump began to twitch and bubble, until it began to speak out in pain.  It grew in size, and Wesker dropped it from his hand.  The clump of flesh rolled on the ground, and eventually split in two, then four, and finally eight.  Their bodies were similar to lickers, but they had eyes and average tongues.  They were humanoid.  They had legs and arms, but moved on all fours like dogs.  Their skin was pale and they had incredibly long claws, at least ten inches long.  They screeched out, at each other, and then at Wesker, who silenced them with a glare from behind his shades.  He pointed in the direction of Jace and his pursuer and uttered one word.  "Hunt."

 

The creatures leaped away, extremely high into the air.  Two of the Hunters bounced from tree to tree, while four others ran along the ground, growling loudly like mad dogs.  The remaining two hunters were falling from the air, each having Jace and Chandra in their sights.

 

Kenpachi

 

He struggled for a moment, spitting blood from his mouth.  Faster than Byakuya, stronger than the old man, more complacent than Kurosaki.  This was very, very apparent.  Though not unexpected.  But something that Kenpachi understood well, more than most that he knew, was the secret to a good fight.  Kenpachi's mind had started to waiver, wondering if he could grasp a victory, but he quickly withdrew from his doubt.   Getting to his feet, Kenpachi dusted himself off, and wiped the dust from his Zanpaktou.  He apologized to his blade, for the lack of trust between them, as he turned to face Sykes.  It was as Sykes stated; he was not a Soul Reaper.  Perhaps that mistake led to the heavy damage Kenpachi had taken up to this point.  In combination with forgetting about his own Zanpaktou, and using it as a mere tool to slay those he regarded as enemies, he was in turn, failing himself and those he cared about.  Scratching his head, Kenpachi shook those thoughts from his mind and sighed.  "Good grief," he said at last.  "It's obvious, yes, that you ain't a Soul Reaper.  But I am," he said tightening his grip on this Zanpaktou.  "And I find that the one thing you other types seem to hang on to more than us, is disregard.  You think because I'm a Soul Reaper I'm at a disadvantage, but that's your biggest mistake, Sykes."  Kenpachi could relate to this.  He too had underestimated opponents before, leading to more than one of his few losses.  "But lastly, you keep comparing me to other Shinigami you've fought. But as I told ya before, we ain't the same."  Kenpachi threw his Zanpaktou over his right shoulder now, as the air swirled around him, and he continued to speak.  "Ya know, at one time, I wouldn't have even considered a Shikai.  And I've always told myself and a bunch of other folks, 'Bankai is for the weak.'  But obtaining the former,"

 

The air swirled faster and faster, as Kenpachi continued to speak.  "Has put a lot of things into perspective.  It ain't about bein' weak.  It's about admitting you need to stop grasping at straws, and allow your blade--no, your Zanpaktou, to aid you.  Accepting help doesn't make you weak.  It makes you smart."  Kenpachi realized that, if he was going to draw a victory from this battle, he would need help; and it would be from a good friend.  "I don't know about the other Kenpachi you fought, but seeing as how you killed him, I can't see I need to know much more.  Instead, I'd like to introduce you to someone," Kenpachi said as the swirling storm around him engulfed him completely, before rising in funnel and rocketing into the air.  "Drink, Nozarashi."  The funnel dissipated outwards with extreme force, forcing Yachiru to brace herself, even behind her shield.  She watched in awe from a distance, admiring Kenpachi's words.  "Kenny. . " she muttered with her eyes wide and her hands against the bubble, waiting for the dust to settle.  His ragged blade was much more prideful now, having widened a great deal.  It took the form of a large axe, with a cloth wrapped handle, and a square tassel covering it's broad top.  Kenpachi smiled, observing his Zanpaktou's new appearance.  "So this is what you look like," he said proudly.  

 

It was much heavier, but not overly so.  It felt good in Kenpachi's hands, as he began to chuckle.  "I only wish we had met sooner, Nozarashi."  Still over his shoulder, Kenpachi threw his weight into his legs, and moved like a bullet.  With two hands above his head, Kenpachi found himself standing directly in front of Sykes, Nozarashi raised high.  He intended to end this battle while he still could.  Yachiru however, wasn't so certain.  From her view, she wasn't sure if this new strength could break Sykes' barrier.  Despite her disbelief, she cheered for her best friend.  "Do it Kenny!  Give it everything you got!"  Her wish was heard loud and clear, as Kenpachi brought down Nozarashi towards Sykes.

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sykes Huegares

 

Sykes had listened to Kenpachi's words and watched as he had released his own weapon, into it's Shikai form that was some sort of an axe. Next, the Soul Reaper ran towards him and then jumped high in the air, bringing down his axe onto Sykes with ferocious power. Sykes had only given a smirk to this attempt, as the axe blade was met with the thin black energy of Sykes's barrier and remained on the edge. "Do you see now that there is nothing for you to win? I will admit that the Kenpachi I had killed previously did not possess this same skill, but can you now see why it didn't matter, you'll parish regardless. You shouldn't feel too bad though, this barrier was something that not even Isamy could damage me thro-" A simple crack formed in the barrier, and then weight of the axe followed, just as Sykes was finishing his last statement. When the impressive power; a large cloud of dust flew into the air.

 

"Ophelia...perhaps I am empty." Sykes began to think as the blood pooled around him, the dust blocking Kenpachi's sight as his blade returned to its former shape. "All of this time, during the length of my existence, I've been trying to find a solution, but if I was the problem...yes. Now the last of the Depthicana has been killed, my own breed that I've hated so much will finally be at an end." Sykes laid motionless on the ground now, wondering about his past all the while. This was when Kenpachi made his approach to inspect Sykes's body, to make sure that he had gotten the kill. He crouched down and saw the immense damage that his own cut had done, and the blood pooling around Sykes's body. Suddenly Sykes's hand shot up and grabbed Kenpachi by the shoulder, but Kenpachi didn't recoil, this would be whatever small energy reserve his opponent had left. Kenpachi allowed Sykes to pull him closer to his mouth so that he could hear. "If you have a soul, you must take it down the path with you....all can die here, but better than that, all can be killed..." This was Sykes's last words as his hand fell to the ground of the battlefield, it was the embodiment of the information needed to accomplish a task that Sykes knew he would have to complete in order to use the door.

 

Kenpachi stood and turned to walk back to Yachiru, he stumbled but didn't go down to a knee, he was feeling the last battle quite a bit. Nonetheless, he pressed on after that brief hiccup. Yachiru has a certain look upon her face however, this fight wasn't over, or at the very least, they couldn't leave this area. "I supposed that's all then, the last of Ophelia's little friends has been vanquished, quite sad really." The voice had belonged to Sephiroth, who had risen from the ground who knew how long ago. The wound he received from Sykes would not allow him to fly, and it also wasn't completely healed signifying that his energy reserves might also not be what they were at full. "Where are you running to? Don't you still despise me, don't you still want to settle our disagreement from The Shadow Realm? Or did you not think that I didn't hold something against you as you did me." Sephiroth said, his sword pointing towards Kenpachi now, with the damage they each have taken, could they truly go through another round of fighting?

[Dad]

Kenpachi

 

"Sykes.  You fool.  Another man with the power to change the world, caught up in a book with a predetermined ending.  You should've written your own chapter, instead of closing out someone else's story.  It would have been interesting to fight at your side."  Those were Kenpachi's last thoughts about the Depthicana.  He had begun to revel in his victory, but it was short lived.  Sephiroth was still alive, and determined to finish what they started.  It was only the honorable thing to do.  Kenpachi grunted, forcing a smile as he turned to face his opponent.  Yachiru had lowered her bubble to catch Kenpachi as he had stumbled, but he assured her he could at least stand.

 

 

"Where are you running to? Don't you still despise me, don't you still want to settle our disagreement from The Shadow Realm? Or did you not think that I didn't hold something against you as you did me."

 

"Heh.  I suppose I do still owe you for that disgrace you did me," he uttered.  His Zanpaktou had reverted to it's standard form, and Kenpachi knew he didn't have much strength left.  But judging by his opponent's state, neither did Sephiroth.  Kenpachi raised his blade, and prepared for one last bout.  "Come on, Sephiroth.  This will be the last time you close your eyes, and get up again!"  With all he could muster, Kenpachi lunged in.  Sephiroth followed suit, and they met half way.  Blade on blade, they stared into each other's eyes.  Kenpachi raised the first question, as they shoved each other off, and bounced back in repeatedly.  Kicking Sephiroth away, Kenpachi shook blood from his blade.  "Why Sephiroth?  Is that something you lack, honor?  Because you attacked an innocent.  She's all I got left, and you tried to take her from me.  That's unforgivable," he said angrily.  A smile crossed the angel's face as he stared back at Kenpachi.  They met again, blade on blade, but Sephiroth found an opening first.  He had switched stances and caught Kenpachi off guard, gashing his left leg.  Kenpachi retaliated, driving an elbow into Sephiroth's chin and separating them once more.  The One Winged Angel wiped blood from his chin, and raised a finger to the air, before turning it on Kenpachi.  A barrage of black orbs rained down, forcing Kenpachi to run.  He ducked and dove, dodging all but two of the black spheres.  One which caught his left arm, and the other which flew into the distance, nearly striking Yachiru.  Her sense of battle was still as keen as ever, and she managed to roll out of the way.

 

Kenpachi snarled, wondering if Sephiroth had done this on purpose, and they met again.  This time, Kenpachi found an opening, when their blades angled upwards he managed to get in a sharp right hook, and bury the angel in the ground.  But Sephiroth retaliated quickly, kicking Kenpachi with great force, sending him skywards and back down again.  They both struggled to their feet, as their eyes met again.

[Reinforce]

Pathway of Truth - Chandra

 

Chasing after the insufferably composed blue mage, she saw him seem to try a spell, only for nothing to happen and the man to start running. Thankfully, she was fitter than the other mage, and was quickly catching up to him even as she pondered what he'd said before responding, anger fuelling her words as the fire burned around her fists.

 

"You don't wish to fight. Oh that's just fantastic. You show up here on the pathway, as a member of the Divine, and have the nerve to tell me you don't want to fight."

 

As she got close enough and was about to tackle him, a growl from behind pulled her out of her single-minded focus. Throwing her left hand forward, flames vanishing as it reached for his cloak, she spun around to face the things that were charging towards them from further in the path. Humanoid creatures were rushing towards the two of them, some from the woods and a couple from the air. As they did, she scowled at them before bringing her right hand pointing towards them. Quickly choosing her response, a pair of Searing Spears flew directly at the two in the sky and a group of six Fiery Hellhounds burst into existence in front of her, one for each of the creatures coming from the woods.

 

Pathway of Death - Darcy

 

"I have no idea what that roar was, but it sure doesn't sound happy, whatever it was."

 

Carefully looking over the man before her, taking note of his rather nice physique even as she cringed at the colour scheme he was wearing.

 

"Well, my unusual is probably different to yours anyway, different places of origin and all that. You can probably put that lance away anyway, if you're that eager for a fight there will probably be chances later on."

 

With that, the purple flame she had been holding vanished, and was just as quickly replaced by a purple light, floating just in front of her. With a smirk to the guy nearby, she started to walk further into the area, keeping her senses alert in case might try to attack her from behind.

 

Location: E2

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

-=Tenco=-

 

“..Huff, huff…

 

Did I manage to get away from him?”

 

Tenco breathed heavily after she ran as fast as she could from the “angel”..thing, she didn’t know. She didn’t want to know about what the hell he actually was either, and she preferred to not think about him again. When she caught up with her breath, she looked behind, and was relieved when she noticed that there were no signs of that freak around.

 

Though, just as she felt like she was out of trouble, she immediately realized that as she ran away as fast as possible from the freak, she unknowingly had reached the mirror at the end of the pathway, without her actually noticing it before. She was awestruck at first due to the sheer scale and design of the mirror, but a slight glance towards what was the mirror reflected immediately caught her attention. The image on the mirror was pretty much similar to what was currently behind her, but with a disturbing twist. The image reflected on the mirror was not of a pleasant pathway with cherry blossoms, blue sky, and fairies dancing around, and instead was a dying place, completely dry land, grim sky, and bodies of fairies littered around several points across the mirrored image. But, despite the difference, it definitely was a reflection, not a simple image or something else, a twisted reflection, but still a reflection.

 

“I’d jump there if I were you.” A fairy suddenly appeared on Tenco’s side, musing about something. Tenco, who was still pretty confused about the entire thing, decided to ask a question to the fairy to hopefully shed some light to this place.

 

“Hiya there, miss fairy, I guess? May I ask about what is this mirror actually?”

 

“Truth to be told, in my opinion it’s not exactly a mirror in function. It is closer to a portal or a divider, and if you enter it, you’ll be transported to that dreary world over there.

 

Now, in return, I want to ask you a-

 

Hey!”

 

As soon as Tenco heard about the mirror being a portal, she immediately rushed forward towards it, and emerged on the other side of the place. What was there was not exactly what she expected. It was worse than what she saw. The lingering feeling of something wrong with the place, the gloomy and stormy atmosphere, and the dead-ness of the place made her somewhat uncomfortable. And to make things worse, she emerged on the other side just as a shady-looking man around 30 meters from her summoned several humanoid creatures that gave Tenco a case of stomach-ache just by her seeing them. While she definitely had no intention to actually directly confront the shady man, his mere presence made her worried enough for her to summon her sword, and prepared her pyromancy flame.

 

“...Oh well, let’s hope that he didn’t notice me so I can safely get away from this unnecessary encounter.”

 

 

 

-=Reimu Hakurei=-

 

Deciding to just stop using the light from the Yin Yang orbs on the path, Reimu decided to just float around, and relied purely on her instinct to lead her way throughout the pitch-black pathway. What she saw on the Pathway before managed to still shake her, and just to avoid seeing something similar to that again, she decided to stumble blindly there. There were also the weird, undecipherable sounds in the air, but Reimu wasn’t really bothered with them.

 

“What was that?” Reimu detected something that definitely sounded dissimilar to the undecipherable mess going around. It was the sound of blades meeting one another. There was a battle going on somewhere there, and from how loud it could be heard from her position, it seems that it’s quite close to her current position. Her curiosity dictated her to try finding the source of that sound and investigate, but her guts and logic said otherwise. Deciding that the risk was too big compared to whatever she could possibly gain from investigating the battle, Reimu continued to float blindly, ignoring the continuous sounds of clashing blades.

 

-=B-2 Death=-

 

 

-=Komeiji Koishi=-

 

The gigantic shark moved quite funnily, in Koishi’s opinion. Though, it was apparently too slow to her liking. While at first she seemed to be pretty accepting to it, later on it was pretty clear that she seemed to have started getting annoyed by it, probably. Not really wanting to wait longer, Koishi started to tear up the fabric of space in front of her with her hands, creating something that would end up as a gap to the boundary world, big enough for her to pass through.

 

Several seconds later, she reappeared around a hundred or so meters in front of the shark-thingy, just as she noticed two guys were talking to each other somewhere in front of her. Probably deciding that the two would be pretty amusing or something, she ran directly towards them, hand stretched, making a bird impression or something. The narrator wasn’t really sure about what’s actually going on in her mind, so we’re just going to assume that she’s probably just doing a bird run for the sake of doing it, or something.

 

-=C-5 Death=-

 

 

[spoiler=Hell Rose Labyrinth/Yakumo Yukari]

 

-=Yakumo Yukari=-

 

“Omnidirectional Projectile Massacre: Yukari’s Circus!”

 

Several gaps appeared behind Yukari as she declared her attack against the moon rabbit army surrounding her. Within seconds, countless amounts of magic missiles and other miscellaneous projectiles was fired from the gaps, each of them capable of decimating several of the rabbits. Yukari watched in delight as the moon rabbits were completely annihilated, some explodes into a gory mess from the impact with the missiles, some just vaporized into thin air. Some rabbits managed to fire a shot from their weapons before Yukari managed to blast them to oblivion, and while those shots managed to hit her due to their timebending rifles’ unique nature, but Yukari just shrugged off the bullet wounds she sustained from them as she kept bombarding them with projectiles.

 

What were left when she was done were nothing more than a mess of charred flesh and barely recognizable body parts all over the place, though Yukari immediately frowned a bit when she realized that the rose wall of the labyrinth did not even suffer any amount of damages from the bombardment. A sudden stroke of pain reminded Yukari to check up her wounds from the rifle shots that she didn’t manage to dodge, and much to her bemusement, the barrage left a sizable hole on her chest, and several smaller holes and damages all over her body.

 

 

 

 

While that kind of wound definitely would’ve killed most beings, Yukari just viewed those as inconveniences. Not something to make a big fuss about, though it did hurt quite a lot. Though, where she was wounded suddenly reminded her of the event when that certain moon rabbit came quite close in killing her, and that somewhat made her concerned due to the detail of what actually happened during that time.

 

“Nah, why would she know about this event anyway? Even if she’s still alive, she shouldn’t be able to see anything due to her closed eye. And really, it's too soon to assume that this place would try to mimic that event from all things.” It was a weak reassurance, but Yukari kept on repeating those words as she continued her travel through the maze due to her fear on what could happen if her theory was correct.

 

But thankfully, the rest of her walk was merely filled with a dissonant serenity, strange voices aside.

 

 

 

 

 

It took her a shorter time than expected to reach what she presumed to be the dead-center of the labyrinth. The core of it was something quite resembling a dome made of stained glass, with a figure of Koishi depicted on the glass. Finally seeing a trace of the mistress of the labyrinth in front of her, Yukari couldn’t keep her frustrations to herself anymore, and let them all out, all at once.

 

“Koishi, what the hell are you on about anyway? You sealed yourself away from me, yet you invited me inside when given the chance. You wanted me to reach this place, yet you attempted to murder me with the moon rabbits and other threats. What is even the purpose of this maze?

 

What are you even trying to accomplish here? Damn it! Can you even hear my voice?”

 

No answers. Of course no one would answer her. She was merely talking to the image of Koishi, it would be simply delusional for her to expect answers from it. Sighing, Yukari decided to approach the dome to investigate it further. The strange voices became stronger and stronger as she went closer to the glass dome, but Yukari ignored them as if they didn’t even exist.

 

“You…you’re the one that kept me alive, aren’t you? You want me to live, but why?

You…helped the moon princesses to take away everything that ever mattered to me, yet you want me to keep on living? What kind of sick mind is stored there inside your head?”

 

The complete lack of change to the environment was seemingly mocking Yukari’s attempt to talk to Koishi.

 

“KOISHI! LISTEN TO ME! ANSWER ME!”

 

Completely frustrated, Yukari punched the stained glass dome as hard as she could with her wounded body. An act that at first, only left a small crack on the dome, but it soon spread everywhere on the dome, and the dome slowly collapsed, to reveal what was inside all the time.

 

“Ah...You're finally here, Yukari. With you here, I guess it’s time to reveal the cat in my box.

 

But firstly, I’m sorry for everything, and now I’ll try my best to explain the situation to you to remove any traces of misunderstanding between us.

 

I hope…I really hope you can forgive me after what I’ll say.

 

For I hoped that we could work together without any malice between us.”

 

 

 

 

[Dad]

Wesker

 

 

Watching from afar, a grin crossed his wicked face.  He watched the female chuck two flaming spears to pierce the hearts of the two high pouncing hunters, killing them instantaneously.  "Fire?  I could build a lot with that."  As the six remaining hunters pursued, they were greeted with six dogs that appeared as though they came straight from the bowels of hell.  The six of them locked claws, going back in forth in a tug of war.  "Fiery hounds?  With the DNA of those dogs and little of the virus . . . Don’t eat them you imbeciles!"  The Hunters had gained a slight advantage, wounding one of the six hellhounds.  They had attempted to digest the fallen one, before Wesker stopped them.  "Bring it to me." One of the hunters escaped, rolling the fallen hellhound over to him, leaving the other Hunters to fend for themselves.  Unfortunately, the Hellhounds would kill the remaining five hunters.  After the surviving hunter returned to Wesker, he stabbed a tentacle into its back, absorbing its mind and body.  The one hellhound the Hunter had brought to him, Wesker snatched up quickly.  Grabbing it with a bladed tentacle, he stabbed into the creature and began to absorb its DNA.  One more to add to the pool of the virus.  He couldn't go back to manipulating dead fairies now.  He was going to need more of a powerhouse.  That being said, he wasn't willing to reveal any new cards in the game just yet.  Before the remaining hellhounds could chase him, Wesker leaped away.  He wasn't able to gather much information, other than knowing the Counter Corps had a fire manipulator on their side.  But with this new creature in his blood, he would be able to create something . . . monstrous.  Just before his leave, he made very brief contact with Chandra, whom he did not know, disappearing with an evil smile.

 

 

He had sneaked his way back to the tree line just before the mirror that reflected an alternate world.  Beyond it, the second part of the pathway and the next step to reaching global saturation.  There wasn't much standing in Wesker's way, but he still had to keep on his toes.  This fire manipulator, whoever she was, had proven to at least be competent.  That was to say he expected the least.  In like fashion, he expected his “allies” to also be intelligent enough to slow down the Counter Corps, and let Wesker have his way.  This Protheus person would be a challenge however.  He would worry about dealing with the Divine leader when it was appropriate. 

 

 

Killua

 

He had reached the bridge at last.  It was, to say very little, highly unstable.  It was wooden, and looked as though a gust of wind would cause it to collapse and take whoever was on it, plunging into the darkness below.  There was no telling how deep it was, and the smartest bet was not to find out.  If worst came to worst, Killua could simply leap the bridge.  However, at the risk of running into something hidden in the already blinding darkness, he would cross the bridge normally.  He took to it slowly, catching himself each time the bridge rocked, prepared to jump for it.  The bridge swayed, several times and very frequently, but Killua took his time.  There were no railings or safeguards, so he had to be on his toes.  It stretched for at least a mile, twisting and turning every which way.  Killua stopped once to see if there was anyone behind him, but not being able to see anything past the palm of his hand led him to believe that was a silly idea.

 

 

Killua reached what felt like a midway point, as the voices of the dead around him continued to grow louder.  It was though . . . they were coming directly at him.  Killua ducked as he felt a powerful gust of wind roll over his body, nearly knocking him off the bridge.  He scrambled back atop it, catching his balance.  He had to get off this bridge, and now.  He entered into Godspeed, desperate to get past this chokehold.  Dashing, he watched his every footstep, as he crossed the winding bridge.  The voices chased him, but to no avail.  He was incredibly fast, and had reached the end of the bridge before he knew it.  Though on solid ground again, he still felt uneasy.  This pathway was dark in more than one sense, and it was trying to dig into his brain.  But thanks to dealing with Illumi and many others over the past few years, Killua’s mental strength was impeccable.  This allowed him to brace for what he saw next:  a tower so high and massive that he could think of only one thing similar to it.  “Heaven’s Arena . . .”

 

 

Kratos

 

The mirrored realm had gotten brutal.  Winds roared furiously in every direction, often changing very abruptly.  The air got thicker as he traveled, making it harder to breathe.  In addition, climbing in altitude made things even more challenging.  Even Mount Olympus was easier to scale than this.  Paying respect to that old world, as Kratos walked, he reminisced about the places he’d been.  That which was most like this mirrored world on the Path of Truth, were the Pits of Tartarus.  He still remembered the dry, cracked land, the endless depths, the violent storms and tornadoes.  He recalled the demons that lurked in the pits as well.  Harpies, sirens, wraiths, sentries.  He had slaughtered them all, ripping off their limbs and beating them to death with their own arms.  Gouging out their eyeballs and ripping their heads in two.  Cutting their bodies down the middle and tossing it far away.  He had gone as far as turning enemies against each other, and turning them into tools.  But in the end it was all meaningless.  He had scaled the highest mountain, defeated the gods and yet . . . .

 

 

Here he stood.  Kratos remembered very little after seeing Athena’s spirit again.  Before he could grasp the Blade of Olympus he was being hurled into Arthuria’s presence.  Now he was in a world that was as strange as it was real, and it was giving him a real challenge.  He proceeded further in, where the winds grew even stronger.  It was difficult to see, as large grey clouds of dust kicked up as the winds blew, temporarily blinding Kratos and slowing him to a crawl.  He shielded his eyes, pressing on still.  Occasionally, the winds slacked, giving Kratos a brief view of what was to come.  Yet, Kratos still felt as though he was being watched from behind.  Someone was keeping tabs on him, but the warrior marched on.  Finally reach the top of the barren plains, Kratos could make out the glass bridges from before.  He would have thought he was going backwards if it weren’t for the mirror he had climbed through.  Still, it was becoming even more difficult to fight through these gusts.  Kratos decided to call on some help.  He drew out his Hades’ Claws, and slashed at the ground below him.  From the depths of what looked to be a swirling portal to nowhere, crawled a large creature with three heads, two wings, and one tail.  It’s primary head and main body was that of a lion, and it’s secondary, top head was that of a ram.  Its tail also had a head, and was that of a snake.  This was a chimera, which Kratos had taken on long ago.  It growled at him ferociously, and pounced at Kratos’ side, circling him until Kratos finally glared into the face of the ram.  The Chimera finally lie down at its master’s feet, and Kratos rubbed the mane of the beast.  “I need your help, Chimera,” he said calmly.  “There is a great, challenging distance I must cross to reach my goal.  Will you aid me?”  The lion roared, nudging Kratos onto it’s back.  He rolled over onto to the Chimera, gripping its mane.  “Forward!”  The Chimera roared, and leaped forward.  This would cut Kratos’ travel time in half.  Though even in these conditions, the Chimera would also have a rough time traversing the Path of Truth.  He buried his head low, into the Chimera’s mane, shielding his face from the harsh winds and dust.  They leaped past trees, sped over the corpses of hundreds of fairies, and fought through the dry plains as quickly as they could.

 

 

Over the course of four hours, the bridges drew closer and closer to Kratos’ view.  During that time, the Chimera’s strength began to fade.  By the time he had reached the bridges, the Chimera collapsed, panting heavily at his feet.  “Rest easy.  You’ve done well.”  The beast faded back into the Underworld, its body leaving a dry imprint in the cracked ground.  Kratos would have to fight the rest of the way through the pathway alone.  He could see now the corridors he had entered through, that were no longer wooden.  Instead, the corridors were crystal, and appeared magnificent, even in the ragged Pathway.  Kratos had to cross the bridges first, however.  He hopped over a rotting log and approached the bridge, when he felt something too heavy to be wind rushing at him from the right.  A dirtied, heavy white cloak hid the figure, as it hurled black lightning bolts at Kratos while simultaneous charging him.  Kratos deflected two of the lightning bolts, and dodge the third.  He then greeted the cloaked figure with his hands, and they locked grips trying to shove the other to the ground.  Kratos finally gained the advantage, flipping the mystery person to his right.  During the flip, Kratos could make out scars on the figure’s wrist and arms, but they disappeared as the cloaked person stood up.

 

 

Kratos did not speak to the challenger, but instead drew the Blades of Chaos from his back.  The figure changed its stance, no longer attempting to hurl lightning at him.  Instead, the figure made an upwards motion with their hands, and pillars of green fire hurled towards Kratos, who rolled out of the way.  It seemed to Kratos that, whoever this was, knew all about his past, and knew exactly what Kratos’ greatest enemies could do.  He would have to combine all of his previous knowledge, and use it to defeat the strange assailant.  Kratos lunged, and began to tussle with the cloaked figure.

 

[Tesability Black]

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

The fact that someone tried to attack the pair surprised him a bit more than the fact that Chandra almost had his face in the dirt a few seconds ago, the sight of the strange creatures prompting him to hit the ground on his own accord when one of them suddenly swooped down over his head, barely missing by a few inches. Rolling onto his back, the man in blue saw an onslaught of chaos ensue around him. Chandra had summoned a minor pack of hellhounds after the airborne creatures, one of them being taken away by one of the monsters after its death while the others were consumed by the burning canines.

Jace followed the path it took with his eyes to see someone he didn't quite recall seeing before, though considering the number of beings in the Asteroid, this wouldn't be all that surprising. "Who the hell was that?" Before he could fully stand up onto his feet, the stranger suddenly fled from the scene after appearing to absorb the hellhound with a strange tentacle.

He suddenly became thankful all the times he had to deal with both the Golgari and the Simic had steeled his stomach to sights like this.

"Both Neos and Kallist warned that you wouldn't be able to rely on your magic forever." He froze upon hearing this sentence, a void of emotion suddenly sweeping the area for a few moments. Jace slowly turned his head toward the little blue pixie that had spoken those words, a wave of rage and indigence suddenly filling the void as he did with an intense fury normally unseed in his eyes. He lifted his ungloved hand toward the pixie as he whispered words that someone who didn't know what to listen for would never understand, the tiny creature instantly holding its hands to its throat as it began to suffocate.

Mind Control.

"You know nothing about Kallist, so you don't get the right to speak of him," he barely managed to say above a struggled whisper through clenched teeth, stray tears starting to fall from his face as a feeling of loss began to interweave with the rage he projected...

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

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

"More like nothing truly phases me after...I think this is the fourth universe I've been in now?" Seeing her suddenly walk off before he finished his partial-question, Neos simply shrugged before looking up toward the hooded statues once more, shaking his head before looking up toward the crystalline lance in his hand.

"Meh, even I admit this is too much. Rather have something I can play baseball with." With this did the crystal that formed the weapon become energy once more, transforming into something slightly shorter and more simple in design. Once the energy re-hardened itself, it had become a crystallized quarterstaff with no discernible traits other than the blue light that glowed slightly brighter than before, the staff now just about his head in height instead of a full few feet above him. "Better. Come on, Emerald." The glowing kitsune-like creature hopped up onto Neos' left shoulder as he began using the staff as a walking stick, the false human began to move forward after the lady, admittedly using the light in front of her to guide himself...

[Love of Ghibli]

Dorian Path of Remembrance

 

With one last push Dorian flew right out of the forest and gave an abrupt landing outside of the last tree. Well that was...somewhat eventful. I wonder how everyone else is doing though. What a minute. I don't really care. Well onward and...Dorian couldn't even complete his statement as he was soon struck by a massive blizzard. The harsh winds and immense coldness came out of nowhere and it seemed that the storm wasn't going to let up soon. Thanks to his learned use of Cosmos Dorian easily encased himself in flames to keep warm though he often wondered how long it would take for him to actually tire out. Furthermore he didn't know how far this little storm thing carried on, therefore it would mean that flying and maintaining this level Cosmos is actually counter-intuitive. Ugh time for the slow march to nowhere. This better end soon. (C 7.5)

Butlerok & Rhadamanthys: Path of Death

The two super powered beings walked down the horrific narrow bridge of darkness completely annoyed. Granted they did look up and seemed to pass some kind of massive machine. What manner of machinery is that? Not sure, I do have vague memories of it patrolling the skies of Isamy's castle. I guess that means that we can assume it is an ally. I also deduce that this proves that all of the paths are connected meaning we can possibly meet all of the divine...and we will meet the enemy as well. Rhadamanthys said as he let his murderous aura slip. As his bloodlust crept across his face with a smile he stopped abruptly as he felt something was off. Think of it like an animal's instinct, he felt like he was being watched. Naturally he turned around abruptly, but he realized there was nothing there. He even used his cosmos to give him a sort of sight beyond sight, but once again nothing. It looked like the path was finally starting to get to him. Just weird holistically though.

What was hilarious though was in truth with the use of his Cosmos he was able to see perfectly that there was something behind him. But for some reason what he noticed never registered in his mind so the two proceeded to walk down the path without problem.  (C6)

 

Gyouken: Path of Truth

Well needless to say the nap was needed. Naps are rare for one who reigns as the leader of a cult and tries to head a nation. But it was time to go back to work. She looked around in this paradise of a parallel world and waved her hand. The Earth rose and molded itself into a throne which was then into the air by a massive rock creature. She laughed a little about the thought that she didn't something similar to this when she was in the side with the fairies. But that was besides the point. Now it was basically full steam ahead. The golem creature began to walk one massive foot in front of the other and she road the beast to the battle grounds. Hmmm this is turning out to be quite the vacation. 

[Maeriberii Haan]

 

-=Tenco=-

 

Thankfully for Tenco, the creepy guy didn’t notice her presence and instead left the area, running. With a sigh of relief, she could now safely dissipate her sword and turn her pyromancy fire off.

 

Still, this occurrence made her more wary about her surrounding, and while she kept on running, she tried her best to pay more attention towards her surroundings. While she was making sure that she was not running towards the exact same direction as the creepy guy, she was still worried about him suddenly appearing or summoning something that might endanger her. She was also worried about the possibility of meeting other dangerous individuals on the pathway, but so far she didn’t noticed any.

 

The pathway itself was the most dangerous thing she faced as she pressed on forward. The air became heavier and heavier for her to breath in it, and the strong winds at times made her almost lost her balance. Whether it wasn’t for the fact that she spent quite a lot of time in mountainous area, she would’ve pretty much get swept away by the strong winds. But still, at one point she couldn’t help but to use her sword to anchor herself to the ground due to the strong winds.

 

She didn’t meet much of anything as she ran on the dreary landscape, only dead trees and fairy corpses all the way. Aside from the people she met near the mirror, she didn’t actually meet anything living there. Aside the blowing winds, the place was silent. The silence gave birth to a feeling of loneliness that crept inside of her heart, which disturbed her for a bit.

 

She hated this loneliness.

 

This was the first time for her to be completely alone. With Iku, Fang-frog, Altaria, Bladon, Tianca, heck, even Amato and Reimu, she was never completely alone before. She used to always have someone around her, someone for her to talk with, someone to hear what she said even if they didn’t respond to it, someone to annoy her, someone to accompany her. Even she really did appreciate the fairies’ questions back then in the other side of the pathway because of this. The fact that she was now completely alone as far as she could see in the middle of nowhere pained her.

 

Trying her best to ignore the void inside, she kept on struggling forward, occasionally stopping to catch her breath, before continuing. She shouldn’t let this stop her from reaching the end of the pathway. She shouldn’t let this stop her from trying to help Lady Arturia. And she definitely shouldn’t let this stop her from seeing Tenshi again, and try saving her from the madness inside her.

 

 

How long has she walked alone? Tenco couldn’t be sure. Without anything to tell the time for her, she had no idea on the answer to the question. She only knew one thing, to keep on walking, even if it would kill her.

 

It’s not like, as if, she had anywhere else to go, no? All this time, she never had any choice but to follow the path that was laid in front of her. All the other ‘choices’ were never something anyone rational would ever pick. All this time, she tried to live her life in her own way, without being dictated by anyone, but now she was locked to follow into paths just to keep her existence.

 

That made her chuckle a bit.

 

As she walked further and further, something then took her attention immediately. A gray-haired girl, sitting alone under a dead tree, seemingly not bothered by the rotting fairy corpses around her.

 

Removing any other thoughts from her head, Tenco immediately rushed towards the girl.

 

 

-=Tenshi Hinanai=-

 

...

 

 

...

 

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 fairy’s questions still rang inside of Tenshi’s head, despite all of her attempts to ignore it. It was the spark that made her heart start questioning herself and her goals.

 

“No…I shouldn’t question myself about what have I done. Doubt will only make my resolve weaker.

I can’t help anyone if my own conviction couldn’t hold myself together.”

 

Still, her denial to herself was weak, and Tenshi definitely knew it. Deciding to clear her mind for a bit, she decided to take a rest under the nearest tree, not even caring about the dead fairies around her as she sat there and watched the dreary sky above her.

 

 

“Hey Tenshi, can you hear me?”

 

Just as if she heard herself talking, someone seemed to call her name with her voice. Tenshi casted an glance at the source of the voice to see that Tenco was already near her, though she was keeping a distance between Tenshi and herself, seemingly inconvenienced by the fairy corpses around her.

 

“Ugh, what are you doing here? Haven't I told you to not be in my way?” Tenshi answered annoyedly, not even bothered to look at her.

 

“Tenshi, please, let’s not continue all of this.

You and others have suffered enough, so please-“

 

Before Tenco finished her sentence, Tenshi fired several of her keystones at her, which she barely dodged, and one managed to graze her arm, scratching it.

 

“Why should I stop?

 

I have sacrificed everything and everyone close to me to be here, to be at this point, so that I can pursue my ideal, the Gensokyo that I dreamed of.

Everyone, even Gengetsu and Amato, they sacrificed themselves so that I can keep going, so that I can reach the door to create the new world everyone dreamed of.

 

Once again, why should I stop and mock their sacrifices by doing so?

Why should I stop just because you said so?

Who are you to order me around like that?

 

Listen to me, Tenco. I am Tenshi Hinanai, and I will be everyone’s hero, even if I have to sacrifice you to achieve that.”

 

Standing up, with her sword shining a gold light in her left hand pointing straight at Tenco, Tenshi smiled serenely, just as an energy buildup manifested at the tip of the sword.

 

“Scarlet Weather Rapture.

 

Have a nice death, me.”

 

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Nero ~ The Pathway to Remembrance

Cavern of Remembrance

 

The Keyblade War hero was following Sora and his group towards another door, but something caused him to stop and stare at the door that lead to the Pathway to Remembrance. He stood there, until he was compelled to head towards the door by himself...passing through the door without a second thought. Something inside him was trying to have him remember something...something he would find within this path...

 

When Nero entered through the door, he felt cold...not like the coldness he felt when he was dead, no...this was a different cold. The answer to why that was, came as he found himself in the wintery forest that the path showed. It had been one of his first times seeing the snow...so he marveled at how beautiful it looked. Nevertheless, he continued his trek onward, with each step he took the snow beneath his feet crunched.

 

As he trekked onward, his mind started recalling names to him...but none of these he knew...

 

"Odin"

"Matthew Supplex"

"Xansvita...Ivero"

 

Try as he might, he struggled his way to remember on who these were...but his memory wouldn't allow him. Nero paused to hold his aching head, only to finally realize that before him were statues...and once he blinked...his memory began working into overtime...

 

The first statue began to appear as a figure that he was familiar with...Sora. "Your not looking good, Nero. Honestly, I would've thought that after we saved you...you would've tried to take it easier." he spoke, only to make no sense.

 

"S-Save me? Save me from what...?"

 

"From Xansvita...from Ivero..."

 

This voice was heard from behind Nero, as he turned his head to see the man that had disappeared before on the ship: Matthew Supplex. However...he still looked like someone he had never met before.

 

"W-Who are they...? More importantly...who are you?!" Nero asked, before gripping his head, his memories of events passed trying their best to break loose. He could start seeing certain images within these fragments of memories...they were broken but he could sense that much had happened. Sora...had gone into another...and after that...he...he...

 

"It seems your finally remembering..." this voice belonged to Odin, as the statue took the form of the one who stood with Matthew before he departed.

 

From Nero's perspective, his memories were slowly being pieced back together...just slowly...he tried to ask Matthew and Odin to explain these things to him...but it wasn't to be. For when he looked back to them, they had been destroyed, reduced to broken statues. Now before Nero was a ghost of his memories...Ivero.

 

"You cannot leave you cur..." Ivero simply huffed at the Keyblade Master, as he snapped his fingers, as many faux Keyblades surrounded him, as he called The Darkness Within and Redemption Keyblades to his hands. "You know it is your destiny...to have your heart bound within the prison that Xansvita placed you in...SUBMIT!!" He was finished talking, as he raised his Keyblades to strike...

 

Deep Anxiety

 

A sound of blades clashing was heard and echoed through the snowy forest, as Ivero's strikes was blocked by Nero's X-Blade. It wasn't long before he pushed the dark warrior back, as he clutched the hilt tighter. "N-No..." was all he could say, as he glared at the Keyblade wielder. "They sacrificed...a lot...to stop you...to stop me." he said, as he grabbed his chest. "And...because of them, I was given another chance!"

 

"You do not understand, that your so called 'bonds' are false! Your true place is in that prison...a slave to the darkness!" Ivero laughed as he struck again at Nero, as it was parried. "Just admit your own weakness and come home!!"

 

"My home...IS NOT WITH YOU!!" Nero yelled as he parried the next few strikes, slashing down upon Ivero as he unleashed a flurry of attacks. "Ivero..." he said, his memories beginning to finally piecing together. "You are one thing...I never want to remember again! I'll say something...you once said to me..."

 

This Ivero was shocked at Nero's counter attack as he could only block the attacks, until Nero knocked both The Darkness Within and Redemption out of his hands...

 

"STAY GONE!!!"

 

This yell was echoed as Nero slashed one more time at Ivero, watching him fall over...the memory of Ivero slowly fading from the statue as his Keyblade left his hand.

 

"You did it...Nero." Sora's memory smiled, as he passed Nero. "The pieces of your memory have been stitched together"

 

Nero was confused at all this, but he finally noticed what was in his hand...not his Redemption Keyblade, but rather...the X-Blade, the Key that opens the door to all worlds...Kingdom Hearts. "And this was made...when we..."

 

"Correct...unfortunately, Redemption lost its true master when Ivero called out to it instead..." Sora said, sighing. "I am sorry that your true Keyblade abandoned you when you needed it." He placed his hand on Nero's shoulder, before walking passed the Keyblade Master. "However...with you holding that blade now...perhaps you are the one to master it...and to protect it..." Before Nero could even speak in response to this memory, Sora vanished.

 

"Maybe..." the Keyblade Master could only stare at the blade as it left his hand. He turned back to the destroyed statues that were once Matthew and Odin, as he bowed slightly in respect. "Thank you...Matthew...Odin...had it not been for you, I would've been trapped in that prison...it was because of you two...and Sora."

 

The memory has been pieced together...the old and new chapters finally finding a resting place...

 

However the chapters of days past...resurface here...

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Keyblade Graveyard Horizon

 

Nero continued his trek through the forests, still hearing the whispers that were speaking to him when he first entered this wintery world, but they started to die down when he reached a new location...a graveyard.

 

He slowly made his passage amongst the tombstones and graves as he continued on...only stopping as he saw the sight of Keyblades. Indeed he was staring at graves that now were having Keyblades stabbed into the ground amongst the tombstones. This...Keyblade Graveyard just haunted him to his very core, but it felt so familiar to him.

 

Suddenly, flashes of Keyblade Masters and Wielders clashing against one another on that world...they appeared before Nero as he held his head again. These memories of the last few moments of his time...they were seeming to haunt him, as he felt tears streaming down his face. His knees hit the snowy ground as he could only sit and watch these haunting images plague him once more...

 

Master Hao? Where's Nero?!

 

I am unsure, Ryuusaki...but we must keep holding up!! We must...

 

He heard these words...these were the last things he heard before his beloved master and his friend fell to the hands of darkness. He arrived moments late upon the world...had he been there sooner...

 

"D-D-Damn it...R-R-Ryuusaki...M-Master Hao..." he started pounding his fists into the snowy ground as the haunting images subsided. "I am...sorry..." He wanted to stay there...he wanted to talk to his friend and master once more...but he knew that he had to keep moving...this was the end of this path. He dried his eyes as he took off once again, as the Keyblades around him seemed to fade away into existence...

 

‘Are you satisfied with your past’?

 

Nero heard this spoken to him, as he stood at the dark pond finally...as he sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "My past...yes I am. If I wasn't...I would be a different person." he said, as he looked up at the sky. "My past...defines me...has molded me...and has made me stronger as a person. No matter the events that befell...or what will...those who I have treasured in my heart...they have given me the strength to move forward..."

 

His answer finished, as the barrier left the pond...he walked into it, as he was sucked down into the swirling pool of energy...only to reveal him back in the previous room...

 

Takuto/Ginga Bishounen ~ The Pathway to Truth

The white room held three doors and Takuto looked at them all, before pointing at the door he was closest to...The Pathway to Truth. "This one! Let's go!!" he said as he rushed through it...

 

...And on the other side he was introduced to the sunny spring looking world, as he saw the glass bridge and the cherry blossoms that covered the skies. Right away, he found out about the incapable of telling lies...though right now...that was something he didn't care about. As he shot his thumb across his nose, Takuto took off running towards the glass bridge.

 

This is about the time...when he was approached by the little winged fairies, they were sort of cute...and to be honest he was normally surrounded by Wako as well as few others, so this was normal.

 

"Ooooh! A new face! This is so great!! Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

 

"It's a pinch!" Takuto smiled, giving a thumbs up...only to see the fairy sort of look at him funny. "It's sort of my way of saying yes and whatnot..."

 

"Oooooooh, OK! So...why are you here?"

 

"Chose this path to make sure I find Wako...that's the only reason I'm here really...just trying to bring her back home."

 

"Do you love her?"

 

Now this made Takuto stop his walk on the bridge, his face beginning to show signs of redness as he crossed his arms a bit. In all honesty the answer was yes, but could he just come out and say it...then again, not like he had a choice... "Yeah."

 

"What about Sugata? Does she love Wako?"

 

This made the young man look at the fairy once again. How did it know about Sugata...? This meant the fairy knew more about him than he originally guessed, but nevertheless, he answered. "He does...but he and I basically came to somewhat of an agreement..."

 

=A BILLION QUESTIONS LATER=

 

The fairy finally left Takuto alone as he stood in front of a massive mirror. And to his surprise...it showed a desolate wasteland rather than the beautiful cherry blossom scene that he was currently surrounded by. "Huh...that's strange. Is it a trick mirror?" he mumbled to himself, putting his hand on the mirror, only to find himself entering a portal into said reflection...

 

Within this strange, twisted realm, Takuto saw the corpses of the dead fairies as he clenched his fists, walking onwards. This world, it seemed like the one that the Glittering Crux Brigade would've soon brought forth upon the world had he not stopped them...they almost succeeded...but thankfully, he and Tauburn had stopped King Samekh and Sugata...

 

"I-Its...a pinch..." Takuto forced out, as the further he pressed on, the harder it got for him to both breathe and see. Still on, he pressed forward just to make it back to the path he set on.

 

Filament

 

"Far enough...Ginga Bishounen!" Takuto heard a voice say as before him, emerging through the dust cloud before him, was a cloaked figure, launching a sword strike at the young man. Takuto had barely anytime to dodge, but thankfully he side stepped out of the way successfully.

 

"Star Sword!" Takuto slammed his fist into his chest, as a green ethereal blade appeared in his one hand. "Emeraude! Star Sword...Saphir!" Again the young man slammed his fist into his chest, as this time a blue ethereal blade appeared in his opposite hand.

 

"Why do you press forward...when Wako longer wishes to see you!" the figure asked as he turned about and had his blade clash with the two Star Swords.

 

"Let her tell me that herself!" Takuto yelled, as he pushed the figure back, as he started putting up the offensive with his strikes. "Why? Because I made a promise to her and Sugata...that no matter what, I would protect her!" he yelled as he knocked the figure's sword out of his hand, holding both Emeraude and Saphir at the figure's neck.

 

The figure stood in silence, as he finally chuckled before fading away. "Very well then, Ginga Bishounen...proceed..."

 

Takuto only watched the figure disappear as the Star Swords dissipated from his hands as he rushed off down his path once more...

 

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

 

Finally the young Tsunashi made it through the path he was set on, as it finally brought him to the place where he stood in front of a mirror...and on this side, he was faced with a darker looking version of himself. What was this meaning...? It was unclear right now...but Takuto knew this wouldn't be good...

 

He could hear a sinister laugh coming from the mirror, as the mirror version of himself walked back into the darkness that surrounded him. Takuto could only rush forward through the mirror, wondering what this doppelganger could've been so "happy" about.

 

"Hey! Where did you go!!"

 

However, the shadowed world started showing and revealing itself...Southern Cross Isle.

 

"Wait...is this...is this the island?"

 

"Indeed it is..." a voice was heard as before Takuto saw before him a darker version of himself, giving off a very menacing grin. "However...it's the version of the island...that has its Cybodies fully released...where I couldn't stop the Glittering Crux...the Maidens lost their marks...and they all...including Wako hated me. And now...there is nothing holding me down from ending them..."

 

"Except me! Like hell would I let you mess with this island!" Takuto said, as suddenly he heard a familiar tune around him.

 

Monochrome

 

He knew what this meant...Zero Time...however, right now, the world was still full of color and time was still moving. What was going on?

 

"Haven't figured it out yet? This whole world is in Zero Time...and time keeps going." the dark Takuto smirked as he snapped his fingers. "Apprivoise..." With this, he flew up in a flash of light, as before Takuto...out from the sea was a Cybody...but not Tauburn...but rather...Reshbal, the Cybody his father piloted. "Ginga Bishounen...Reshbal!"

 

"You...Tauburn isn't here...by your side...your in a real pinch then..." Takuto said as he clenched his fists. "APPRIVOISE!!!!"

 

Apprivoise

 

Just like before, the real Takuto flew into the skies in a flash of light and was met by his trusty Cybody, Tauburn. His silhouette appeared in Tauburn's red crystal in its chest, as it began...

 

Dazzling the Stage

 

"DAZZLING THE STAGE!! GINGA...BISHOUNEN!! TAUBURN!!!" Once he said this, the transformation of himself was finally complete, as he stood before himself with Tauburn combat ready.

 

"Let's see if Tauburn deserves to be in my sight once again..." D. Takuto huffed as he took the first move, summoning his Star Sword: Diamant, going straight for Tauburn's chest.

 

On instinct, Takuto and Tauburn sidestepped to the left, as both Emeraude and Saphir were summoned, as now the two Cybodies began to have their Star Swords clashing against each other.

 

"I know everything you are planning...this fight will last forever...just admit defeat, Tsunashi Takuto..."

 

Takuto knew this, but that was pretty much the reason those in the Glittering Crux did what they did. And even then...he pushed forward! "It's...A PINCH!!!" he said in a confident tone, as their struggling with the Star Swords ended, with Tauburn pushing back. Now is when Tauburn released his Piles that were on its back, as they rocketed towards Reshbal and D. Takuto, who were dodging them like it was nothing...but in truth...it kept them busy.

 

Takuto was planning to finish it...as he prepared the Tau Galaxy Beam.

 

"Like you'll be able to hit a moving target!!" D. Takuto said, as he finally destroyed the last of the Piles, moving quickly as he kept from being Takuto's target.

 

"He fell for it!!" Takuto said, as he changed his positioning and now...was shot out of Tauburn's chest, as they performed Tau Missile instead. "Listen! I don't care even if the whole world hates me...I know that neither Wako or Sugata will!! AND THAT WON'T CHANGE!! TAU...MISSILE!!!" The red orb was closing in on Reshbal, until the orbs collided...and Tauburn appeared once again, now holding the orb that D. Takuto stood in...as Reshbal was destroyed.

 

At this time, D. Takuto disappeared with a huff, leaving Takuto and Tauburn to take to the skies once more, seeing their world start to fall into the chaos that D. Takuto had mentioned. But the Galactic Pretty-Boy wasn't worried...he knew things wouldn't ever turn like that!!

 

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

 

The effects of Zero Time finally faded as Takuto now stood at the top of the staircase to heaven (so to speak), as he heard another voice.

 

‘Are you content with your present self’?

 

An answer like that wasn't needed to be waited on. Takuto knew his answer... "I am indeed! If I wasn't...then I just wouldn't be me...I wouldn't be the Ginga Bishounen...I wouldn't have met Wako and Sugata!!" With this, he walked towards the crystal in front of him, before being absorbed into it...until he was returned to the room of which he began the journey...

 

Tsukasa/Decade ~ The Pathway to Death

Pathway of Truth...to Remembrance...

 

Tsukasa knew the truth about his life...of his existence...and that went hand in hand with remembrance. The Kamen Rider passed these two pathways, only to face the final doorway: the Pathway to Death. A small smirk appeared on his face as he shook his head some.

 

"I am the Destroyer after-all...I get the gist of the situation." he said as he pushed open the door, walking straight through...

 

Journey Through the Decade

 

The passing through Kamen Rider found himself on a stone platform, surrounded by an thick darkness that gave off a dark ominous feeling with each step he took. Tsukasa didn't waver from the path he chose, going forward and ignoring the echoing whispers that surrounded him.

 

Focus on the task at hand... he thought, as his eyes never left the front of the path he walked, as the darkness kept shifting around him.

 

Soon he felt the stone path beneath his feet shift and now rough ground, as Tsukasa passed quite a few cloaked stone statues, as he felt something sort of disperse from him. He began to figure if what he felt was what was keeping him from behind attacked...he was right. At this moment he heard the echoing and the slight sounds of footsteps around him now. Nevertheless, it did not unnerve the Kamen Rider...

 

~~~~~~

 

It seemed like hours...days even, as Tsukasa continued to walk through the dark path laid in front of him, until the darkness shifted, and there he saw he was walking through his "home world"...no...it wasn't truly his home world...the photographs he took had rejected that world too. No, this was her home world...Natsumi Hikari. And he knew exactly why it looked as broken down and destroyed...

 

Its exactly how it looked...when I first became Decade...when my journey started... he thought as he paused where he stood. Now he could see something new...

 

Before him lay corpses...familiar ones too. The first few were the Kamen Riders of the nine alternate worlds...Kiva, Kuuga, Agito, Den-O, Hibiki, Blade, Faiz, Kabuto, Ryuki...the next set were the other Riders he met after...Amazon, Black, Black RX...but the last ones...they made him cringe.

 

Two specific corpses of people from his world were a bit aways...Kaito Daiki...Kamen Rider Diend, his best friend...and the other...Natsumi Hikari.

 

"Even you two...damn..." Tsukasa cursed under his breath, as he knelt down and placed his hands on both corpses, sighing. Still on, he walked ahead, as things around him shifted slightly...the darkness wasn't done toying with the Kamen Rider's emotions yet.

 

Before him now, stood a sight he saw once before...he saw his timeline's CC members...and he stopped dead in his tracks. "No...damnit don't you dare start!" he said, as he looked away, still trying to press on forward...only to hear the whispers more.

 

"You weren't fast enough..."

 

"A failure to Emyia...to everyone...even Sora..."

 

"You truly ARE the Destroyer of Worlds..."

 

Tsukasa paused near the debris of an old wrecked building as he slammed his fists into the wall, as he began to grit his teeth. "I couldn't stop it. They had us surrounded...damnit you weren't there." he said, before pushing off the building and walking down the path once more...doing his best not to listen to the whispers.

 

~~~~~~~~

 

He continued to pass through, slowly understanding that these echoing whispers were specifically directed at him...and they were slowly doing a number on Tsukasa. Nevertheless he continued his trek across the new bridges...until he was finally confronted...

 

A flurry of strikes from these...entities were struck at Tsukasa as he dodged just barely and finally smirked.

 

Henshin!

 

"So your the ones who've been giving me problems...saved me the trouble of looking for you!" Tsukasa said, as he placed his Deca-Driver on his waist, as he accessed the sides of it.

 

Kamen Ride...

 

"Henshin..." Tsukasa said, as he pulled out a card that showed a magenta (or light violet) Kamen Rider on it, until he finally placed it into the Driver Slot.

 

DECADE!!

 

Suddenly, a few holographic versions of Decade appeared, before all converging on Tsukasa, as the Kamen Rider transformation was finally complete, as he dusted his hands off a bit. "So, shall we get started then?"

 

The entities hissed, before striking back at Decade, before the Kamen Rider struck back. With his Ride Booker in hand, he was able to slash and blast the entities away, switching from Sword form to Gun form with each attack. Soon they would be bunched together...perfect.

 

From the Ride Booker, he pulled out another card, as the Deca-Driver prepared for it.

 

Final Attack Ride...D-D-D-DECADE!!!

 

The card was tossed in, as Decade leapt into the the air, as giant holographic versions of his card appeared in front of him. With that, he was proceeding to go through each one, ending these entities with an explosive Rider as he turned back towards his path, dusting his hands off once more.

 

"Checkmate...now to continue on...Henshin!"

 

Kamen Ride...Kabuto!

 

Attack Ride...Clock Up!

 

~~~~~~~~

 

After his speedy rush through the darkened path, not even sure if he'd survive...Tsukasa, after returning back himself, stood before a building...its size being unknown because of the darkness surrounding it. It seemed the journey on this path was directing him to this building for a reason...whatever that reason was, Tsukasa entered the dark building's interior.

 

Once he did, candles flickered on with blue flames, as he walked down one specific doorway of the five that were presented to him. I believe its here that the journey will end soon. he thought to himself as he stopped for a short moment. He turned around himself to see himself surrounded by the Entities again, as he sighed and reached for his Driver, only to stop when he heard a chilling voice.

 

Uchiha Madara

 

"So...here we meet once more." a figure emerged from the shadows behind him, as he saw Madara Uchiha standing in front of him with his dark wicked glare. "Your still the only one left...Sora, nor the others of the Corps shall save you...it is afterall your fault that they were left to die."

 

Tsukasa began to tremble a bit, as he gripped his Driver in his hand even tighter. This...was his fear...laying his eyes upon this monster of a man...the one who killed the Counter Corps within his timeline. He wanted to turn around and run away...but something stopped him. Was it fear holding him back? Or was it...that he was planning to finally face this fear head on?

 

"I wasn't fast enough...I couldn't save Sora or the others...but now...I've become stronger than you'll ever know, Madara!!" Tsukasa finally said as he placed his Driver on his waist, his belt coming on finally.

 

"Despair always follows you...why even try?" Madara asked, as he snapped his fingers, having the Entities strike at Tsukasa...but something strange happened...his cards began to move...one in particular though. The card he made known as a Counter Corps Card: Sora. It showed off a small ghostly image of Sora as the Entities were destroyed. "I-IMPOSSIBLE!! What...the hell are you?!"

 

"Thank you..." Tsukasa said as he held the card in his hand as it finally landed there. "And me...I'm just a passing by Kamen Rider...REMEMBER THAT!! Henshin!!"

 

Kamen Ride...DECADE!!

 

At this moment, Decade returned once more as he tossed a card into the air and caught it, before placing it into the Driver. "Henshin..."

 

C.C. Kamen Ride....KINGDOM!!

 

Suddenly Decade's costume changed as it started to resemble the armor that Sora wore as in his hand was a replicated Keyblade as he started dusting his hands off a bit. "The real battle begins now!"

 

Madara glared at the Kamen Rider as the two began to clash within the hallway, Madara's fan clashing against the Keyblade Decade held as sparks flew between the two. It truly seemed that Madara had the upper hand, as more Entities came swarming towards the Kamen Rider...but it was all in vain. Decade swiftly struck at the Entities, causing them to vanish in one fell-swoop, as he rushed once more to Madara, their clash continuing.

 

"You cannot hope to defeat me by yourself, Kayoda!! The others tried and failed!!" Madara yelled as he began his assault against Tsukasa.

 

"Your absolutely right...I can't beat you by myself..."

 

"You've finally accepted that fact...now sur-"

 

"But...I'm no longer fighting alone!!" Decade said as he slashed at Madara once more, knocking the fan out of his hand as he held another card. "My comrades...they will continue to follow me through my journey until it ends!"

 

Final C.C. Attack Ride...K-K-K-Kingdom!!

 

Suddenly Decade held the Keyblade Saber in his hand towards Madara as light charged up within it. "Disappear..." he said as finally, like a shot from a gun, a beam of light struck out at Madara, not even giving him a chance to dodge, as he was enveloped in light, before finally vanishing...

~~~~~~~~

 

Journey Through the Decade (Symphony)

 

It wasn't long after...that Tsukasa was struck with the visions of his future, of his fate when he walked from the lamp lit hallway. However, it showed the Kamen Rider that he was indeed the Destroyer of Worlds, as now he watched not only the worlds of the nine alternate Kamen Riders worlds be merged into one and destroyed...

 

...But he watched how the worlds of the Counter Corps and even the Divine started falling around him. But...this didn't deter him...

 

Tsukasa kept walking ahead, even as he watched the worlds fall around him...but paused only when he heard a voice calling out to him. This voice was that of his timeline's Corps leader...Emiya...

 

"Even though the worlds are being destroyed...with each step you take like this...you wish to continue this journey of yours, Tsukasa?"

 

Tsukasa put his hands in his pockets, as he smiled a bit. "I was told before by Narutaki...and by that Wateru...that I would destroy the worlds of the Kamen Riders. I did at one point and died myself...but Natsumi and my comrades...they led me back and the nine Kamen Rider worlds were returned to normal..." he said before chuckling some. "My journey will probably end worlds...but I'm going to keep on my journey...in order to protect those worlds."

 

With this, Tsukasa walked once more, before hearing another voice...

 

‘Are you willing to embrace your fate’?

 

He stood before the dark stone tablet, and smirked. "You obviously didn't listen to what I said to Emiya...I will."

Soon the Kamen Rider touched the monument, having himself being enveloped by swirling crimson energies...before having him return to the room in which he started.
 

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sephiroth

 

As the two fought with all the dwindling might only two gods of different worlds could possess, they seemed to be at an even match. Kenpachi posed a question onto him during their bought, regarding honor and whether or not he had possessed such a thing. "Hmph, honor is a trait painted onto you by someone else, it's nothing that's ever mattered in combat." Sephiroth sped at Zarkai, clashing blades once again, their eyes locking as he continued to speak. "Only by taking away what you cherish most, will you truly begin to fight your hardest; for then battle would be the only thing you'd have left." Sephiroth and Zaraki continued to clash blades until a swift slice from Zaraki caught Sephiroth on the left arm and made him retreat back.

 

Sephiroth rose his hand to the blackened sky of the pathway, bringing it down didn't seem as though it was such a grand gesture, but the wave of lightning that washed over Zaraki afterward proved otherwise. However, Sephiroth had found a smoking and tattered clothed Zaraki just in front of him, with his blade buried into his own chest. "Don't even think it...for just thinking such a thing a will end you..." Zaraki removed his blade from Sephiroth's chest and grasped it with two hands, swinging down on the One-Winged Angel. However, Sephiroth had similarly made a two hand swing that was slicing up on Zaraki. The clashing metal made such a huge force that a crater was formed beneath their feat, for a time they were floating, but both warriors backed off to touch the ground as they didn't want to squander any extra energy.

 

With as much running speed as they could muster, they ran to the left until they came back into clash once more. Then they continued to run, clashing with each other as they did so. It was amazing that two warriors could still have so much power after taking so many brutal hits; it was all Yachiru could do to track their movements and watch the wisps of energy that originated from their clashing blades. "Tell me, how does one such as yourself deal with the reality that you shall soon be nothing?" Sephiroth said, in a taunting manner, wanting anything the warrior had left; it was then they stopped at a clashing point, Sephiroth weighing a downward slice on Zaraki's Zanpaktou and forcing him to a knee. "Won't you show me...what you've been hiding?"

[Dad]

Kenpachi

 

Kenpachi shoved Sephiroth off, annoyed at his antagonizing ways.  He wiped the blood from his lip, and stared down at Nozarashi.  He apologized to the blade, understanding full well that he was the one who was in the wrong.  And Sephiroth had been the one to show him that.  

 

 

Only by taking away what you cherish most, will you truly begin to fight your hardest; for then battle would be the only thing you'd have left.

 

That was one of the things Kenpachi cherished.  A good battle.  But more than all of those things, he cherished his family.  And Nozarashi and Yachiru were the only family he had left.  Regardless, the angel was right.  The only way Kenpachi was going to be victorious would be if he truly enjoyed himself now.  But not just for himself, but for everything he cared about.  

 

Won't you show me...what you've been hiding?

 

"Very well," Kenpachi said acknowledging the angel's request.  Pouring his reiatsu into his Zanpaktou, Kenpachi lobbed an upward slash at Sephiroth, as the ground quaked and a blast of pure energy waved from Nozarashi.  Sephiroth barely dodged it, as it heavily singed his face.  But when he looked up to retaliate, Kenpachi had vanished.  Still, the big man was predictable.  He had come from above, and Sephiroth received the strike with a parry, as they went blade for blade once more.  Kenpachi could tell Sephiroth was growing bored with his tactics.  So he threw a bit more risk into his maneuvers.  This time, as Sephiroth parried Kenpachi's swing, he grabbed Masamune mid swing, pulling Sephroth in.  Then, Kenpachi could feel it.  That joy he had been searching for.  The excitement and blood rush he had been craving.  His crazed, grateful smile crossed his wicked face, as he met Sephiroth with a headbutt and sent him reeling.  He followed as fast as he could, using Nozarashi's hilt to catch Sephiroth as he rolled, and slam him into the ground.  Sephiroth reacted just as fast, blasting Kenpachi in the face with dark spheres of magic.  He shook them off, but was forced back several feet.  Yachiru caught Kenpachi as he slid, dusting off his back, and giggling.  Kenpachi stopped to turn around and question her.  "What're you laughin' at, Yachiru?"  She smiled at him, and pointed to Nozarashi, which reflected Kenpachi's face.  He hadn't noticed how much fun he was having.  "You're enjoying yourself, Kenny."  She leaped up and smacked the back of Kenpachi's head.  "Go, go, go!" she cheered.  Kenpachi nodded, as he happily charged back in.  This time, he surrounded himself in reiatsu again, attempting to bulldoze Sephiroth.  Of course, Sephiroth wouldn't just stand there.

 

The angel leaped over Kenpachi as he charged, and kicked him hard in the back, and forced him into the ground.  Sephiroth turned around, slicing at the back of Kenpachi's legs, heavily wounding him.  Kenpachi rolled over quickly, getting to a knee.  It was difficult to stand now, but he would try to fight through it.

 

"Your reckless behavior will cost you your life, Zaraki Kenpachi.  And the lives of those you hold dear," Sephiroth said as he turned to Yachiru now.  Kenpachi bellowed at Sephiroth, trying to get his attention.  "Don't even think about it, you coward!"  Sephiroth had begun inching towards Yachiru, but stopped at Kenpachi's words.  A slight smile crossed his face, as he answered.  "Coward?  No.  I consider myself more of a strategist.  Remember, Kenpachi.  Only by taking away that which you cherish most, will you begin to fight me at your hardest.  I will make you suffer such a loss, that you will have no choice but to descend into the darkest part of your heart and soul, simply to fight me.  And then," Sephiroth pointed his blade now at Yachiru.  "I will reduce you to ashes."  

 

Yachiru began to back off, putting up a bubble shield once more.  Sephiroth continued walking towards her, blade aimed at the pink haired girl's face.  Kenpachi kept roaring at Sephiroth, as he struggled to get to his feet.  His legs were in shreds, as he forced himself to stand, only to fall once more.  "SEPHIROTH!"  The angel continued to ignore Kenpachi, as he got closer to Yachiru.

 

Kratos

 

The hooded villain remained a mystery, as it threw magics at Kratos.  First, lightning bolts.  Then, violent torrents of water.  Finally, trails of blazing fire that attempted to encompass Kratos completely.  He deflected the bolts of lightning, leaped past the torrents of water, and rolled out of the circling flames.  This was quite irritating, and troublesome.  Then, something new happened.  Instead of lobbing magics, the hooded figure lunged at Kratos, fists first.  As it grew closer, Kratos recognized those heavy fists, as he jumped out of the way.  The figure slammed the ground, leaving a large crater, as it turned back to face Kratos.  It possessed the strength of his brother, Hercules.  The magics of the gods Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon were also on it's side.  What else was this thing hiding from Kratos?  He would have to force the hand of his opponent.  He switched to his Spear of Destiny, twirling it skillfully while simultaneously firing explosive crystals at the cloak.  It managed to dodge Kratos' first two shots, but the third landed at it's feet, exploding and temporarily blinding the creature.  Kratos grabbed at this opportunity, now appearing directly in front of his opponent.  He uppercut the cloak, launching it into the air.  Following with the Blades of Chaos, he latched on to its feet and pulled himself towards the cloak.  Mercilessly, Kratos stabbed into the creature's chest, and he heard it cry out with a shrill fear before it blasted Kratos to the ground with a beam of sunlight.  Now it was using magic that belonged to Helios.  Kratos rolled from the impact, onto his feet.  The creature threw a wave of pure sunlight at Kratos, nearly enough to cook him alive.  Kratos barely dodged it, as the bow of Apollo suddenly appeared in his hands.  He fired a volley of burning arrows into the cloak, as it crashed to the ground.  With the arrows burning into the cloak, Kratos jumped over to it, Blades in hand, and came down onto the cloak with a fierce dual strike.  The creature shrilled again, rolling around in blazing agony, until Kratos finally punted the cloak off of the Cliffside of Truth.

 

He watched the flaming cloak fall, for what seemed like forever, until it was no longer visible.  As he finally crossed the glass bridge, Kratos entered into the crystalline corridors, taking his time.  It would take him three hours to get through the corridors if he did not stop walking.  However, he was sure to take a break after that close call.

 

Revy

 

The girl had been crying for some time, and hadn't responded to Revy's calls.  She couldn't waste more time, so Revy carefully moved on.  One heavy foot through the snow at a time, she crossed the forest.  Over the course of several hours, Revy could hear more commotion nearby.  It was further to her right, and sounded higher up.  She carefully inched over, until she could see a tall stone tower in the center of the forest.  She decided against entering it, at the risk of encountering something or someone she couldn't be bothered with.  Carefully, Revy sneaked past the tower, and moved towards the edge of the forest.  She could see the end of the treeline, and nothing after.  It was as though the rest of the path was blanketed.  Not in snow, but in white light.  The winds began to grow heavy as she got closer to the edge of the forest, and she really, really regretted not having on jeans this time.  It got colder over time, and Revy had to find a way to keep warm.  Before stepping out of the forest, she turned back towards the entrance of the forest, where she had left the corpses of those pigs.  It would double her time through the pathways, but she was in no rush.  Revy doubled back, taking the extra two hours to reach the corpses of the cops, and steal their clothing.  She found herself, after another four hours, back at the stone tower.  She was tired, treading through the snow like this.  She had warmed up now, thanks to the police jackets and heavy pants, but she didn't want to over exhaust herself.  She peaked inside but couldn't see anyone around.  Sneaking inside, Revy leaned quietly against the cold stone wall, as she gathered her strength.

[Love of Ghibli]

Dorian: The Path of Rememberance

After walking around in the blizzard like snowstorm of perpetual agitation he actually made it out. Granted he had passed through some kind of cemetery while walking through the wonderland, but he did not understand why though. It didn't matter though. He was simply relieved to have actually made it to the end of that ordeal. Didn't take him as long as he thought it would. Next he gazed at the amazing night lake that was now before him. This would make a great cover photo. While use he could fly over this lake and make his way to the other side, but that seemed like it would be a much wasted opportunity to get some nice relaxation in. Dorian looked up and down the shore of this lake and realized that there were some boat just placed on the shore. Well...that's uh convenient. Dorian went over to one of these boats and he manually pushed the boat into the water and then he jumped in as the boat floated along the lake. There didn't seem to be any obvious current to take advantage of so he just floated on straight down his path. Hmmm why do I feel sleepy all of a sudden? Maybe it was a sign of exhaustion or maybe something else. Nevertheless it was time for him to take a nap. (C 11)

 

Butlerok & Rhadamantys: Path of Death

The darkness somehow got darker. It was just annoying at this point. Now the two members could barely tell they were next to each other. What they could make up though was that they were somehow at the end of that narrow bridgeway they were on and now they were in front of some spire of darkness. It was interesting to say the least. The both of them could make out that there were some entrances to this massive building and while they initially thought about splitting up they both came to the same conclusion that it would just be slightly more entertaining to fight as a team against whatever foe that would call such a massive infrastructure their home. As they walked down one of the corridors they could both feel the others eye roll. Unfortunately they wouldn't be annoyed for much longer.

 

"You guys get bored pretty easily don't you?" A very familiar said echoing down the hall. Rhadamanthys and Butlerok were literally shaken as their eyes narrowed in on the small gap of space that was between the two of them. As they did hall way was amazingly lit with blue flames and they both jumped back going to on guard position. Are you serious? Come on fellas I thought we were a team. The figure in front of them was none other than Dorian Von Schroeder himself. But that wasn't as startling as was the fact that he wasn't wearing a surplice or a suit he was wearing a shinigami's captain uniform. What is this? Butlerok said showing a rare sign of nervousness. Dorian still had his back towards the two and as he turned around Rhadamanthys eyes widened and they grew increasingly red with rage as he gazed upon the pendant that was hanging from his neck. 

Rhadamanthys immediately unleashed a huge wave of cosmos and power and launched himself directly at Dorian. DDDDIIIIIEEEEEE!!!! With his claw brandished he went to lob Dorian's head off. This was only met with a snicker from Dorian as the attack was intercepted by a pitch black katana made of what looked like the blackest of steel. Did you really forget that I had a butler? You shall not lay a hand on him. Butlerok stood in Rhadamanthys way and the noble specter only smiled pushing his claw further against the blade. I guess I was bound to be entertained somehow! AND IT MIGHT AS WELL BE YOU! You should have chosen your final words more carefully Butlerok responded as he unleashed his true self and revealed the three-eyed symbol of the kishin on his forehead. With that the entire corridor was filled with conflicting energies likely to bring the entire house down around them. (C 9)

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Sephiroth

 

All who were on the battlefield were considered to be gods from the worlds they came from, and yet this One-Winged Angel, this Man in the Black Cape, this...Sephiroth, seemed all the more intimidating and godlike. Placing a hand on Yachiru's barrier, he flooded it with his essence, so much that the magic of it had to collapse to the superior energy. Yachiru went for her sword, prompting Sephiroth to swing and disarm her immediately; now she had no hope of defending her as her so-called protector watched on. "Fear not, with your death, your friend's power will only grown, until he has been consumed by the darkness that is already within." His tone was cold to her, so much so that her spine might have frozen over.

 

"K-Kenny doesn't have any darkness in him at all! He'll kill you before you even think to harm me!" Even facing Sephiroth, the charismatic attitude of Yachiru shined through as bright as ever. "But my dear..." His icy words sapped any confidence she had to stand tall against Sephiroth any longer, her shoulders slumped noticeably to the One-Winged Angel. "I had been thinking about it from the moment he and I first crossed blades." Yachiru's eyes went wide as the metal of Sephiroth's blade cut her across the chest; blood splashed onto the dirt, and because of the silence that gave the path of death its hallow feeling, the spilling of Yachiru's blood could be heard by Zaraki. Sephiroth turned from her, but flicked his wrist in the air as he did so, striking Yachiru with a lightning bolt; the force sending her seemingly lifeless body flying far away. Light footsteps could be heard by Zaraki now, Sephiroth was now making his way back to him but his eyes couldn't comprehend the sight through the rage.

 

"Do you feel that swelling rage, the growing need to strike me down, yes, of course the answer is yes." Sephiroth mused to a still shocked Kenpachi. "Everyman has a growing darkness inside of them, you see. Many of them battle it with will and light: Sora, Cloud, and many others who will fail in time. Some try to control it, use it as a force to fight for light, these people almost have it, but they still end up being controlled and used by darkness because they no not the true path." Sephiroth brought his blade to rest on Zaraki's left shoulder, and he still chose not to react. "The only thing one can do to become superior, to possess all the power one can truly muster, is to grab hold of the darkness, hang on to all the power and keep it for yourself." Sephiroth brought his blade up toward him, reeling in for a strike and aiming to decapitate the fallen Soul Reaper. "You must become the darkness, and claim rule of it, this is the only way to overcome darkness, show it that you are the most superior!" Sephiroth brought his blade down on Kenpachi, with it just a mere fraction of a second from biting into the skin of his neck.

[Kingdom Xathers]

[Pathway of Remembrance]

 

"... well, this is curious," Bayonetta chimed as the group came across a shop display window, which was displaying an array of what could only be assumed to be the latest in high-end seasonal fashion.  One mannequin that caught Bayonetta's eye in particular was outfitted in a flowing white dress adorned with rose-shaped accents on the hips and shoulders, along with a matching wide-brimmed hat.  A fur scarf and shiny black high heels completed the ensemble.

 

"Cereza," Alister spoke up in a disciplinary tone, "we don't have the time to be window shopping--"

 

"--that," Bayonetta interrupted, "is not why I'm curious.  Yes, it is a lovely dress, I know that.  That's why I had gotten it before."

 

"You mean, in your unaffected timeline?" Alexander asked.  "Funny how you're able to remember how things were before Isamy came around."

 

Bayonetta nodded in agreement.  "Indeed.  It might have something to do with the "Remembrance of Time"."

 

"Which allows you to see the timeline as how it truly was?" Ratchet asked.  Bayonetta nodded again, her gaze still affixed to the mannequin on the other side of the window.  "Huh.  Neat."  Ratchet began to ponder something himself, staring into the display window as well, not at all alarmed to see a reptilian Thug posing like one of the mannequins.

 

"Uhh, Ratchet...?"

 

"I know," the young lombax replied to Alex as he pulled out a plasma pistol and fired at the Thug through the window.  The reptilian shattered upon being hit with the plasma round.  "... whoa.  Didn't see that coming," Ratchet stammered as he looked back and forth between his weapon and the shattered victim in confusion.

 

"Guess it was just a construct," Alexander said as he studied the shattered Thug, noticing that is was merely a glorified "ice sculpture".  "Maybe the Path reconstructed a scenario you were familiar with, Ratchet."

 

"... ... wait, what was that...?" Alister uttered quietly as he called the others' attention to the sound of crying somewhere close-by.  Looking toward the source, the group finds...

"... my garage...?" Ratchet gasped in surprise.  Indeed, just a few yards away from the shop window was Ratchet's garage from Veldin, and his home for most of his early life.  The sounds of sobbing were indeed coming from inside.  Apprehensive, the group steeled themselves to enter, approaching whatever was inside.

 

The inside of the garage gave a brief respite from the chilling winds outside, though the cold still persisted within.  A small, two-man hovership took up the space in the center, apparently in the process of being repaired or even modified.  There was still plenty of leg room to move around, despite all of the tools, furniture and dirty laundry lying about ("I already did it!" Ratchet protested in response to Bayonetta shooting the young lombax a disapproving glance after getting a pair of boxers stuck to her foot).  Eventually, the group found the source of the sobbing: lying on a cot placed near the back of the garage was another "ice sculpture" in a curled fetal position, this time in the shape of of sad, crying lombax.

"It's... me...?"  But of course it would be Ratchet.  They were in his garage after all.  The group all took notice at how the sculpture did not shudder a twitch even as the sobbing sound continued to emanate from it.  They could also see that there were trails of frozen water that had run from its tightly shut eyes.  Clutched in the sculpture's hands, held close to its face, was a pocketwatch, opened to show a picture that Alister and Ratchet were all too familiar with.

 

Ratchet's own ears drooped, remembering the scene being recreated here.

 

"You see, General?  Do you remember what Mr. Zurkon told you before?" Mr. Zurkon spoke from Alister's OmniWrench.

 

"Wh... told him what, Zurkon?" Ratchet stammered, feeling somewhat embarrassed for some reason, not realizing that he was now starting to cry.  "I mean, it's not like I'm weak for-for crying or anything--"

 

"It's not that, Ratchet," Alister spoke with a cracked voice, now sitting on the edge of the cot.  On a whim, the General pulled a blanket over the Ratchet sculpture, as if trying to comfort the facsimile.  "Mr. Zurkon... told me how you grieved when I was gone.  I... ... I was actually quite surprised when I first heard that.  I mean... ... after all I had done to you... after all I would have done to our universe... you still cared about me...."  Alister calmly placed a hand on Ice!Ratchet's shoulder, his own eyes tearing up.

 

"... of course I cared, Al," Ratchet replied, approaching the elder.  "Why wouldn't I? You're... you're like family to me."

 

"...!" 

"I don't care about what happened then," Ratchet continued as he sat down next in front of Azimuth, trying his best not to break down completely. "You were my dad's best friend. That… that kind of makes you the closest thing I've got to an uncle. In the end, the guy my dad was friends with, that's the guy I got to know. That's the guy I'm happy to call my friend."

 

Deeply moved by Ratchet's expression of familial love, Alister leaned in and embraced Ratchet close to him, the tears falling from his own eyes filled with a strange mixture of self-torment and happiness.  "Ratchet... ... thank you...."

 

Unbeknownst to the group even after they had left, the Ratchet ice sculpture's face had changed, from the pained mournful expression it had before to one that was far more calm, seemingly at peace....

 

 

 

 

A few moments afterwards, the group had made it to the edge of a dense forest.

 

"... now that is some thick wood," Gabriel blurted out without thinking.

"Thank you, Gabriel.  Now everyone else won't have to expect it from me," Bayonetta replied as she shot a knowing glance toward the other lombaxes (and Clank), who immediately reacted with a collective look of embarrassment.  "Honestly, boys, I'm not as trashy as that skanky ghost-hunting angel.  What was her name...?  Ah, right: "Panty"."

 

"Still," Alexander spoke up as he studied the massive trees before them, "how long do you think it'll take for us to go through this whole thing?  Surely the forest itself goes on for quite a while."

 

"We could always just dash through it," Ratchet suggested.  If we do that, we could clear this forest in about half, maybe a third of the time--"

 

...Those you hold dear to your heart are here....

 

"... ... did... did you guys hear something...?" Ratchet stammered as he looked around for the source of the "voice" that spoke.

 

"Define "hear", Ratchet," Bayonetta responded.  "That was more like a message telegraphed into our minds...."

 

"Curious...," Alexander uttered, once again finding himself looking toward the forest's edge.  As he continued to stare, a compelling, almost overwhelming urge took hold of him, almost pleading with him to enter, alone.  It was only when he felt Alister's grip on his upper arm did Alex realize that he was one step away from entering the forest on his own.

 

"Where's the fire?" Alister asked.  "Alex, there's a good chance we could get separated in there.  There's no need to start that now."

At this, Alex merely shrugged.  "You've got a point," he replied, "but what if that "good chance" is more of... a "guarantee"?"

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

C4 --> C9

 

Eventually, The Jaws of Hell did stop, but only because something had decided to that it wanted to stick to one side of his foot. Normally he'd scorch this something to smithereens with the multitude of flamethrowers installed all over his body, which would ordinarily have automatically activated anyway. But The Jaws of Hell had shut off the wasteful program that was responsible for it. He might've needed all the ammunition he had just to make it through the three pathways, get to the door and hold fort while Azumi and co. started changing what needed to be changed; he certainly wasn't gonna waste flamethrower fuel on something he wasn't even sure was hostile. But in any case, he decided that now would be the time to try and converse with the crew on what he'd discovered thus far.

 

"I've been counting all the corpses I've detected within this path, and so far we have 10,385,847,926 bodies," mentioned The Jaws of Hell.

 

"10... holy s***, that's..." Azumi had paused twice, speechless as she tried to wrap her head around that colossal number.

 

"...almost the exact population of Sinatra City, I know," said The Jaws of Hell, finishing what Azumi was trying to say, "What's more worrying is that you and I in particular would recognize the buildings that lay in ruins here. It seems this path is trying to show us something."

 

"We can't worry about that now; we still have Protheus to concern ourselves with," Jecht stated, "Now... we know he took the Path of Truth, but we also know that he's gonna have to cross the other two eventually. I'm just wondering if we should stay right here or quickly swap to Rememberance..."

 

"Well I'd definitely vouch for blowing this f***ing pop stand!"

 

"Seconded!" while it didn't take Azumi or Bender long, Riley was actually contemplating for once in his life.

 

"Screw it, go ahead with the path swap," he decided, "There's always the chance of completely blindsiding the bastard, and that's worth the price of admission."

 

"Then it's settled; we clear The Path of Death, and engage Protheus Maximus the moment he enters The Path of Rememberance," The Jaws of Hell said in acknowledgment, "However, we'll have to move quickly. It may very well take us twice as long to clear this path than it would to clear the other two, and if there's even a chance of missing Protheus because he switched from The Path of Rememberance to The Path of Death at the exact same time that we switched vice versa, then the risk of that happening is too great."

 

"So what're we waiting for?" asked Bender, "Let's goooo aaaaalreadyyyyyy!"

 

With that, The Jaws of Hell activated all its boosters, and levitated in the air for a few seconds to give them time to prime, before charging off at top speed. He and the entire crew had waited a long enough time to try and take Protheus by surprise. They couldn't afford to let anything slow them down now.

[Reinforce]

Darcy - Pathway of Death

 

Smirking as she walked away from the man, somewhat interested by the fact he was still following her through the rubble, she walked further into the path. As she did, the darkness seemed to be getting more oppressive, closing in around her even as she continued forward, enough so that she started to wonder if the guy following her could still see the light emerging from the purple flame that was floating in front of her, moving along even as she did. Rubble started to make it's way into the edges of her small light, remains from various building that seemed to tug on her memories, without being fully recognised. Narrowing her eyes, she walked on, ignoring the items and rubble that continued to be lit up on the path in front of her. The echo of voices increased as she walked too, but though it all the witch of darkness continued to walk forwards, even as she approached a wooden bridge.

 

Ending Location: E3

 

-----

 

Chandra - Pathway of Truth

 

Though angered that the foe who'd attacked them had seemingly absorbed one of her hellhounds, she stayed in place after that foe had taunted her, refusing to get swept along in rage while the mental mage was still within her grasp. Turning around to look at him, she noticed him reaching out towards one of the fairies as it started to choke. Walking to him, she merely placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down from whatever the fairy had said to enrage him that much. Slightly sighing as she turned towards the rest of the trees, the flame mage spoke.

 

"We should probably continue on through the path. Whatever arguments we may have can be solved later."

 

Ending Location; C2/C3

 

-----

 

Ayame - Pathway of Remembrance

 

In front of her, standing in place was her partner, Naomi. In spite of the impossibility of the situation, somehow her dead partner was standing in front of her, as alive as ever.

 

"That's impossible. You're dead. I killed you."

 

The smaller girl smiled wistfully, before speaking.

 

"I'm a memory of sorts, brought into existence by the pathway."

 

"Does that make you one of the obstacles I'm supposed to get past then."

 

"Only if that is what you desire. My only purpose, is to make you remember."

 

The girl smiled sadly once more, before offering her hand to her longtime friend. Slowly and tentatively, as if that which was in front of her might vanish at the slightest touch, Ayame took her hand. As she did, the other girl started to lead her forward, talking again as she did.

 

"I don't blame you, you know. It wasn't your fault that I died."

 

"It was my fault though, it was my hand that ended your life, my foolishness that got you killed. If I'd just accepted that ring before we entered the shadow realm, you'd still be here."

 

"I might not have been, I could have died any number of other ways. But while you made a mistake, it wasn't you that killed me, it was the dark force that possessed you."

 

"And if I'd had the strength to fight off the possession on my own, it wouldn't have happened."

 

The small girl sighed, before speaking once more.

 

"I don't blame you for that. You did a better job of fending it off than I could have done. Learn from your mistakes and move on."

 

Naomi's tone darkened as she continued.

 

"Besides, you need to have come to terms with that before you reach the Pathway of Truth, the remnants remain in your heart, and you'll need to confront them before you can clear that path."

 

Falling into silence once more, the two girls continued on through the snow, the memory guiding her friend through the trees as they went.

 

Ending Location: A4/A5

[The Warden]

|_)The Evangelist Hapshiel(_|

|_)Path of Truth(_|

 

Hapshiel spun like a beautiful, rainbow hewed gay tornado. The fairies had all escaped from his general vicinity as a matter of self-preservation, leaving the gay angel to flit about like the crazy he truly was. Reaching the end of the trees he leapt gracefully off the top of the cherry blossom tree, his legs bent and chest thrusted forward like a figure skater as he landed lightly on the ground.

 

Presented before him was a large dirty mirror, or, what people not attuned to magic would perceive as a mirror. Hapshiel stood unabashed before the sad and desolate waste before him, as he dived readily into the portal.

 

He landed out of the portal onto the dry dirt, small clouds scattering around his boots. His light like a holy candle, he was given no pause by the emptiness of the world. He could feel no guilt like what the world tried to enforce, as if, as if, he were protected by his own inability to comprehend things like a normal person. Like seriously, this guy is so cheerful I am 100% positive that he farts rainbows. But lo, his spirit would not be crushed by this raped world.

 

His heavy body sank with each step into the dirt as the light emanating from his wings and halo forced the sorrow back, his spirit too strong to give in to such misery. Though what did give him pause was an enormous black cloak fluttering in the breeze. It seemed to sense his presence, and the being turned. With a swift grab, another Hapshiel was revealed, just as equally gay as the current one. The original Hapshiel crooned seductively as the replica did the same. "My, aren't you handsome?" the real Hapshiel flirted.

 

The other Hapshiel blew a sly air kiss that blasted a kiss shaped-crack into the ground. "You're not too bad yourself" the replica purred.

 

With all the grace and subtlety of a horny elephant, the two Hapshiels collided, and began their sloppy make-out. Their tongues danced in a miraculous exchange of saliva; as the replica tickled the roof of Hapshiel's mouth with his tongue; just how he liked it. For anyone else to bear witness to this scene, it would be the most wrong thing ever. Oh god, did Hapshiel just grab his clone's... OH GOD! And what is he doing with it? Oh... oh god. I didn't know it could even bend that way. And what is he? Oh no... NOT THE PING PONG PADDLE!

 

[Redacted]

 

[VERY redacted]

 

[sO REDACTED]

 

[NOT THE SQUID AGAIN!]

 

Once the two were done and cleaned up, the replica faded away, as he had nothing he could have asked of Hapshiel anyways. But at least he went out very happy.

 

Current Position: A8

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

|_)???, Lydia(_|

|_)Path of Death(_|

 

Lydia's eyes were glazed over as she walked onto the bridge. Her shoes silently pressing into the wood as the whispering only served to grow louder. The small child-like Spectre shivering with fear as he lit her way onto the bridge. "This place scares me" Spectre shivered.

 

Lydia smiled, her shrunken pupils and unblinking eyes giving a rather unsettling expression. "Don't worry, the dark can't hurt you" she said, as if talking to a small child.

 

Though the whispering grew louder, she remained unphased as she walked across the bridge without fear. The voices almost comprehensible to her, though she still could not hear what was truly clear as day. The insults and cruel words bounced off her dementia, as the calming presence of Spectre guided her way.

 

Fed up with not being heard, the darkness lashed out. Corpse versions of those she cared about most flew from the darkness like a murder of cries. Though Sepctre cried out in fear, Lydia smiled her creepy smile as darkness snaked around her left hand. Lashing her hand out, the corpses very frozen in place as the darkness obeyed her command. Tendrils of shadow snaked around their limbs and throats as it threatened to crush them; growing tighter and tighter.

 

It started as a low chuckle, before cascading into full blown madness as Lydia laughed psychotically as her fears were being crushed by the darkness.

 

Current Position: D6

[Dad]

Kenpachi

 

For a moment, he had stopped breathing.  It wasn't until after he witnessed the initial strike that he realized what had happened.  Sephiroth was attempting to take away Kenpachi's most precious valuable.  And because he treated Yachiru as a belonging, and not a person, she could possibly die here.  He could hear her screams pulsing through his veins, as he watched in absolute horror. Seconds later, she was struck by a violent bolt of lightning, and her lifeless body tumbled away.  That's when Kenpachi's heart stopped.  He couldn't hear anything else Sephiroth was saying.  He had gone deaf, and the blood rushed to his ears, numbing them.  This was the borderline, and it had been crossed.  Nozarashi shook violently, as Sephiroth grew closer.  Kenpachi's entire body been to twist and contort, stopping suddenly as Sephiroth brought down his final blow to the back of the man's neck.  It was then, after losing everything he cared about not once, but twice in a lifetime, Kenpachi was no longer Soul Reaper, nor was he human.  He was not hollow, but he was something else entirely.  In the back of his mind, where the bleak light of sanity somehow remained, he heard a voice say, "it only hurts, just once".  Sephiroth smiled, watching the proud Soul Reaper become engulfed in shadow.  This was the fight he had wanted from Zaraki.  The very ground on the Pathway of Death began to corrode beneath Kenpachi and Sephiroth, as the Soul Reaper lifted his head one more time.  His eyes were completely pitch black, and he had given in to the darkness, just as Sephiroth wanted.  And what a bright darkness it was.  From the inside out, Kenpachi began to swell.  His reiatsu literally boiled the air around Kenpachi and Sephiroth, causing his wing to molt.  Light pierced from Kenpachi's body, before blending itself upwards and surrounding him completely, reshaping his aura and reiatsu all at once.  The golden hue engulfed the Soul Reaper, and he slowly got to his feet.  It was now as though a wind tunnel surrounded them both, as no sound could get in or out of the incredibly thick atmosphere between them.  It was the most frightening silence someone could witness if they were even remotely close.

 

From the distance, limp and bleeding, she managed the strength to roll over to see Kenpachi.  Blurred vision, she was able to still whisper aloud.  "Kenny . . .no."  Her head sank, as she passed out from blood loss.  

 

His eyes void of life, and his motions odd, Kenpachi twitched, as he motioned towards Sephiroth.  Sephiroth, not surprised by what he was seeing, swung at the recklessly engaging Kenpachi.  Kenpachi vanished at this swing, reappearing, and parrying the strike standing directly in Sephiroth’s face.  He opened his mouth, but words were inaudible, and only a bright golden light left his mouth, forcing Sephiroth to the ground.  As Nozarashi writhed in his hand, Kenpachi reached for his last resort, though he had assured Yachiru he would never take off his eye patch again. His golden aura darkened, becoming muddy and riddled with black, as spirit skull formed behind him.  The pressure in the air grew more than tenfold, allowing Kenpachi to keep the angel pinned below his foot.  His aura doubled, and rocketed into the sky of the Pathway of Death, briefly lightning the areas of B-3 to D-8.  The sound between the two of them escaped at last, pluming out like a bursting vacuum. It had finally shattered a sound barrier and erupted from their location, as Kenpachi's word blared solemnly through B-3 to D-8 at last.  ” . . . The wages of sin, is death," he had told the angel not moments ago.  At last, time caught up with them, and the spirit skull still forming behind Kenpachi stared directly down at Sephiroth, before letting out a deep roar, that echoed far and wide.  The aura immediately surrounding him went from gold to black, as Kenpachi became encased in shadow, thought the skull behind him still shone brightly in his golden reiatsu.  And somehow, beneath this dark, quaking power, the shadow that now stared Sephiroth down, showed several glints of white.  Kenpachi was still smiling.  

 

"Drink," he muttered, as the ground shook at his words.  Sephiroth agreed, raising his blade to Kenpachi’s again.  He forced the Soul Reaper back with a blast of energy, flipping elegantly towards Kenpachi with a flurry of powerful strikes.  Each blow that crashed into Kenpachi’s chest exploded with a dark aura, and coated the field in dust.  When the dust cleared, Masamune was buried in Kenpachi’s shoulder, but he did not move.  Kenpachi grabbed Masamune, and wrenched it from his body.  Sephiroth jumped back at this, watching the wound have no blood secrete from it.  Disgusted, he hurled several dark spheres at the Soul Reaper, who parried the first two, dodged the third, and caught the fourth in his free hand.  The dark sphere became encased in light briefly, before becoming the same color as Kenpachi’s aura.  He flung the sphere back at Sephiroth, who narrowly avoided it, as it exploded behind him.  Kenpachi got aggressive at last, diving at Sephiroth with a feint.  The angel fell for it, stepping in and getting caught by Kenpachi’s large hand, which sent him reeling into the air with an uppercut.  Sephiroth shook off the blow, barely floating above, when he noticed Kenpachi had vanished.  He could feel the darkness around him, sensing the Soul Reaper behind him.  Kenpachi reappeared, wrapping a free arm around Sephiroth’s torso, and prepared to slice his throat.  Sephiroth was prepared however, slipping out of Kenpachi’s grasp and kicking him in the back.  He followed with a blinding dash, ripping into Kenpachi’s back, then knocking him to the ground with the hilt of Masamune.  Scoffing, he stared down at the Soul Reaper who’s body remained with chest on the ground, but who’s head faced Sephiroth.  “Come on.  You’re gonna have to try harder to kill me now!” Kenpachi taunted, righting his body and head, and dashing back at Sephiroth.  They met again, but Kenpachi struck first with a swift wide cut, forcing Sephiroth back.  The angel looked down at his chest to see a large cut, which had destroyed his jacket and caused him to bleed.  “I actually liked this material,” he said ripping the tattered jacket from his body.  “Pity.”

 

He had made a final decision not to hold back any longer, as he produced several other Sephiroth clones of himself.  The angel then created a gravity field, which began to pull the massive Soul Reaper to its center.  Kenpachi happily obliged, not resisting the pull.  The cloned angels all gathered energy in their blades and free hands, before unleashing an immeasurable amount of energy slashes at speeds that could not be seen.  Seconds before impact, Kenpachi raised a right hand, and without chanting, released a black wall of darkness, a high ranking hadou spell.  It completely absorbed the blow, and irritated Sephiroth.  The angel dove in this time, slicing through the hadou wall and meeting Kenpachi with a kick to the stomach.  Kenpachi caught the angel’s leg, and tossed him away, following with his own barrage of red energy spheres, exploding around Sephiroth in unison.  Beneath the smoke and fire, Kenpachi could hear Sephiroth speaking.

 

“It’s good to see you finally taking me seriously, Zaraki Kenpachi,” he called from the billowing smoke.  There was a whirling in the smoke now, and the winds began to pick up, pulling everything in 100 meters that was not settled, towards Sephiroth.  “But alas, you’ve worn my patience.”  A bright, red light gathered above the angel, as he raised one finger into the air.  The light formed into a ball, and it began to grow.  The ball grew, and grew, and grew until it could be seen from anywhere in the Pathway of Death.  For the moments that Sephiroth’s Supernova continued to build, the Pathway was visible, and Kenpachi could see Yachiru’s body in the distance.  “If you had complied with me sooner, than perhaps I could have killed you more quickly.”  Kenpachi raised Nozarashi in one hand over his right shoulder, staring Sephiroth in his eyes.  “Perish, Zaraki Kenpachi,” Sephiroth said as the Supernova grew to impossible size.  “Die, in darkness.”

 

He threw the supernova at Kenpachi, who did not budge.  What happened next caused Sephiroth to frown ever so slightly.  Kenpachi, who had not moved since he raised Nozarashi, swung his blade directly into the burning mass of power, and cut through it.  The sphere dissipated into the abyss behind Kenpachi, and exploded in the distance.  Kenpachi, still smiling, pointed his blade at Sephiroth now, as he vanished.  For the first time, Sephiroth panicked, and was caught off guard as Kenpachi reappeared in front of him and delivered a powerful left hook, forcing Sephiroth to the ground.

 

Kenpachi reached down for Sephiroth's neck with his left hand.  Raising the thin angel, Kenpachi squeezed.  It was not enough to kill Sephiroth, but it was enough to make him struggle.  Kenpachi could see Yachiru's limp body now in the distance, and turned Sephiroth to face her.  There she lie in a pool of her own blood, and this only made Kenpachi angrier.  He smashed Sephiroth's face into the ground, and began to drag it at high speeds, along the ground, running him into glass and stone.  At the end of the long drag, he sent Sephiroth hurling into the air like a rag doll, flipping over and over again.  But Kenpachi had shown up behind Sephiroth’s twirling body, putting Nozarashi’s hilt into the angel’s back, and sending him higher.  As their altitude increased, Kenpachi repositioned himself.  He was now above Sephiroth, and placed a giant heel into the angel’s chin, flipping his body suddenly in the opposite direction, and breaking his jaw.  The momentum change was so sudden, that they floated for a brief moment before Kenpachi grabbed Sephiroth’s ankle, and began to hurl downwards.  They moved so fast, that Sephiroth’s jacket began to burn, and melted to his skin.  Upon reaching the ground, Kenpachi had pulled Sephiroth and slammed him into the ground.  A shockwave exploded from the impact site, kicking dust into the air, though Kenpachi had not let go of the angel’s leg.  He spun around, and sent Sephiroth barreling past the bridges further down the past, and crashing and sticking into the large tone building.  Kenpachi arrived just as Sephiroth’s back met the building, and kicked him further into it, causing a hole in the structure’s side.  Sephiroth landed on the pathway further down, nearly breaking his neck.  Kenpachi jumped over, planting both feet into Sephiroth’s back, causing him to spew blood into the air.  Kenpachi abruptly stopped, turning Sephiroth over so that he could see his face.  The angel chuckled, spitting blood at Kenpachi.  "With all that power, this is what you can do?"  The soulless man stared blankly at Sephiroth.  "This is it!?  I took your ONLY!  FRIEND!  FROM YOU!  YOU DISGRACE HER MEMORY!"  

 

Kenpachi put Sephiroth's left cheek onto the ground, before putting several full force kicks into the angel's temple, nearly crushing his skull.  Finally, Kenpachi got brutal, as he took Nozarashi to Sephiroth.  Carefully, Kenpachi sliced the angel's torso down the center, exposing his organs.  He reached for Sephiroth's intestines, and began to yank them out.  Pouring his own reiatsu into Sephiroth, he forced the angel to stay alive during these events, as he tied the length of Sephiroth's intestines to the angel's neck.  Next, Kenpachi punched one gigantic fist through the angel's lower abdomen, grabbing the tip of his spine, and pulling it inwards to his body, until the tip of the bottom reached the angel's mouth.  Kenpachi forced Sephiroth to bite down on his own spine, so that he didn't swallow his tongue from the pain.  He mashed Sephiroth's teeth so hard into the spine, that they were now embedded like nails.  Letting Sephiroth fall onto his open stomach, Kenpachi slashed quickly with Nozarashi, slicing the angel's wing completely off.  Kenpachi turned Sephiroth back over to see his face one last time, and anger continued to swell inside of him.  He took Sephiroth's wing, and using it's stiff end, wrapped Sephiroth's body and tied him down inside his own wing.  Lastly, Kenpachi turned the angel over one last time to make sure he could see Yachiru's body in the distance.  Kenpachi took Nozarashi and stabbed Sephiroth in his anus, forcing him down onto the blade until it's end reached inches below Sephiroth's cerebral cortex.  It was then, Kenpachi unleashed all of his reiatsu at one time, and he began to boil Sephiroth alive.  He would channel this until nothing remained on Nozarashi's blade, and Sephiroth no longer existed.

[Tesability Black]

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

The sounds of battle echoed near the one place upon the Path of Remembrance meant for rest and respite among the journey. While the data dragon unleashed her fury in the form of speed and lightning, her mage-like foe casted spell after spell after her of varying elements. One instance of summoned Earth flung at Tesability even had her Hunter taking a dive to the ground after she flew over it.

"This is getting annoying," Shade grumbled as he lifted his staff to summon a barrier of energy around himself, causing the other NetMonster to bounce off it at high-speed yet again, this time her back connecting to a nearby tree. "It's about time I just finished you off."

Tesability was laying dazed against the tree trunk, looking as if she had actually suffered from some sort of concussion. Her gaze was unfocused and she barely had the will to move. Even trying to move her small wings seemed to hurt.

"You're not touching another scale on her, ya jackass," she heard as a shadow moved on front of her, one Tesability recognized.

"What's this? The Hunter tries to shield the Champion? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around, considering their programming?" The sounds of crackling began to sound suddenly as lights began to flicker around in her blurred view. "Very well, but I can't guarantee your end will be---"

The flickering stopped as well as the crackling immediately after a loud bang was heard, causing the splotch of black where Shade had been to be sent fast to one side. Blinking a few times to try and clear her vision, the dragon tilted her head as much as she could to see two shapes. One seemed relatively-oval in shape as it floated, most-likely a Ghost NetMonster while the other light-blue being ran with one limb held in front...wait.

She blinked one more time to finally clear her vision, revealing two beings she hadn't seen in a long while. The floating being was various shades of dark-blue and purple with a nurse's cap on his head and the other was clearly a mechanical robot with the hand-cannon aimed forward toward where the Mage NetMonster once was.

"...Doc Buu? ...Kawuwos?"

(Current Location: C3, right outside the Tower.)

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

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

It was not like him to show his temper and he knew it, he recalled after he felt an oddly-gentle hand being placed on his shoulder. The sudden break from his focus that the simple action had caused allowed the fairy that had been in his invisible grasp the opportunity to flee at top speed, rubbing its tiny neck as it did.

Shaking his head to clear the sudden wave of emotion as he closed his eyes, he took one deep breath before bringing a sleeve to one of his eyes to dry off the stray tears.

"...sorry," he faintly muttered, momentarily confusing Chandra for someone else as he finally pulled his hood over his head from when he had hit the dirt suddenly. He almost didn't want to look forward, especially with thoughts of his pseudo-brother flooding his mind and the fact that he was dead because of him refusing to leave. It was enough for him to not even hear the fire mage's words.

He almost didn't catch the sight of something dead ahead in the distance, a brownish tower of some sort...

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

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

Little Emerald's glow had kept the immediate area brightly-lit, though the range of said light was a minor struggle to maintain, for the darkness inherant to this path sought to quell it. A little squeak came from its muzzle before it looked toward Neos, whose eyes were still upon the purple flame ahead.

Considering how the flame was starting to blend with the darkness, it was admittedly a bit of a trick to see its light.

A faint sound caught both sets of ears as the Emerald Carbuncle perked up its ears with both of them looking toward what they thought was the general direction.

"That sounded just a little too familiar for my liking, Em," Neos remarked as he laid his staff at an angle, allowing the fox-like being to run down it without needing to jump down. It ran ahead of the false human, who followed close behind with the jeweled staff in his hand.

A large area was covered in bluish-purple crystals of various sizes that seemed to struggle to maintain their inner glow, the darkness of the path trying to suffocate it entirely. They seemed to have all been part of one large structure, one uninfluenced by human intervention during its formation. He tried to mentally put the pieces together in his mind, trying to get an idea of what these crystals used to be.

The resulting image caused his heart to stop beating for over 3 seconds, a miracle that he was even still standing after that.

"This was..." He looked up above the area, trying to see if there was any large pieces still floating in the spot. "...the Tree of Beginning."

"...why...are you doing this...Neos...?"

He turned his head toward the sudden voice, surprised to hear his name in such a pained way. He began to dash toward the source, over the many sharp edges from the crystals and gems, stopping only when a pair of familiar sights entered his view.

One of the two was a small pink faintly-catlike creature balled up onto itself, its long thin tail coiled around. With blue eyes did it look up toward the other being, a man with  straight dark-blue, almost indigo hair that ended at his shoulders, looking down toward the little thing with red irises. He wore a dark-purple business suit, both jacket and pants, with a black shirt underneath and a creepy smirk appeared on his face at the pain the little creature seemed to be in. Outside of these differences, there was a creepy number of physical similarities between Neos and this strange double.

"The name is Gemini, 'Mistress'," he spoke with a cheerful acidic tone as a crystalline shape began to form in his left hand. "And I do this because I want to see all of you squirm."

Seeing the double raise the crystal, which had become a dagger of sorts, before stabbing it hard into creature's leg and causing it to cry out in pain, Neos tried to jump forward to tackle the double off of it...

...but instead, he went right through the dark-colored double, who disappeared into the darkness, along with the pink creature and all the gems that had surrounded him, leaving him laying on the floor alone for a moment.

"...it was...an illusion?" Blinking his eyes for a few seconds, Neos managed to get up onto his feet with the aid of his crystalline quarterstaff before feeling the touch of something rubbing against his leg. Looking down, he couldn't help but give a small smile toward the little green fox with the red jewel on its forehead, who rubbed against his leg from wanting attention. "Sorry, Em. Not right now. We got to get rolling." A whine emerged from the Emerald Carbuncle before it hopped onto his shoulder yet again, which was followed by Neos taking a few steps.

"...wait a minute," he remarked to himself before suddenly stopping in his place. "The Death path reflects the possible future...does that mean..."

All the yellow drained from his face as he tried to re-find the trail left behind by the dark lady. While the path swallows sight, it did not seem to swallow scent and as a beast, he still had his heightened sense of smell...