Golden Gate Empire [IC / No Longer Accepting / PG - 16]

[Dad]

Oxfield Scrapyard

 

"Scanning for targets."  Three Metalheads remained, as Gyro raised his drill to the heavens.  With them in his sights, he brought down a colossal foot, crushing them beneath his sheer power.  "All Metalheads eliminated.  Two unknown heat signatures identified."  Turning around, Gyro was just fast enough to identify a projectile being launched in his direction, along with several jolts of lightning.  "Impact damage less than one percent.  Chance of hull breach less than one percent."  Fortunately lightning on iron hide was near enough pointless, as it was simply absorbed into his body and further juiced the machine.  His biological mechanical systems were not able to account for knockback and stumble factors, however.  The grenade exploded directly in Gyro's chest, releasing a cloud of shrapnel and smoke, causing the Tyrant to stumble backwards just enough to fall onto his bottom. 

 

Murdock, who had narrowly avoided a potentially fatal explosion thanks to the wit of one unexpected savior, smiled.  Grenades?  Scissors?  Girls?  This was turning really kinky, really fast.  But no time for fantasizing.  Murdock rolled inwards, quick drawing a magnum from his side.  This one was not made of scrap metal, however.  This was a fully loaded .50 magnum, with rounds bigger than eels.  

 

He landed just behind Arisu, whose sneaky movement had admittedly taken him by surprise, but she was slow compared to him.  Murdock jammed the butt of the weapon into the back of the girl's skull, knocking her to the ground as he placed a foot in her back.  Raising his gun, he pointed it at Fate now, daring her to move.  "You breathe too hard and I'll blow your lungs out of your back."  Murdock's eyes were truth enough.  He wasn't insane, but he had more than murderous intent in his face.  Without looking to his creation, he called out for Gyro.  The living mechanical organism responded, standing to its feet immediately.  But something was off about it.

 

When Gyro stood, he twitched, ever so slightly.  It was just noticeable in his movements, as every few inches, Gyro seemed to hesitantly lurch forward.  "What the hell's wrong with this thing?  Gyro.  Take these two and bring them to the rails.  I wanna grind 'em out one at a time," Murdock said with a grin.  Gyro, however, had other plans.  "Gyro?  Gyro!  funking machine.  Gyro!!  What the hell's the matter with you!?"  Gyro was frozen in place, unable and unwilling to move.  Something was preventing him from following through with orders.  That's when Murdock saw it.  There was a large amount of shrapnel embedded in Gyro's chest, likely interfering with his 'acceptance and abundance' piece.  There was a good chance that Gyro wanted to reply, but was simply physically unable to.  Even with less than a one percent chance of breaching, the grenade had managed to stop Gyro cold.  

 

Murdock's smile quickly faded, looking to the shrapnel bits, down to Fate and Arisu, then back up to Gyro.  "You stupid, stupid brats!  Do you have any idea what you've done!?  Do you know how much time and money it cost to get someone like this to obey you!?  Just building the funking thing took years!  GrahAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!" he roared.  Stomping into Arisu's back, Murdock now gave Gyro his full attention.  "Now I have to give up more!"  Gyro sighed, trying to calm himself down.  There was a protocol in place for this situation for a reason.  "Gyro.  Initiate override.  Full control.  Code 2-6-9-6-3-0."   Without requiring any input from Gyro himself, his chest began to open, revealing an actual beating heart inside of the machine.  Several mechanical pieces adorned the heart, bits of shrapnel inside of them.  What happened next was both odd and quite fascinating.  With his aim still on Fate, Murdock motioned towards Gyro, who's heart began to slow down and slide further inside of Gyro.  The veins and arteries attached to the heart began to spurt a black liquid wildly about, until Murdock dropped his gun.

 

There were four arteries and three veins, each of which began to attach themselves to Murdock, who was climbing inside of Gyro.  Replacing and destroying Murdock's legs and arms, and injecting themselves into his neck, back, and chest, Murdock had successfully integrated himself with Gyro, becoming one with the machine.  Gyro's eyes sparked again, glowing red behind his mask.  And standing to its feet, Gyro was now fully controlled by Murdock, back in the same predicament he was in before.

 

The integration process immediately began to take a toll on Murdock, as the veins seeped deeper into him and attaching to his own wicked heart.  Murdock's voice also began to change, turning slightly more robotic.  "Now then," Murdock began.  Moving Gyro about, Murdock felt good.  He was undeniably in control.  With a more wicked heart now directly behind the control of the machine, Gyro's eyes went from red to orange, and then to black.  "I think this calls for another name change, don't you?" Murdock said as he spoke now through Gyro.  The iron  plate that initially opened on Gyro's chest began to close, now sealing away and protecting Murdock inside of the machine.  However, he could not see outside of this plate, and adjustments had to be made.

 

As Murdock forced Gyro to cut open a small port hole inside of himself, he continued speaking.  "I think I'll call us. . .no.  I think I'll call me, Alpha.  That's the only title that suits me.  Well, than and Omega."  Spinning the drill more more rapidly, Alpha opened his palm opposite his drill, revealing an enormous hole.  Inside of it, a fire began to grow.  "Now.  Let's turn up the heat."  A relentless stream of flame unleashed from his hand, and billowed towards Fate and Arisu, nearly overlapping them with its size.

 

 

Lacusta Castle

 

Everyone was caught off guard, even Vladimir.  Brendan, who was about to clash with Kokoro again, turned his head sooner than he should have in an attempt to avoid the bullets coming his way.  Kokoro took this opportunity to steal the spotlight, kicking Brendan high upwards, and following.  "This is for hitting a girl!"  She leaped as hard as she could, throwing two uppercuts one behind another, forcing Brendan to crash into the ceiling, and bounce off of it.  "And this is for being a stuck up little sheet!" she said as she dove onto his back with a kick, and rode Brendan to the ground like a horse.  The bullets that were meant for Brendan barely missed him, but in turn ricocheted backwards and struck Kokoro in her right side as she fell with Brendan beneath her.  Kokoro was sent reeling, crashing through the doors of the torture chamber and collapsing atop Adrianna and Sabien.

 

Meanwhile, Arora blinked away from Tyson as fire and silver came her way.  However, she and Vladimir had both been goaded into moving, as the very ceiling of the castle began to collapse.  "MYYYYYYYYYYYYY CASSSSSSSSSSSSSSTLE!!" Vladimir roared as he attempted to raise a hand to stop Tyson.  But he was too late.  The ceiling crumbled, and fell atop him, smashing Arora and giving Vladimir a serious headache.  

 

And for some reason, as the ceiling collapsed and the castle rocked, Vladimir shrank slightly in size, becoming at least 4 meters smaller.  Vladimir burst through the rubble, shaking it off, as he hurriedly looked for his favorite child.  "Arora?  Arora!?  ARORA!" he called out.  Sifting through the rubble, he found her at last, pinned beneath an enormous boulder of stone and a wooden stake column having fallen and pierced her left side.  "ARORA!!"  And what one would think was impossible was very real.  Vladimir had a soft spot for his favorite, as a single tear fell from his face as he pulled the rubble and wood from atop his daughter.  She bled heavily, and was not breathing.  "Arora, get up!!  That's an order!!"  Ignoring Tyson, Vladimir picked up Arora in his large hands, cradling her.  "Get up, Arora!  Get up!"  But she did not speak or move.  She did not breathe or blink.  And Vladimir could feel her pulse slipping away.  Arora was dead.

 

And this was all Vladimir needed to make his next move.  Setting her corpse down carefully behind him, Vladimir closed Arora's eyes with his claws.  And now, he spread his wings.  He was still ten meters tall, and he was still overwhelming large over all.  He would use his size to his advantage.  Jumping, Vladimir flapped his wings for the first time in a millennium.  Vladimir climbed, now becoming aware of just how strong his foes were.  He climbed, higher, and higher, reaching over a hundred thousand feet.  Eventually, Vladimir breached the earth's atmosphere, looking over it and staring directly down at this own castle with his powerful vision.  Then, he dived.  He gained incredible momentum, turning into a three thousand pound meteor.  His target was Lacusta Castle.  The impact would likely destroy the entire castle, killing anyone who was inside of it.  That is, unless somehow he could be stopped.

 

 

Sahill Cathedral

 

Beneath her helmet, Opal smiled.  True, she was essentially invulnerable, though it would take her some time to be restored.  But she'd not been defeated in a long time.  And this girl before her, whoever she was, had quite the attitude.  She was bold, confident, and apparently she held magic of her own.  But this was no ordinary ice, as she would soon find out.  Flipping her halberd around into the air, it narrowly missed Morgan's face, before it disappeared into the ice below.  Opal waited patiently for the flaming skulls to approach her, as she raised an open palm.  Then, her ice blue halberd reappeared from the ice, along with two replicas of itself.  And with these replicas came several pillars of ice bursting from beneath the frozen floor.  And they began to spread.  More and more ice pillars shot upwards into the air, freezing the skulls on contact, and shattering into hundreds upon hundreds of ice shards.  And now, as Morgan's partner in crime approached her recklessly, Opal took a defensive stance, sliding backwards gracefully, as her ice shards came from Dirk's opposite side, forcing Morgan and Dirk back to back.

 

Saturn, who was admittedly impressed by Dirk's movements, dove inside of his own flames like a moth to a bright light.  He got in close to Dirk, and raised his halberd high before splitting in two.  The halberds reformed tofull sizes of their original selves, before they began to change color.  What happened next signified one thing:  Opal and Saturn wanted to either lose or win quickly.  Opal turned to Saturn, and launched two of her halberds in his direction, with Saturn replicating her actions.  The fifth and final halberd floated ominously between them both in the mix of fire and ice shards, and Saturn was forced out of his own blaze.  Opal's weapon was stronger than he remembered.  Opal, who had just received Saturn's halberds found herself skidding harshly backwards as she caught them.  And now, they both began swinging dual halberds putting on a show of ice and fire, fire and ice.  And as the frozen blaze and burning cold bared down upon Dirk and Morgan, King Pol grew impatient.

 

 If his knights were unsuccessful, he would step in and do this himself.

 

Decadence Forest

 

Palea, who had been temporarily stunned, screeched loudly as her prey fled the scene.  And Calvin, who looked over the flock of fairies to spot Camille, whined ever loudly as their chase persisted through the forest.  What could be deemed as both fortunate and unfortunate events, drew Camille and Calvin closer to Nero now, bringing almost the entirety of the forest's most dangerous creatures with it.  The fairies, who found themselves narrowly avoiding collision with this man in red, swerved wildly, nearly dropping Calvin onto the forest floor.

 

"Don't let him go!"

 

"We won't!"

 

"Look out!"

 

"Wha--oof!" they crashed into a  rather large object.  A rather large, furry, heavy, big teeth having object.  She circled the fairies, daring them to move as she snarled.   This was Calvin's mother, Kira, the largest leopard in the forest.  She didn't bother waiting for the fairies to flee either.  She began wiping them away one paw at a time.She smashed them to tiny piles of blood, smearing them across the forest floor with little effort.  There were only a dozen or so of the fairies, so being rid of them was simple enough.  However, Kira seeing her cub here presented a new problem.  After having been violated by the man in red now standing in front of her, and now seeing him 'partnered' with another, surrounding her cub, Kira grew angry.  She affectionately approached Calvin.

 

She nudged him with her head to see if he was alive.  His reply of a lick to his mother's nose was enough to keep her from going any further.  However, Kira was not about to allow the man who assaulted her and potentially her child get away.  Or rather, she wouldn't have if it wasn't for the gigantic moth quickly buzzing her way through the forest towards this unlikely group of friends.  And it was more than obvious that Palea was very, very agitated.  She was spitting venom as she crashed through trees, her mouth moving rapidly as she bit towards Nero, Camille, Calvin, and Kira.

[Astolfo]

Nori Amakusa

Preparing herself to fight the raptor once more, what happened next took both her and her opponent by surprise. Apparently the two goose statues were actually a shell for very real, and very living geese. Except these geese were giant, and colored so unnaturally that they could not have been any normal creature. Stumbling backwards in surprise when deafeningly loud honking began to rang out, it was pure luck she didn't step on any of the newly forming bomb maggots. Because at that moment, hundreds of maggots suddenly burst-evolved into their adult forms, before flooding out a torrent of new babies, waiting to detonate. Thankfully, the geese seemed to ignore them for now, but given the fact that a magical bubble began to form around them, it was critical to make a decision fast.

 

Attacking would inevitably draw the ire of these magical creatures, but not attacking would mean being suffocated in a downpour of explosive insects and only giving time for the animals to regain their strength after having been encased for so long. Immediately beginning to charge Ka within her main sword for a massive strike to cleave through the bubble, she yelped in surprise when the raptor grabbed her with his claws, roughly, but not in a way meant to harm. Looking towards him surprisedly, she saw his eyes, and understood his intention immediately. Bowing her head, she spoke a few words.

 

"Thank you for not attacking. You are an honorable opponent, and it would be best to work together to overcome this new foe."

 

Listening to his next words, she already began to prepare multiple blasts of Fū, bombarding the storm of insects swarming through the air, and keeping them a safe distance from the two of them. The last thing they needed was to lose a limb to some freaking exploding grenade maggot. Yelling back to him as she continued to charge up Ka as far as she could, she motioned towards the bubble.

 

"On three, we'll attack the bubble together with as much force as we can! If we just let them sit there and make out, they're going to get all their strength back! We definitely do not need that! We need to take them out while we have even a chance!"

 

Praying to her family and to the gods of magic and luck, her main sword began to hum melodically as it reached a critical point for the attack.

 

"3... 2... 1.... NOW!"

 

With that, she placed her trust in her opponent, before clearing a way with her short sword, to unleash a full-powered blast of Ka. Containing enough power to level a small village at this point, Nori placed everything she could hope for within this one attack, praying her opponent would lend her strength as well, for it could very well be the difference between success and failure.

 

Please... mother... father... LEND ME STRENGTH!

 

Robert Eschalotte

When a massive snake creature burst through the thick bone walls, tackling him, Lotte yelled out, half in shock, and half in fear. "Unholy funking Christ!" Struggling to get away, disgusted by her drool pouring all over him, he shook his head, clearing his thoughts. There were more important things than drool right now. Like possibly being eaten alive. Looking at his opponent-to-be, he realized her upper torso was mostly a human female's, and a naked one at that. Her eyes were a crimson red, filled with bloodlust and malice so deep it shook him to the core, and her hair being made of hundreds and hundreds of snakes didn't help one bit.

 

Stammering in panic when she looked straight into his eyes, he realized this is the feeling of prey. Of being hunted. Of being the one to be killed, instead of the one to do the killing. The sudden role reversal froze him in his place, unable to even budge slightly. It seemed hopeless. The snake could move much faster than he could in a place like this, and even if he got away, he was still trapped in a massive, poisonous skull, hundreds of feet off the ground. She'd corner him eventually. And he didn't count on the judges to save him before she ate him, even if he beat his opponent first. About to stop struggling, he remembered what happened just a few hours ago, in the haze of his mind. There was that goddamn Magi.

 

If he died here, he wouldn't be able to fight her later, and prove that he, and the Guardians that he was a part of, were superior. With that realization in his mind again, a burning, iron-will fired up again. "MASH!" Summoning a massive, armored fist to come flying out of the portal, it smashed into the snakewoman's chest, letting out a horrifying crunch as it broke bones. There wasn't any time to celebrate yet though. "SEIKU!" Creating large energy wings manifesting from his back, he immediately took off as fast as he could, away from whatever the funk that creature he just saw was. Chancing upon the fact the snake probably couldn't drop all the way down, he swung his massive pincer against the side of the skull once he flew a decent bit away, to crack it open, before shooting a round into it point blank, to completely blast open a hole. Flying through, Lotte burst into the open air, taking deep gulps of fresh, clean air.

 

Even if the snakewoman somehow dropped all the way down and survived and kept chasing him, as long as he had his wings, he could just outmaneuver her, or simply fly back up, and then sit on the top of the skull. Getting down was easy enough, whether it was safe being irrelevant, but getting all the way back up should be near impossible. Landing on the banks next to the side, Lotte looked around carefully, to make sure the coast was clear, before sitting down and taking a few moments to rest.

 

Growing curious about his opponent, he wondered how they would react. Very few people or beings probably could give chase all the way out the skull, but remaining inside the heavily dangerous skull was a deathwish as well. Shrugging when he decided he didn't care, he peered at the waterfall, sighing in relief when he remembered the warnings about the whirlpools and spirits there. Good thing he didn't go for a swim.

 

Recalling his fist back into the portal, he checked its condition. It was a bit scuffed up and partially broken in some parts, but otherwise, good enough to reuse. Thanking the heavens for his luck, he began to stretch out his body, enjoying the sunlight while keeping an eye out for the horizon. He heard there was locals here, and there was no guarantee they'd be friendly. More likely quite the opposite. With possibly dangerous opponents on the ground as well, Lotte couldn't drop his guard quite yet. Sitting on top of a grassy hill high off the ground that offered him a clear vantage and view of his surroundings, he occasionally swept his gaze over the grass, just in case anything unwelcome was hiding there.

 

"Your move, 'Noya'. Don't disappoint me, whoever you are."

[Mr. Hyde]

Elspire Ferdinand

 

The blows had been successful, Ublik was now armorless and in a state of shock.  He must've underestimated the combined forces of both combatants, which was a sad mistake to make even considering how dumb this creature might've been.  In a state of rage comparable to Elspire's, the monster began to slam it's axe against the cavern floor and walls alike.  The cavern began to shake violently, as if the ghoul were causing an earthquake to match the ferocity of his anger.  Elspire stood unphased, snarling at the pathetic creatures attempts to kill them all.  He almost laughed at the fact that Ublik was not going to be able to defeat either opponent, so rather instead of losing his honor, he would take them all with him.  

 

Elspire noticed that with it's free hand, the demon had destroyed what remained of it's armor.  The dust began to swirl around Ublik, and a small magical presence had started forming around the goblin.  Would that minor shield protect Ublik from the crashing cavern ceiling?  Elspire was not about to take his chances.  He looked to his side to notice Saul had already fled the scene.  His scent could be smelled from deeper in the cavern.  "Coward..." the berserk half-dragon grumbled.  

 

He stepped forward and prepared himself to bolt towards Ublik.  His next step propelled him forwards at a speed unmatched by lightning bolts, as he flung his fist forward, punching the ghoul in the stomach.  His fist had made contact with soft fleshy skin this time, and it practically knocked all of the wind out of Ublik.  With his mouth agate, Elspire jumped upwards towards the towering demon's head.  He grabbed Ubliks mouth and opened it wider.  "RAAAAAAAWWWR!"  He shouted into the ghoul's mouth, as the shout soon turned into electrical magic energy.  The attack shot down Ublik's throat, as cries and screams tried to escape it but were stopped by the burning in the back of his throat.  The lightning exited the back of Ublik's neck, and his head was soon detached from the rest of his body.  

 

Holding the Ghoul's head in his hand, he gave a triumphant roar.  The roar shook the cavern, but the seizing ceased afterwards.  "Puny....Goblin..." Elspire discarded the decapitated head of Ublik onto the cavern floor.  Now there was only one more nuisance remaining in this cave.

 

 

 

Zyg 0001

 

 

Zyg's tapping became spastic, and his impatience could be seen on his reptilian face.  At least the maggots were being kept at bay by Nori's expertise and aiming.  They were safe from all the mines for now, but Zyg winced at the pain that he might feel from one of those exploding insects.  

 

"On three, we'll attack the bubble together with as much force as we can! If we just let them sit there and make out, they're going to get all their strength back! We definitely do not need that! We need to take them out while we have even a chance!"

 

"Ahhh a combo power strike?!  That should prove to be most effective!"  Now the only question was what Zyg's most powerful all out attack even was.  Was it a laser claw slash with the force of 10 tons behind it, or was it a full power laser blast.  Nori seemed to be charging up some sort of attack.  The attack looked familiar, and it registered that it was the one fire attack she had used earlier.  She must've been charging that attack for some more power behind it.  Zyg was afraid to even get close to an attack like that again, so the choice of short range attack was off the list of options.  Laser it was then!  Zyg set his laser heated core to it's highest setting.  A burning sensation could be felt all over his body, and he could feel the energy leaving his body.  

 

"3... 2... 1.... NOW!"

 

Zyg opened his maw to unleash a more empowered, and larger version, of his mouth laser.  It collided with the Goose's barrier, creating vibrations that shook the outside.  Zyg had never shot his laser for this long, but he was hoping the force behind Nori's attack would be enough to completely shatter the barrier.  

[Hälō]

Tyson Slayer

 

It seemed that bringing down the roof wasn’t enough to completely defeat the ancient vampire. Fortunately though, the attack wasn’t a complete failure, and Tyson could now check Arora off his kill list. This small victory was short lived however, as Vladimir began to flap his massive wings and ascend towards the heavens. Still acting on instinct, Tyson hastily wrapped Mephisto’s chain around the creature’s tail, joining him in his journey to the earth’s atmosphere. 

 

Tyson continued to hold on for dear life as the pair broke through the Troposphere, now gripping the chain with such force that his hands had begun to bleed. What exactly was big bastard planning? Holding no intention of waiting to find out, the man begun slowly climbing his up the chain towards his foe, his face twisting and contorting in pain from the massive amounts of wind residence he was met with. 

 

“What in Lucifer’s name are you doing?!” Mephisto’s voice suddenly reappeared, causing Tyson to smirk. This was the first time he had heard legitimate shock in the demon’s voice since the two had met in hell. But then again who could blame him? Their current predicament was quite ridicules, even for the hunter’s line of work…

 

“You told me not to die right? Welp, I’m still kicking... So how about a "Good job Tyson"?” The man growled as watch Vladimir finally end his ascension roughly twenty meters above. They were higher then Tyson had actually thought possible, and as he shot past a large satellite with what appeared to be the Golden Gate insignia branded on it; he became painfully aware of how bad his situation really was. Watching has Vladimir acquired his target like some kind of gargantuan f***ing eagle, Tyson commanded Mephisto’s chain to retract, causing him to shoot upward towards the massive beast with amazing speed. “Though I think I might need some of that info… You come up with anything good or?”

 

“Nothing that would be of any use now……” The demon’s voice trailed off.  Though Tyson was given no chance to voice his annoyance about matter- because Vladimir suddenly ripped the words from his throat, as the massive vampire began to dive towards the earth, dragging the hunter along for the ride. 

 

“f***, f***, f***…” Tyson was suddenly consumed by a wave of panic. The pair was rocketing towards earth almost twice as fast they had ascended, and the heat he was beginning to feel from their decent was beginning to become a little bit more then a minor discomfort now… Glancing to his side for a moment, the man looked in horror as his favorite trench coat began rapidly to disintegrate from the friction. There was now way in hell that he’d survive hitting the ground at this speed. “I gotta stop him some how…” 

 

Drawing his pistol, the man hastily fired off an entire clip’s worth a flaming shots towards the back of Vladimir’s head; this time bathing them in such a vast amount of hellfire that they quite literally exploded on impact. Satisfied that he had gotten his opponent’s attention, Tyson watched as Vladimir whirled around to meet the man that had been responsible for the death’s of not one, but two of his children and the eminent destruction of his home. The amount of contempt that burned in the vampire’s eyes was immeasurable.

 

Final phase Boss BMG

 

Now slowly hovering above the beast as the two faced one another in a free-fall through the stratosphere, Tyson allowed the empty clip to fly out of his pistol before slamming the gun to his side in a skillful one-handed reload. Low on options, Tyson then raised the pistol towards his foe as if daring him to make the first move; his left hand still wrapped around Mephisto chain as it hung limply from the creature’s tail.

 

The tyrant was quick to call the man’s bluff, discreetly flicking it’s tail downward; causing the hunter to be dragged forward by his own weapon. Amused by the look of shock that appeared on the human’s face, Vladimir proceeded to cock his right hand backwards, before throwing it forward in a massive jab. He would crush the insect here and now. 

 

“Ripper!”

 

“I Know. I got!” Tyson barked as unhooked his chain from Vladimir’s tail just as the massive red fist began to rocket towards him. Thinking fast, the hunter raised his now free left hand over his right shoulder before hastily releasing a small blast of hellfire with just enough force to propel him to the side in order to very narrowly avoid the hit. Quickly drawing his knife, Tyson set it’s blade ablaze before plunging it into the tough red hide of Vladimire’s inner wrist; skillfully sliding down the creature’s massive forearm towards it’s face, and letting lose several flaming shots form his Desert Eagle as did so.  “Com’on you big bastard! I’m not going out like a b****!” 

 

Unfortunately, it seemed his opponent had no intention of making this battle simple, and as Tyson sliced his way down to Vladimir’s elbow, the beast swung it’s right hand towards his left arm in an attempt to smash the man like some kind of revenant misquote. But Tyson was ready. With a grin, he fired a large jet of hellfire from the blade of his knife, painfully ripping it from the vampire’s flesh, and lunching Tyson between it’s claws only moments before being crushed. 

 

“BANG BANG BANG BANG!” Was the hunter’s cocky battle cry, as he let off yet another round of explosive shots towards Vladimir’s face. Though his confidence was short lived, as he was suddenly sent fly upward by a swift but powerful swipe form the vampire’s tail that came from his blind spot.

 

“Ripper… you won’t be able to win this battle if you continue to fight Vladimir as a man.” Mephisto’s voice chimed in over the sound of what Tyson assumed to be a few of his ribs shattering from the force of the attack he had just taken. 

 

“Do I look like I’m in the mood for cryptic bullshit?!”  Spinning violently, Tyson was only barely able to bring himself to a clumsy halt with one of his flame jets in time to float to the side to avoid a follow-up punch from his opponent. Sloppily holstering his weapons, and swinging his arms over his head, Tyson released two massive jets of hell fire above him in order to send himself rocketing towards the vampire at missile-like speeds. “You’re trained to fight as a human who faces the supernatural, correct? Well this is a foe who cant be defeated by such a man…” Tyson’s eye’s narrowed at this.  “If you truly wish to defeat him, you must face him on the same grounds... you must fight not as a man, but a monster."

 

Widening his eye's in understanding, Tyson let loose a growl as he began to summon even more hellfire. Cloaking himself in the mystical flame, he smashed into Vladimir's chest like a bullet, causing the creature to fall even faster towards the rapidly approaching earth. But he wasn't done there. Giving the beast no chance to recover, Tyson cocked his fists back; releasing a flaming punch above the creature's heart with every ounce his demonic strength. He then proceeded with another, channeling even more strength then the last time. What followed, was a salvo of flaming strikes from the hunter; each erupting in a small blast of hellfire, that seemed to grow in intensity with every swing.  

 

"MORE, RIPPER!" Mephisto's voice sounded from within his subconscious as Tyson continued his attack on the titan. "YOU CALL THAT A COUP DE GRACE?!" He could feel the bones in his fists begin to shatter, but that didn't stop him. Tyson was pouring his very being into every strike, but he knew that he'd need to keep it up if he wanted any of it to mean something... Unfortunately though, it seemed his window was closing fast, and he was soon consumed by the hanging shadow of Vladimir's hand as the beast made a desperate grab at him. "I don't think so..." The man snarled, before swinging both hands backwards and conjuring a massive torrent of hellfire that for a moment dwarfed even the ancient vampire's massive grasp. "YOU SIN COVERED TRASH!" With a final roar, Tyson thrusted his arms forward, causing the amassed hellfire to detonate and envelope the pair in a swirling sphere of brilliant flame that illuminated the sky above Lacusta castle.  

[VCR_CAT]

Dirk Rider: Sahill Cathedral - B8

 

Dirk skidded; flipping out a new cigarette and holding it out so that it was lit by Saturn's flame. Leaping backwards, away from Opal's attack, Dirk stuck his back against Morgan's and took a long drag from his cigarette as the two knights began to prepare their next attack.

 

"Hey toots, you come here often?" Dirk asked with a smirk as he clued into what they were doing. "Now this might sound crazy, but on the count of three, I need you to duck. Okay?"

 

The halberds began to glow a lot bright as the two knights prepared.

 

"One,"

 

Soon, Dirk's body was starting to feel a little... gross? I guess? from the combination of heat and cold both enemies were generating.

 

"Two."

 

And then, the halberds were flung; speeding towards both of them.

 

"THREE!"

 

Dirk ducked down immediately in a sort of limbo-pose, the magical halberds slicing through the air, the outer half of his cigarette being cut in two as both halberds criss-crossed and sped off towards the other knight. Standing back up, it looked like the attack had staggered the knights but they weren't done. Both began to prepare a new attack that began to fill the arena with a searing heat and blazing cold. Still back-to-back with Morgan, Dirk glanced at the frozen one.

 

"Hey toots, trade ya places," Dirk said immediately; drawing his Dust Rider and popping off three 15mm rocket-slugs right at the ice knight. Even if they were cut mid-air (can people do that?), those were still explosive rounds. Either way, it looked like the fight was going in their favor.

 

 

Saul: Cavern of Sirens

 

The rubble cleared, and Elspire stood at the other end of the cavern, tossing aside the decapitated head of the giant ghoul. Saul stood to his feet; by now he knew enough of his opponent; a dragon-kin; possibly the last of his kind. Saul knew of the devastation of the Dragons; fearsome creatures that suffered the same fate as the Titans. Now this boy, still young, was roped into this ugly "sport" by Gerald. Whether he won or lost, he would become just another of Gerald's "trophies". Was that all this tournament was? Just a collection of the world's most powerful and exotic individuals for Gerald to capture and keep as pets? To keep as just parts of a collection? Did this boy even realize who the real villain was? Either way, he had to know. And either way, the Dragons would not die out here.

 

Elspire was strong and fast, but he lacked a clear mind and a steady arm, charging foolishly at his enemies expecting his strength to win the battle. He had so much to learn, but this wasn't the time for a lesson through theory. If he was going to learn to drop his foolishness and approach his enemies with a clear mind, he had to learn it now the hard way.

 

"I never dreamed I would meet another Dragon Kin in the rest of my days," Saul spoke out, his strong voice echoing and carrying through the cavern as he stepped out of the rubble with sword aglow. "I believed the last of their people to be wiped out; as had happened to mine. You're a brave child, but you're foolish, and if you ever wish to make it out of this, then you need to learn restraint and focus."

 

Saul stood with his sword at the ready; prepared for anything. With any luck, the boy was willing to talk and have an open mind. Unfortunately, either way he needed to lose. Saul's mission cannot be stopped.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The frigid b**** blocked her attack, that was totally not nice. Who does this chick think she was anyway? Whatever, she just had to come up with some other way to beat the rust out of these these tin cans.
And then there was that combination crap they were pulling. “That’s so not fair, stupid ass flashy ass combo ass bullshit.” She yelled at the pair, before backing up and realizing she was back to back with her opponent. She was crabby and she wanted to let it known.

 

The pig calls her toots and then has the nerve to tell her what to do? Puh-lease. “Listen here Action-Jim, I do things my way not yours, got it?”
“One”
“Are you listening to me? I bet you never talked to a girl in your life if you act like that.”
“Two”
“Stupid bastard, I’m not doing what you tell me to.”
THREE”

 

And that’s when Morgan realized what was happening. Clever, slightly. But so dull, oh well, guess that’s the best he can come up with. Morgan ordered her broom lower suddenly and crouched her head. Her hat didn’t come with so she reached up and pulled it back down just as the attack passed over.
“Okay you were right that one time, but I only did it because it’s what I wanted, got it? And don’t call me toots, the name’s Morgan and you’d BETTER remember that, hmph.” She blew a strand of hair away from her eyes and crossed over towards the flaming knight.

Wood wasn’t the best way to deal with fire but it would do the trick for what she wanted. The roots that had been so patiently waiting her command came crashing into the room and swept the flaming knight up in them, forcibly relocating him to the opposite side of where his partner was.

Then she grinned, enough time had passed and it was time to break out her pet. She cast her spell and in a swirling vortex of dust and bone, Mr Boneangles the skeleton giant made his appearance, right next to the knight. “Crush him!” Morgan shouted joyously and pointed at the knight.

She was ecstatic to bring this minion of hers to the fight. And she gave the King a smug smile upon his throne after she gave her order. As if to say “You skeletons are my playthings, b****."
Mr. Bonejangles obeyed and swung his bone-club down at the knight, slamming into Morgan’s foe with all his might.

[Hälō]

Fate and Arisu Vs Alpha: A Drill to Pierce Her Heavens?!

---

 

 

“Alright, Fate. That is your name right? I guess we have no options but to finish this hunk of metal first before you can di- I mean before it can hu- I mean before we can actually fight with each other without any disruption.”

 

What exactly had happened there was pretty bizarre, and even Arisu was not sure yet whether she was dreaming about it or not. She was still a bit hurting from when Murdock hit her using his shotgun as a bludgeon, though she can still see it clearly when that guy somehow fused with the giant mechanical thingy that ended up didn’t screwing Fate over. Speaking of her, while Arisu tried to speak to her in a slightly friendly tone, the blue-haired girl was still really livid that her attempt to kill Murdock had been foiled by her. She couldn’t care less about the robot getting out of control anyway, since it’d love the stripper more than her. It seemed that Fate had conspired with fate to prevent Arisu from seeing that fantasy into reality.

 

“Oh also, don’t think about killing me before that. I’ll bring you down with me if you even try to do that.”

 

“Very well then.” Fate grunted in agreement, barely even bothering to glance at her temporary ally. Gripping her sheers tight, she sized up their target; the man had somehow managed to integrate himself into Gyro’s body but had made the critical mistake of leaving a blatant opening in the robot’s chest, presumably to see. “That’s where we’ll strike…” Fate raised her weapon towards the opening, as she addressed Arisu. This woman indeed had a few screws loose, but the magic she wielded would be indispensable in this fight against… well whatever the hell that Murdock had become. 

 

Leaping to the right to avoid the massive jet of flame, Fate hastily ripped another smoke bomb from her pouch before tossing it towards the opening in Alpha’s chest. It was followed by Arisu, who also avoided the brunt of the flames, summoning several icicles before her after casting a spell, before firing them all straight towards that hole. The sound of the ice impacting the flesh of the man that lodged itself inside could be heard, which meant that the attack had successfully hit its intended target.

 

“Hey hey Fate, what can your bigass scissor do? Can you use it to castra- I mean, can you use it to cut off parts of that robot in some way or another?”

 

“I’ll show you…” Fate cued, before dashing forward towards the enemy. Her lips curled into a tiny smirk as she watched the smoke flow out of Alpha’s body, the sound’s of Murdock’s screams of created such a lovely soundtrack for the show that Arisu and herself were about to conduct. Leaping high into the air to avoid a clumsy backhand from the mechanical monster, she came down on the creatures right shoulder, plunging her blade deep into the beast’s body and further damaging the fleshy target inside.  

 

“Murdock, you’re a huge idiot. You ruined my beautiful fantasy, dammit! If it’s not for you hijacking Gyro, I can have my girl-meet-machine fantasy fulfilled but nooooooooo, you had to take control of him so this porn ended up being old man on a girl-

 

Aaanyway...” Arisu, following up Fate’s movement after she almost made the situation awkward for herself, located the leg joints of the giant robot before her, and zapped them with several chain of lightning bolts. While dodging the incoming onslaught from Alpha, Arisu then placed her hands on the battlefield’s floor, and casted a spell. In a second, the field had been changed into pure ice. 

 

Pure, slippery, ice.

 

“Have a n-ice day, old pervert.”

 

 “G-Girl meet’s machine? But I’ve already met gyro…” Fate couldn’t help but shudder for a moment; she didn’t need to know exactly what the woman was implying to know that she should be offended. 

 

“Well, I mean something like...docking. You know about docking, right? Uh but anyway, try knocking him over now. I think I’ve messed his legs up. With the ice, it should be easy.

 

And then you can mount him for- uh don’t mind me.”

 

“Please stop talking…” Fate sighed, as she yanked her blade from the robot’s torso; leaping down towards the ground only moments before a massive hand swung over her last known position. Bringing herself to a sliding halt next to Arisu, the girl took a moment to inspect the blade of her sheers, which was now coated with a bizarre mixture of blood and what appeared to be oil.  She had managed to hit her mark.

 

“AS IF I’D LET MYSELF BE OFFED BY A BUNCH OF f***ing BRATS!” The voice of Alpha seemed to echo across the entirety of the scrapyard. The smoke had now cleared from his is interior, revealing a maimed Murdock, and the blood from the robot’s “heart” was now spilling onto the ice.

 

“Brat…? I’m older than you, you stupid perverted old man! Fate, let’s cut this up and wrap it and mail it, uh...or something like that. But yeah, let’s end this f***er once and for all!”

 

“BOTH YOU TWO b****es ARE DEAD. YOU HEAR ME ?! DEAD!” Raising its massive drill to the heavens, the mechanical behemoth’s core began to glow with a strange light, as large amounts of scrap began to gather from all around the battlefield. As if by some magic, the scrap amassed itself upon Alpha’s drill, expanding it to roughly five times its original size in only seconds. “THIS MY TURF. MY YARD. MY RULES!”

 

Blanking watching the spectacle, Fate casually addressed Arisu. “He also talks too much…” 

 

“And also too stupid to realize that size doesn’t matter in bed.” Arisu quipped.

 

“Compensating for something perhaps.” Fate dryly followed. She couldn’t help but jump on joining in on the one joke that didn’t fly right over head...

 

“Well, he’s just a dirty old man after all, so you better cut up his drill before it pierces your heavens.” Making these kind of jokes while waiting for Alpha to attack was a nice way to ease the tension, and it also helped her to think about the situation with a clearer mind. Then again, she actually enjoyed being able to make this many dirty jokes. “Maybe he can’t handle his raging drill down there due to seeing you, Fate.”

 

"...I don't get it."

 

“GET THIS! YOU’RE BOTH GONNA DIE!” Alpha roared as the final piece of scrap assimilated with the others, completing his now massive weapon. “DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!” His words echoed over the sounds of the drill as it began spinning rapidly, sending sparks and small chunks of metal everywhere. Cocking it’s arm back, Alpha gave the two girls only seconds to prepare, before clumsily thrusting it forward in a final attempt wipe the odd pair off the map.

 

For a moment, Fate considered grabbing the other girl before dodging the painfully telegraphed attack together, but her more darker instincts seemed to hold strong, and the prospect of the other girl dying was too good to pass up. Glancing towards Arisu, the girl silently leaped to safety, watching carefully to see how her opponent would handle the attack. 

 

“Dammit, you’re supposed to hit that stripper over there, not me! I won’t let you soil my purity you pervert!” Arisu said, before rolling around just in time before her body would be crushed by the gigantic drill. Then, as the drill ended up making Alpha’s movement to be even more sluggish than it was already, Arisu immediately ran up to locate the joints on that arm of the robot. The joints, as well-made as they were, were definitely still the weak point of the robot’s structure, and as soon as Arisu located those, she started to launch several series of spells towards those. First consisting of several large thunderbolts to mess with the circuits and its internal functions, then followed with a big blast of raging fire to weaken the internal structure, then she froze the structure itself before channeling her magic towards her right feet and kicked the arm as hard as she could while it’s still lodged in there and unable to be moved. That kick managed to break the frozen part of the robot, and while it hurt like hell on her part too, it didn’t really matter.

 

“Hey Fate, you a******! Can you just take that attack on your basement and experience love instead of moving the hell out of it! But anyway, cut up its leg like I said it to you before!”

 

“On it!” Fate growled, before shooting forward towards the already damaged Alpha. Sliding low on the ice, she opened the blades of her sheers wide; using the speed and momentum she gathered to slice through the robot’s right leg, causing it to suddenly vanish due the sheer’s magic.  But she wasn’t done yet. Plunging her blade into the ice, the girl elegantly pivoted around to Alpha’s left side; sliding on her back and slicing through it’s left leg just as she had the right, causing the same results. Not sticking around to have the massive entity fall on her, the girl then skillfully took three leaps backwards. It was Arisu's turn now... 

 

“Well then, it’s time to end this.”

 

With Alpha being incapacitated from her and Fate’s attacks, Arisu then walked closer and closer towards the now-open chest of the iron giant, revealing the bloody, battered, mutilated, barely-alive body of Murdock inside.

 

“Next time, remember that giant robots are considerably sluggish compared to two brats with magic. Also, that sight-hole idea is utterly dumb. Oh wait, there won’t be any next times for you, you damn pervert. Try find some underage demons if you want them when you go to hell!”

 

“Just hurry and finish it!” Fate shouted, now thoroughly fed up with her partner's antics. 

 

“Shut up, you stripper! I want to be dramatic for once, goddamnit!”

 

After she finished what she was saying, Arisu was then seen uttering several incomprehensible words, and suddenly, the field around them changed into what looked like the rocky surface of the moon or something similar. Another casting of her spell, and she had Murdock be encased in ice, just as what looked like several giant space rocks were coming at the frozen man’s direction. And then, with a smile, the figure of Arisu disappeared moments before the meteors hit Murdock directly.

 

“I guess...you’re trapped between some rocks and a hard place.”

 

 

 

 

The end result of the attack seemingly had devastated Murdock and what was left of Gyro enough. While it was definitely not a real meteor shower, Arisu had used most of what remained of her magic that she carried within this body to make them as solid as possible, just so they would hurt the man as much as possible. The ice encasing him had shattered, leaving the completely wrecked body behind it. It wasn’t clear whether he was still alive or not, but Arisu wouldn’t like to take any chances in regard to this.

 

“Fate, go finish him off. I think  I’m done being flashy.”

 

Fate simply sighed in response. She really was going to enjoy kicking the crap out of this woman… 

 

Walking up to the crumbled husk of Alpha- no, Murdock, the girl slowly raised her scissors to the man’s chest. “And now to cut the strings of fate…” She mumbled, as she watched the broken man before her raise his middle finger in a final act of disrespect. She to hand it to him, Murdock was tough. “Goodbye.” Was the last thing the leader of the metalheads would ever hear, as Fate sliced him in two with her cursed sheers, causing him and what was left of Gyro to rapidly fade out of existence in what appeared to be a shower of light particles 

 

With Murdock taken care of, Fate turned to Arisu. Without a word she shot forward with surprising speed, closing the distance between the two before Arisu could even think of reacting, and slamming her into the wall with a savage punch to the side of her head. Yep, it felt just as good as she thought it would.

 

“Well, look at what we have here...”  Arisu spat as she watched as Fate plunged both blades of her scissors into the wall behind her. “Damn you underage stripper…” Placing her tiny foot on the wall for support, Fate slide her scissors even deeper into the concrete, leaving her opponent only two mere inches away from a swift beheading. “Surrender or speak your last words.” The girl paused for a moment, realizing exactly who she was talking to. “... you only get six. “

[Dad]

Lacusta Castle

 

As his limp body plummeted towards the remains of his sanctuary, Vladimir could feel the lifeforce being drained out of him, and his children.  Adrianna had been crushed by the collapsing of the castle, stone, brick, and wood mangling her body and shattering her heart and brain.  Arora, in an attempt to aid her father flew after him, but was caught in the aftermath of his falling back to earth and was burned to death by a stray blast of fire, unable to put it out.  Brendan--who fought valiantly against the half-breed vampire, Kokoro--was a mere afterthought.  Despite having a distinct power advantage over the girl, his stamina did not compare.  Eventually, she wore him down as Vladimir did battle with Tyson in the fiery skies above.  Finally, she took his heart in her hands, ripping it from his chest, and devouring it.  But even as Vladimir now began to turn into ash as he fell back down to the earth, he smiled.  Never had he been pushed so far by mere men.  Unholy even as he was, this man--Tyson--had proved to be a worthy adversary.  Vladimir was admittedly impressed, and disappointed in himself for failing to neutralize the threat to his home.  His body decomposed as he continued to fall, ash falling over Lacusta Castle.  From his toes and tail, up to his legs, past his chest, and finally his neck.  As Vladimir's head began to face away, Vladimir laughed heartily, barely managing to get it out before he disappeared for a while.

 

"I can only imagine the scolding I will receive.  I wonder if you know the truth, Mephisto?"  And alas, the remaining true vampire that lived on the surface of earth had turned into nothing, never to be seen again.

 

But below, there was one final mission Tyson had to complete.  He still had an opponent to deal with.  As he landed in the now open central hallway of what remained of Lacusta Castle, Tyson would see Kokoro burst from the rubble, covered in dirt, dust, and blood.  She was holding the side of her stomach.  Her injuries were obvious, but her pride hid it well.  With a cocky smirk, she looked at Tyson from afar, limping towards him slowly.

 

"So you took him down, huh?" she said at last.  "You killed gramps," she joked.  Kokoro managed a chuckle, but only ended up spitting blood.  "Congrats.  You're not a waste of space.   But I can't let you leave here, Tyson."  Kokoro let go of her side, and held up both her open palms, as if she were holding giant weights in her hands.  "I've come too far. . . .to die now."  Her claws expanded to enormous lengths, reaching six feet each.  Kokoro's fangs pertruded violently from her mouth, and she spread her wings.  She dived at Tyson, with the last of her strength.

 

 

Oxfield Scrapyard

 

Gy (Gee/pronounced like Geek).  That was his name.  He felt his heart stopping.  Alas, he could be free.  He felt the programming in his brain stop struggling.  Murdock's grip was broken.  And so was he.  He felt Murdock attempt to claw his way out, and caught the dying man in his enormous hand as they both began to disappear.  "Jefferson Murdock," Gy said.  "You too are free.  From the ways of the world."  Murdock said nothing, not able to mutter anything for his last breath.  The power of Fate's scissors destroyed Murdock almost instantaneously.  Gy, however, would take a few more moments to vanish.  He watched the two girls turn their attention to each other, prepared to give their all for something he himself did not understand.  Gy turned his eyes to the sky as his torso turned into bright blue spiritual particles.  The biological machine smiled, feeling relief and happiness for the first and last time in his lifetime.  "Is this what joy is?" he asked to no one in particular.  His mask shattered, and turned into nothing.  "It is a wonderful thing.  Joy."  That was the last time Gy would experience anything else.

 

And now, the entirety of the Scrapyard belonged to Fate and Arisu.  All other Metalheads who had possibly survived had scurried away.  Without a leader or a functioning group of rebels, they were scared shitless.  Except for one.  He was out to seek new employment.  He vanished in the chaos, slipping into the night.  But now, Fate and Arisu had arrived at a crossroads.  With their teamwork ending, they were enemies once again.

 

 

Cavern of Sirens

 

With Ublik having been utterly destroyed, the lives of the ghouls became ever more difficult.  Every form of life in the cave could feel the change that occurred with the giant's death.  The ecosystem as a whole would drastically change, but over a long period of time.  For now, the crystal dragons could emerge from hiding, no longer needing to fear a brutal death at the hands of a monstrosity.  Elspire had successfully saved an entire species, with his bare hands.  And the dragons knew it, even at a distance.  They could smell the ghoul's blood.  A smell that had not wafted across their noses for a long time.  Slowly, they would peek out of their hiding places in the far reaches of the cavern once more.  To mate, to grow, to love.  Meanwhile, the Sirens would once again become the more dominant--albeit less aggressive--force of life in the Cavern.  It was named after them, after all.  While the crystal dragons were indeed powerful, they were much more primitive than the sirens, and less adaptive to predators.

 

Except for one.  One.  Unborn.  Crystal Dragon.

 

 

Sahill Cathedral

 

The battle was drawing to  close much faster than Opal or Saturn had anticipated.  With their attacks whizzing past their enemy, the two found themselves on the receiving ends of their siblings attacks.  Opal successfully halted the icy fire that blazed her way, but Saturn was not so lucky.  Having been caught between a newly appeared third foe--and made of bone at that--and his sister's attack, Saturn went down quickly.  The enormous skeleton's strike sent Saturn's armor scattering across the area, crashing against the walls and landing with a thud against the stone floor.  "Saturn!" Opal cried out.  Her voice would probably confuse Dirk or Morgan.

 

It was that of a very young girl's, approximately age ten.  Opal wasn't some superbly trained guardian.  In fact, she didn't even have a body.  Neither did Saturn.  They were merely spirits trapped by the Mad King in powerful suits of armor.  And as she rushed to her brother's side, Opal was greeted with a loud thud. She found herself kneeling, watching her brother's soul idly sitting.  Pol had slammed his mace into the ground, growing impatient with his trusty guardians.

 

"You are bested by mere children," he said ironically to Saturn and Opal.  "Your failure disgusts me.  Leave my sight," he said pointing his mace to the entrance from which Morgan came.  Without warning, Saturn and Opal were magically ejected from the room, a loud metallic clanging and cries of, "Daddy!" being heard as they were tossed from sight.  Slamming his enormous mace back into the ground, Pol waved it once to his left, and then to his right, coating the entirety of the throne room's floor in an untrustworthy black.

 

Staring down into it, Morgan and Dirk would feel sick.  Something was incredibly disturbing, frighteningly wrong with this blackness.  It left a chilling feeling, even among the dead.  And the longer it remained, Dirk and Morgan would find their vision tunneled, driving darkness into their peripheral vision.  Soon, they would be able to see nothing at all, as the Mad King rained down the embodiment of living madness upon them.  And with the change to the floor of the room, the Pure Madness began to spread to everything else.  It was a darker black than even the endless void of the walls that surrounded Dirk and Morgan, covering even this, up into the ceiling and every crack and corner.  As everything around Dirk and Morgan grew black, they would slowly succumb to insanity, seeing things that were not there, striking out at invisible foes, and being harmed by nothing.  And this madness stemmed solely from King Pol.

 

With two hands on his mace, he directed Morgan and Dirk.  With an echoing voice that trembled even the boldest of men, he cried out,  "Submit!  And become one with Madness."

 

 

Decadence Forest

 

Their time had long since been up.  If Camille or Nero were bitten now, they would have to extract pure, and much more dangerous Black Decadence to cure the venom of a blood moth now.  Ignoring Nero, Palea went straight for Camille, the one who crushed her eggs.  Her wings beat at incredible speeds, tearing up the forest floor without hesitation.  As she bared down upon Camille, Palea raised her body, revealing six large, thin arms with attached needles on their ends.  With them inches away from Camille's face, Palea threw her deadly arms at Camille with high speed, with the potential for an instant fatal strike.  And as she did so, Palea spat a rather large amount of venom at Nero, angling it over Camille's head.  And though it missed his face, it stuck beneath his feet, holding Nero in place and preventing him from jumping away, at least for a moment.  There was a good chance that, with enough force, Nero could pry himself loose.

 

However, while he was busy with sticky feet, Camille was about to get the most unwanted piercing ever.  Or rather, he would have, if not for the interference of one feline.  Having now shoved Camille out of the way, Kira intercepted Palea's attack, taking five powerful, piercing blows through her sides and mouth, narrowly missing her brain.  She fell immediately, the venom taking effect on her in her old age.  The old leopard would not last long.  Palea withdrew her arms, cheerfully pining over Kira's large, fading body.  She had done all she could do to assist Camille and Nero.  They had saved her child.  She had repaid the favor.  And now Palea turned her attention back to Camille, her mouth inches away from his face with venom drooling onto the forest floor below.

 

 

Shan'ri Temple

 

With startled honks, Dim & Sum separated as their bubble of love was shattered by a powerful blast of a laser, and a magically enhanced strike.  This must have been an enormous amount of power, for it to shatter the bond of Dim & Sum.  Nudging his sister, Dim turned her head unwillfully towards Zyg and Nori.  His feathers flared.  Dim was insulted that his sister had been attacked.  How dare these. . people attack his beautiful sister!?  They ruffled her feathers, and startled her violently.  They only wanted to be at peace!  Their slumber had been disturbed, and Dim was quite upset.  This wild goose was about to give chase.  It flapped its wings, opening the bottom of them towards Zyg and Nori, firing a volley of sharp, piercing, steel like feathers at the two.  Catching or blocking these feathers was not wise.

 

They were fired at such speed that the feathers were nearly invisible.  What few feathers missed his prey, Dim watched them catch fire as they hit the ground behind Zyg and Nori.  And moments later, the feathers exploded.  The resulting explosion set off a massive chain reaction, causing hundreds of dormant Ottopis Maggots to explode, and separate Zyg and Nori to the far west and east of the Temple.  Fortunately, with the love bubble shattered, the rapid births of the Zen Flies and Ottopis Maggots had ceased.  However, exploding bullet feathers would prove to be a problem.  And meanwhile, Sum had remained silent behind her brother, cuddling him.   She glowed a bright pink, and in turn, Dim glowed a bright red.  Sum was in fact causing Dim to glow, empowering his attacks and increasing his rate of fire.

 

Dim began to launch more and more feathers at Zyg and Nori respectively, in an attempt to quickly be rid of them.  And if that wasn't enough, Sum had a very keen way of preventing Nori and Zyg from getting too close to the geese.  Her belly glowed a pale orange, dimly beneath the pink hue that surrounded the female goose.

 

 

Valley of Souls

 

Epitome couldn't help but laugh as her prey attempted to slip away by dropping out of her home.  She was a bit enraged at being punched in the face, but she kept calm, as only snakes do.  She would give chase of course.  No need in denying herself a meal.  And, with the sudden change of scenery, there was a chance this boy would run into the locals, and create a disturbance.  She had to make sure they weren't killed in the midst of a scuffle.  Irritated now, she dove behind Robert, into the water below and swam up to the surface.  He had already taken a distinct vantage point, and if he were to suddenly gain massive height, chasing him would be no easy task.  She would find a way however.  She wondered how alert her meal would be, silently going below the water's surface, being careful to stay away from the whirlpool at its end.  Instead of taking a direct approach, she went as deep under the water as possible, until she touched the ground.  She began to claw at it violently, tearing a neat but compact hole into the side of the hills, and she began to tunnel her way beneath Robert.

 

And meanwhile, staring from the mouth of the skull above, Noya frowned down at Robert.  He wasn't running.  She could tell.  No.  He was making a statement.  This was a declaration, and she wasn't sure she could do much about it, other than to oblige.  Her frown turned into a small smile at last, as she dashed over to the hole created in the side of the skull, and floated down on her wings.  She hadn't seen any snake just yet, so she had to be wary, despite what the files said about her arena.  For now, she calmly walked up to Robert, her fists covered in a purple glow.

 

"And what scared you off down here, might I ask?" she asked, flirting with Robert playfully.  What did send him scurrying out of the skull, she wondered.

[Mr. Hyde]

Elspire Ferdinand

 

This sensation was so gratifying!  So wondrous! Ublik's dark blood had stained the ground, and in the grotesque reflection, Eslpire could see his terrifying form for what it truly was.  Was he a monster now?

 

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!"  Elspire stomped the blood puddle, to block out the image of what he had become.  He couldn't help but feel like this was somehow the right thing to do.  After all, these ghouls were truly horrible creatures, and without their leader they would most likely be scattered, and in turn, easy pickings for the other wildlife in the cave.  He had to kill Ublik...he had to avenge the dragon that was so unrightfully slain.  

 

Now what was he supposed to do?  With Ublik dead on the ground, what was he supposed to do next.  Thinking made Elspire's head hurt, but he realized his next objective.  How was he supposed to go about it?  Was he supposed to kill Saul as well?  Would he even be able to restrain himself from not doing so?  ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS!?  AND NO ANSWERS!?

 

"RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!!!!!!!!!"

 

"I never dreamed I would meet another Dragon Kin in the rest of my days.  I believed the last of their people to be wiped out; as had happened to mine. You're a brave child, but you're foolish, and if you ever wish to make it out of this, then you need to learn restraint and focus."

 

What was he babbling on about?  Why had he returned?  Did this man have a death wish?  What was he if he wasn't human?  How did he know about the Dragons?  Elspire gripped his head, there was too much noise clouding his inner mind.  Blocking out all outside and internal noise, he breathed in deeply to try and calm himself.  Instead he had caught a whiff of something soothing.  Deep in the cavern, he could smell the emerging dragons, that had been hiding from their previous predator, Ublik.  They were free now...free to roam the cavern and do as they wished without the fear of being skinned alive for their scales.  There was also another smell similar to the Crystal Dragons that inhabited the cave, however this smell was much more faint, but oddly fresh.

 

How blissful this all felt.  He felt the warm embrace of his mother's soul against his...how long had they been disconnected from one another?  

 

---

"Wake up Elspire...my son...."

---

 

A flash of lightning rained down from the cavern ceiling, striking Elspire.  When the light faded, Elspire was revealed in his human form, now staring blankly at the cavern floor.  He hadn't realized it, but his foot was still standing in the puddle.  When he finally snapped back into reality, he shivered at the sight of it.  Elspire turned in a half circle to meet eyes with his real opponent, Saul.  His fists balled tight and he wore toothy half smile.  He wasn't sure if his sadness had shown on his face, but he was tight everywhere else in his body.  Elspire raised his fist to his opponent.  His tone started off calm, but it quickly turned into a shout, and then faded into more of an uncertain wavelength.

 

"I....am Elspire Ferdinand!  Son of Niphron, the Radiant Flash!  I can sense my kind here, and I would like to meet them!  If you have any intention of stopping me, I will try my best to beat you right here and now, but I could really use a talking buddy for the walk there!"

[Hälō]

Lacusta Castle
 
The True Boss 
 
"I've come too far. . . .to die now."  
 
Tyson smirked in response. “No rest for the weary, huh?" 
 
He watched as his final adversary dived towards him. The man’s body was still aching from his confrontation with the Vladimir in the skies above, but that wasn’t stopping him, not when he’d come so far. Drawing the pistol on his hip, Tyson swung his Desert eagle forward, pulling the trigger three times as he did so. Unfortunately though, what followed weren’t the thunderous claps that had filled the castle not even an hour ago, but the empty clicks of a chamber that was hungry for ammo. 
 
“s***.” Was all the hunter could manage spit out before the vampire was upon him. Thinking quickly, the man desperately slammed the barrel of the large gun against of her temple, sending Kokoro stumbling to the side.  Without a word, Tyson tossed the useless weapon away, before catching Kokoro with his now free right hand. Grasping the vampire’s throat with all of his might, he lifted her off her feet while raising his left hand up so that it was level with his face.  A small grin appeared on Tyson’s face, as a large sphere of hellfire manifested in his open palm, bathing the pair in it’s supernatural warmth. 
 
Unable to break the man’s grasp, Kokoro could only watch as he aimed the sphere of death directly at her face.  She closed her eyes to brace herself for the seemingly unavoidable attack but immediately shot them back open upon hearing the sound of what seemed to be an explosion followed by very painful sounding grunt. Apparently Tyson was unable to sustain his own attack and it had backfired, hard. Taking only a moment to inspect her opponents freshly burnt hand, Kokoro erupted into a flurry of movement; slashing at Tyson’s chest with her claws before breaking free from his loosened grip by kicking against him with both legs. 
 
 
It would be a lie to say that Tyson was surprised that his attack failed. He had used so much energy during his fight with Vladimir that his control over hellfire had been critically weakened. Glancing down at the fresh wound across his chest, then at his opponent; he shook his head in annoyance before suddenly shrugging off his tattered trench coat. 
 
“Ripper, are you certain you can defeat her in your current state?” Mephisto’s voice held small traces of doubt. He knew all too well how close the man was to his limit. 
 
“If I couldn’t, you and your boss would have dug up someone else instead, right!?” Tyson growled, as he drew his silver knife and began slowly moving to the right. Kokoro immediately followed, and soon the pair was both pacing in a circle around the ruined castle floor. “Indeed. You best not disappoint.” Tyson didn’t bother to respond; his eyes were locked with his opponents, whose claws were now dripping with fresh blood. Both him and Kokoro were now silent, both well aware that the time for words had ended, and that only one of them was walking away form this fight. 
 
As if somehow connected by the spirit of battle, the two knew exactly when it was time to strike. Both combatants charged forward with all the speed they could muster, meeting each other in the center of the castle floor in a clash that sounded through the emptiness of the dead castle.
                                                                 
 
                                                                
 
Narrowly avoiding a claw aimed for his face, Tyson took a step towards his opponent, before swiping forward in a broad arc. Unfortunately, though his attack connected and the castle’s grounds were now spilled with even more of the vampire’s vile blood; it would seem that she was able to fight through the obvious pain that the silver was causing her, and countered almost instantly with a slash of her own, which found its mark on Tyson’s bare shoulder. 
 
The two continued to exchange attacks for what felt like an eternity, both combatants now covered from head to toe in wounds, but neither taking even a step away from the opposition. This had turned into a battle of will, and both Tyson and Kokoro were pushing their bodies to their very limits. 
 
“Ripper, your movements…. they’re getting sluggish.” 
 
Tyson didn’t need to be told that. All the cells in his body were screaming in agony, and if the fight continued to go the way that it was, he probably would end up dying even with his healing factor. Growling, the man harshly batted away a left-handed slash from Kokoro, tossing away his own blade as he did so. “This is it. Now or never!” He screamed in his mind as he gripped the vampire tightly by the shoulders, and slammed his knee into her stomach with as much force as he could muster.  But he wasn’t done there. He couldn’t be.  
 
Releasing his grip on her shoulders, Tyson ignored the wave of pain that shot through his body and dashed behind his opponent; locking his arms tightly around her midsection in a sloppy butterfly lock as he did so. With no intention of giving her anytime to react, he then lifted Kokoro off the ground while bending his knees and thrusting his hips up into her back. He then arched his own back with all of his might, lifting Kokoro over his head and slamming her face-first into the stone floor in a brutal German Suplex. The impact of the attack caused the very ground to shatter, and the shockwave held enough force to shake the very foundation of the destroyed castle. In the epicenter of it all stood Tyson, as he grabbed the pair of legs hung twitching in front of his face, and pivoted to his left with the last of his strength; flinging the limp vampire into the castle’s last remaining wall with a thunderous crash. 
 
"Game over, b****." He grunted, as he attempted to peer through the large cloud of smoke that had gathered from the impact. Tyson was sure that his last attack had ended the fight, but refused to leave until he saw the body. He owed his opponent that much at least, right? The man stood in silence untill the smoke cleared, only to have his eyes widen in shock at his opponents absence in the crater she had created upon colliding with the wall.   
 
"Ripper, behind you!" Mephisto's voice erupted inside his head, moments before he sensed a presence appear at his flank. However, the demon's warning was seconds too late, and before Tyson could process what was happening, he found himself pinned to the very same wall he tossed his opponent through only moments before. He was now face to face with a bloody Kokoro, who brandished a quite gruesome head wound. "No... n-now... it's g-game over..." She stumbled over her words as she slowly raised a clawed hand in preparation for the finishing blow. "Too f-f-far... to-to-" The vampire never got to finish her last words, as the life suddenly vanished from her eyes and she fell forward; gently placing her face on the wall only inches from Tyson's as she slid to the ground. 
 
Shocked and completely drained of all of his energy, Tyson allowed his legs finally to give out, causing him to fall to the ground next Kokoro's corps. His back against the wall, the man glanced to his side and revealed the canteen of holly water that he gripped tightly in his left hand. The hunter instantly noted that metal of the canteen had been bent into the shape of the his own grip, and felt his lips curl into a exhausted grin before his gaze shifted the lifeless body of his opponent. "Congrats, sweetheart. I think that's the first time I've ever been that f***ing scared..." As he spoke, he twisted the cap off the canteen, before raising the it up towards Kokoro as if to make a toast. He held it there for a while, before raising the water to his own lips. "I expect one hell of a rematch when we meet again in the pit." As he drank, he heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance and a wave of relief washed over him. "Hey, Demon."
 
"You did well, Ripper. What is it?"
 
"You think we missed happy hour at the bar?" 

 

"..."

 

"What?!"

[Dad]

. . . 

. . .

. . .

 

Please insert keycard.

 

. . .

 

Please place your right thumb on the panel below.

 

. . . 

 

Please look into the retinal scanner above.

 

. . . 

 

Please state your name for voice recognition.

 

 

"Steph."

 

. . . 

 

Apologies.  You are not authorized to access this fi--

 

"Override code 6-2-2-1."

 

. . . 

 

Apologies.  You are not authorized to--

 

She placed a finger into the only vulnerability in computer's face, allowing her mechanical parts to slither in and do the rest.  How she got in here without being seen was a daring question.  Something seemed off, and she had to know what and why.  After locating the target file, she forced it to play aloud.

 

[This conversation was recorded on August 30, 2020,  01200 hours.]  

 

 

They stared blankly at each other, tilting their heads, clicking their tongues in a language that was not local to Earth.  "Well?" asked a voice behind them.  "You can do it, right?"  They turned their heads to him, the same emptiness in their eyes as always.  "Good.  Make it happen.  I want all of the ones who've lost, of course.  And be quick about it unless you want to suffer a fate worse than death.  I've no patience at this time."

 

Disappearing into an empty black void, the two beings went to work at the request of this mystery person.  "That makes two.  I should expect six more.  And then we can begin anew."

 

[End Playback.]

 

"Begin anew?  Who--"

 

"That's for me to know, and for you to never find out.  Because you're just like them."

 

Steph turned around to face the one who caught her.  "What?  What's going--" but she collapsed immediately, without a word, whimper, or struggle.  

 

"Women.  Always meddling in things they cannot understand.  What are you being paid for?"

 

WARNING.  THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS RATED M FOR VIOLENCE, LANGUAGE, AND NUDITY.  PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

 

"This game's winner is. . . TYSON!" the announcer proclaimed as Tyson gripped the helicopter's external grip, and limped inside of it.

 

Some exploded into cheers and applause.  Others wept as they watched Kokoro's lifeless body fall to the ground.  Highlights began to replay over the course of the match.  Kokoro's duel with Adrianna and Arora.  Tyson's elimination of Sabien and eventual take down of Vladimir.  The final showdown between Kokoro and Tyson.  Then the screen reverted to a bright, less violent display of an image of the Golden Gate Hotel's front view, as this particular broadcast came to a close.

 

The votes were tallied, showing Tyson as the clear favorite with a powerful sixty-one percent of the popular vote.  Kokoro remained silent with only thirty-nine percent of the vote.  And though the helicopter had lifted off and began to take Tyson back to the Golden Gate, the show wasn't over.  Though the curtain had dropped over Lacusta Castle and the stream had ended, much more went on in the background.  With no detectable presence, Kokoro's limp body disappeared into an empty black hole that appeared from nowhere.  And behind Tyson's helicopter, another helicopter went screaming to the ground, as it was struck by pinpoint laser precision from a space satellite.  What followed it was another large barrage of laser fire, igniting what remained of Lacusta Castle, and clearing the way for the land to be used again.  And over the course of five hours, it would be as if nothing ever stood in its place.

 

But Tyson would never know of this.  Because moments after we boarded his helicopter and lifted off, he was put into a powerful, deep sleep.  Nothing would wake him until he got back to the hotel.

 

Meanwhile, crowds cheered over the remaining streams.  Fate and Arisu had taken down the Tyrant, and were now into their final face-off.  Zyg and Nori were engaging with magical, ancient geese who were protecting their home.  Noya and Robert had a rather slippery surprise as they were handling a giant female snake.  Dirk and Morgan were being surrounded by something blacker than black.  Elspire shed some light all over Ublik, even regarding Saul as he did so.  And of course, Camille and Nero were being bared down upon by wild animals, toxins, and magic.  Everyone had their hands full, but things seemed to be coming to a climax all over.  Major crowds jumped from the Lacusta Castle stream to various other streams.  The votes, having already been cast, were hidden until the end of the match.  And for now, the combatants would have to conquer their foes before moving on.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Morgan had delivered unto the pile of scrap a major butt-whooping, and she was planning on finishing them off when a startling development happened.
The ice jabroni turned out to be more an ice brat, some little girl playing at being a badass. No wonder they were so pathetic. And furthermore they apparently called Pol daddy. “Look bone-head, no not you Bonejangles you can stay there, you’re either a really shitty father or have some weird father-complex bullshit I don’t really care which. Don’t take it out on the brats, though, it’s your own damn fault they weren’t good enough to take me on.” She left out Dirk intentionally, this was her show after all, she didn’t want Action-Jim to take any of her spotlight.

Before she could follow up her cool as funk speech with an attack something...happened. A darkness spread, and not the usual kind. Morgan felt something clench her heart, and her head started to pound. Something was wrong, very wrong, and things were getting darker and darker. Soon she might not be able to see anymore...This was magical darkness with no doubt, something hard to combat. However she knew someone who wouldn’t be affected by whatever this darkness held. “Bonejangles, get him!” She didn’t know if her giant could stand up to the mad king but it would at least give her time.
Give her time...
For what?
What was she supposed to do? She had nothing, she...she was nothing. This place, it was too much, she was just a girl. She wanted to go shopping and watch movies and she wasn’t meant for this, it was too much, much too much. What could she do? What did they want from her? WHY WERE THESE VOICES ASKING SO MUCH FROM HER?

Morgan let out a scream and began throwing flaming skulls everywhere, not caring where they landed. Anything it took to shut up these noises, these voices taunting her, threatening her, begging and mocking all at once. Too many things too many people too many voices too many words too many too many too many....

“AAAARGGGGH, NO DAMN IT I WON’T LISTEN! YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” She shouted out in anger, lashing out at the voices that she didn’t even know where they were coming from. funk it, funk it all! If they wanted to say whatever the funk they want let them. She was terrified and it was nearly dragging her down into a place she knew she didn‘t want to go. And a small part of her still knew exactly where this was coming from. “I am Morgan GODDAMN Reaperson, you dog’s day dream wackjob and I will tear your home down if I have to!” She mustered what resolve she could and sent the roots that she had dragged down here earlier crashing down on where she knew the throne was.

---

“A-ah...n-no." Cam was frozen in terror. Big cat. Giant cat. Monster animal right before his eyes. And an enraged monster animal. Cam’s arms felt heavy, her knees were weak, and she almost felt like throwing up the spaghetti she had for lunch.

The monstrous animal was much more fearsome to Camille than any giant bug could be...luckily it didn’t seem to be ready to attack Camille just yet. It looked more angry at Nero, who Camille only just realized was here. He berated himself for letting the enemy so close without notice, though he too wasn’t in a position to attack him.

The only reason that Cam didn’t have a total mental shut down was the care with which the leopard was treating Calvin. A parent, Camille realized, and a real parent unlike her own father. He felt his panic drain enough that he was able to tear his gaze from the monster.

Only to become face to face with the larger threat here. Cam had to focus on this moth thing or else he’d be a quivering wreck. And he focused none too soon as the moth had emerged fully and coming straight for the maid. It seemed there was nothing he could do to stop it.
However there was something another could do. The leopard, a beast Cam had thought of as a terrifying monster, leaped to his rescue and took the attack meant for him.

As the poor creature dropped to the floor Camille’s gaze hardened. No, he wouldn’t let this sacrifice go in vain. He would do whatever it took to bring this moth down. And so it was that when the beast came at him, mouth open and ready to strike, that Cam shoved his hand right into the thing’s maw and activated his Force Palm. “Eat this!” The concussive blast, which had a range of several feet, struck the moth at closer than point-blank range.

[VCR_CAT]

Saul: Cavern of Sirens

 

So Saul had been right, Elspire was one of the remaining dragons. As the boy spoke with conviction, Saul scanned the cavern as the dragons rose to witness the rubble of the cavern; saved from the ghouls that had kept them in a state of fear; hunted for their power. Hunted so that one may become stronger. The parallels were sickening. Saul listened to Elspire's request and sympathized. This child has not seen his kind before; a kind he had known to be dead. Saul would do anything for this luxury; a luxury he would be cruel to turn down. Saul sheathed his blade.

 

"And I am Saul," Saul spoke. A Titan's last name is not a family crest; a Titan's last name is their father's name. Their lineage and their identity. Who they are known by. "Last of the Titans, and heir to the Jotunheim Throne." You've stopped calling yourself by your full name long ago. The Titans are forgotten; their memory mocked as dumb giants in European mythology, hunted by "strong" and "valiant" humans as they brought these powerful animal-people to their knees. You have no lineage or identity. "I will allow you to see your kind, our battle can wait until after. If I may request; I would be honored to join you and witness the rebirth of the Dragons." Your identity is your own.

 

Saul jumped down from the rocks and walked forward. The boy was young, and it was unfortunate that Saul had only just met another survivor like himself. There was much he needed to learn. And if he didn't know anything about Gerald, or this tournament, then he would need to learn. But Saul could not simply just tell him. If there was anything Saul was sure of, it was that Gerald had eyes everywhere.

And if there was something else he was sure of, it was that he was definitely watching.

 

 

Dirk Rider: Sahill Cathedral - B8

 

So those knights were the kings kids? What the hell was going on here? Those couldn't have been just special effects; there was something much creepier and much weirded going on.

 

“Look bone-head, no not you Bonejangles you can stay there, you’re either a really shitty father or have some weird father-complex bullshit I don’t really care which. Don’t take it out on the brats, though, it’s your own damn fault they weren’t good enough to take me on.” Pf. That girl didn't really know better, did she.

 

"Nice ego, toots, but you'd be swimming in halberd soup if it wasn't for me and you know it," Dirk whispered in her ear with a smirk. He didn't care what the king thought of them, but he knew that'd probably be enough to get her riled up. Dirk laughed to himself as he lit another cigarette and took a drag.

 

And then it got dark very quickly; Dirk's cigarette dropping to the ground without a noise; the darkness deafening everything as the noise left with the light.

BGM: https://sonicmayhem.bandcamp.com/track/doomsday-off-world-ambient-mix

 

"Hello?" Dirk called out to the emptiness. "Yo, who turned out the lights?"

 

"Did you honestly think that job was going to make you any better?"

 

"Who said that?"

 

"You didn't get fired because they didn't understand you, you didn't get fired because of some mistake."

 

"Dad?" Dirk looked around frantically; the blackness suffocating the room.

 

"You got fired because your head is halfway up your ass. You got fired because you're an idiot who doesn't know any better."

 

"Whaddyou know? You don't know me!" Dirk yelled out at nothing.

 

"I'm your father you bastard, I know you better than anyone else! I know you're throwing your life away, and if you had buckled down and done something right for once in your pathetic waste of a life, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED."

 

"I CAN HANDLE MYSELF JUST FINE, THANKS. YOU DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER, YOU'RE JUST SOME STUFFY OLD BAG OF SH*T WHO DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO LIVE LIFE!"

 

"YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW HOW TO LIVE? LOOK AT WHERE I AM, LOOK AT WHAT I'M DOING; HOW  I'M DOING. I GOT HERE THROUGH HARD WORK; I GOT HERE THROUGH DISCIPLINE AND PERSEVERANCE. YOU? YOU GOT WHERE YOU ARE GETTING DRUNK AND IGNORING RULES. THE WORLD ISN'T A MOVIE, DIRK."

 

"AND YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT? I HAVE DREAMS, DAD. I KNOW WHAT I WANT OUT OF LIFE AND I HAVE SOMETHING I WANT TO LIVE FOR. YOU? ALL YOU WANT IS TO SIT BEHIND SOME DESK AND TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO."

 

"YOU DON'T KNOW s***. SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR? YOU CALL DRINKING, GETTING HIGH, AND DOING WHATEVER FEELS GOOD LIVING? LOOK AT YOU! I MEAN REALLY, LOOK AT YOU."

 

Dirk was slumped against the brick wall in an alley; blood seeping from his nose like the rain that spattered the asphalt; sirens whining in the distance; cell phone in hand as the familiar voice of his father whispered from the speaker at the flash of the lightning.

 

"You've wasted everything trying to do things your way, and if you think now I'm going to bail you out then you're sorely mistaken. You're a waste, Dirk. You're a waste of everyone's time."

 

"Don't call me again, you got it? As far as I'm concerned, you're not my son."

 

The screen shifted. "Call ended." Dirk slid down the wall and tucked his head between his knees; sobbing quietly to himself. His fingers brushed against something on the ground and the familiar smell of nicotine filled his nostrils. So this was it; on the streets again and back to his old ways. Something to take the pain away; something to at least make him feel like things were going to be okay. Dirk pulled the cigarette up to his lips and took a long drag; relief flooding his body and drowning his pain at least for a moment as he breathed out the blue tinted smoke. And then another drag; and then he noticed.

 

As the cigarette flame brightened; the alley's features seemed to blur around it; the blood that was on his fingers vanishing near the glow. Pushing himself to his knees, Dirk took out his lighter and flicked it open; the light from the flame turning the asphalt into the cold stone floor of something... else... something... familiar.

 

Dirk focused on the light; a bright blade forming in his hand as he took another long drag from the cigarette. The golden blade lit up the floor and the room enough; enough to see a shape next to him and hear its muffled yelling. And then the rumbling started, and rocks began to fell. The alley was there, but it everything seemed to be collapsing into something twisted. Dirk's head hurt; a dull pounding thumping away at the back of his skull as he tried to focus on the golden, radiant blade in his hand. Was it... made of light? Dirk scrambled to the shape near him; it was like that of a human; the shape of a human as light bent around it. As the glow of the blade got closer, the alley gave way the details of... a person could be seen. Her name... Megan... Martha... Morgan... Morgan?

More rocks began to fell as the loud sound of something breaking apart stone broke through the alley.

 

"You didn't get fired because they didn't understand you, you didn't get fired because of some mistake."

 

"H-hey, come on, we gotta get out of here," Dirk said the... person... the shape... the... memory? "C'mon, we gotta move."

 

More rocks began to fall; one seemed to be coming from above as what looked like a piece of the building behind Dirk broke off and plummeted to the person beside him. Yet as it neared the glow... it looked like a piece of a cathedral?

 

"You got fired because your head is halfway up your ass. You got fired because you're an idiot who doesn't know any better."

 

"WE NEED TO MOVE RIGHT NOW," Dirk yelled as he tackled the person to the side as the large stone crashed where they were. As they both got up, the light from his blade was illuminated the person. The girl he was supposed to fight; the girl he was supposed to beat in order to advance... advance in a... tournament...

The alley seemed to vanish; slowly as it drifted apart. Dirk held his sword by his side firmly as the light broke apart the shadows. Pulling out the Dust Rider, Dirk aimed his large gun at the shape of the king near the throne.

 

"I'm your father you bastard, I know you better than anyone else! I know you're throwing your life away,

 

"Shove it up your ass, you prick," Dirk growled through gritted teeth as he pulled the trigger four times and emptied his clip at the mad king; as rocks fell around him.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

The ex-demon was slightly unsure about what exactly was happening. It was odd, to say the least. Nero had entered the scene for a while and hid himself in the scenery, though it took the mother leopard from earlier to make it seem that Camille actually noticed his presence. Though, it didn’t really matter much now since he was not really going to fight him just yet. Though, his attention was now more focused with the fact that the mother leopard had been ignoring her anger towards him, and shifted to tend to what looked like one of its cubs. It was definitely a heart-warming sight for one, and as a fan of these kind of things, Nero watched them closely, momentarily forgetting about Camille’s presence there.

 

But reality was indeed quite the harsh mistress, and all of this was interrupted with the appearance of the giant mother blood moth, which after it spat at him with its venom, pinning his legs in their place, immediately went for Camille without much provocation on his part. Nero attempted to summon his sword to help him, but before he could attempt to get his hurting legs away from being pinned to the ground, he realized that something else had stopped the blood moth from hitting the boy with its attack.

 

It was the mother leopard. She had put herself between Camille and the giant moth, and took its attack head-on. Within seconds, she fell from her injuries, and the giant moth seemed to swarm over her dead body for a moment before returning its attention back to Camille.

 

“No…dammit, no!” Seething in anger at what had just happened, Nero decided to stop hiding his cards and activated his flash-step ability, getting himself out of his binding by force and reappearing behind the giant moth, just as Camille hit it on its face with something from his palm.

 

He might have gotten himself a wee bit too emotional with the leopard’s death, but the fact was, even if she didn’t show herself to appreciate his presence and what he did to her, Nero firmly believed that the two of them had managed to form a bond with each other. And she saved Camille from his probable death too to top it all off. Nero had little to no idea whether the giant moth had any legitimate reason to attack Camille or not, but with it mortally wounding the mother leopard, it had to go now.

 

Nero summoned his flower chains from the trees surrounding them, and immediately used them to spear and wrap the moth’s wings. And, since his legs were still hurting from the moth’s poisonous spit from earlier even after he managed to get out of it by utilizing his flash-step, Nero summoned his sword once more, and summoned several of its copies, before igniting them on fire and firing them at the moth’s direction.

 

---

 

“Six? Pft, you’re being generous, eh?”

 

Arisu took the time to think about her current condition before doing anything else. Right now, she was pinned into the metal wall by her opponent, Fate, and her shears were wrapped around her neck. Behind her shirt, Arisu had several dozen grenades left, all of which had been set up so if she died, they all would immediately blow up, taking her opponent with her. Her philosopher’s stone was still outside of the arena, which would mean that whatever Fate did to her here moot, aside from being a waste of resource for her. Despite what the stripper thought, Arisu was the one with the advantage here. As usual, she could simply trap herself and the stripper using her ice magic, before blowing herself to bits, killing them both only for her to respawn as the winner.

 

But she didn’t want to die. And…as much as she hated to admit it, she didn’t want Fate to die.

 

She barely knew anything about the girl, but she was such a fun person to tease, and if she killed her, she wouldn’t be able to learn more about her. Fate was undeniably human, but she seemed to have a lot of magical potential inside of her, not to mention her shears. And…in a way Arisu felt that as much as she tried to not care, Fate’s still a little girl, and killing her felt like it’d leave a bitter aftertaste.

 

Or maybe there are some other reasons for her reluctance. Maybe because the girl was pretty cute? That’s a possibility.

 

It didn’t matter however. She still had to win, no matter how much pity she had to the girl before her. However…winning didn’t have to equate to killing her opponent, and while normally Arisu had no such reservations or doubts about killing, she decided that just this once, she’d force Fate to surrender.

 

“Here, let me tell you something.” As she said that, she activated her fire magic to have herself melt through the wall behind her, all the while she activated her illusion world, changing their surrounding into some plains while she had her own form obscured with the scenery to avoid being seen as she escaped the shear’s range. It was then followed with her uttering a spell to freeze the immediate area around Fate’s feet, in expectation that it would at least prevent her from moving away.

 

“I hate to tell you this, but the moment we both were trapped here by that robot, my victory had been sealed.” At this point, Arisu had successfully melted her way out of the shear’s grip, while still having her form be obscured. The melted metal hurt her skin a lot, giving her some severe burns all over, but it wasn’t really too bad when compared to dying. She had to use her ice magic to prevent the grenades from exploding due to the heat, however.

 

“This body of mine is merely a –puppet-. The real me, the one controlling my body, is outside of our little arena here. And why this fact matters? She, or more accurately I, had equipped myself with several dozens of grenades behind my shirt.  Right now, I have the capability of ending this battle immediately by trapping you with me here and activating all my grenades.

And, as I’ve said earlier, if you try to kill me, the grenades will go off regardless. Our place here would be too small for you to avoid the explosion. If you survive, I’ll simply create more puppets to finish a weakened you off.

 

Isn’t it a fun prospect? As a wise man once said, battles are meant to be won before the engagement.”

 

Now circling the little girl, Arisu took the time to look at her more closely. She’s right, Fate did look pretty cute. A shame that a girl as young and cute like her was wearing such an indecent clothing, and participating in this brutal tournament in the first place. Why Fate was there in the first place was beyond Arisu’s understanding.

 

Looking at her smooth, pale skin, which was barely covered with her really skimpy battle bikini and red hood more and more, Arisu decided to try playing around with the girl more, while the young girl was clearly in a dilemma due to learning about what kind of situation she was actually in at the moment. Not bothering with concealing herself anymore, Arisu went closer to the girl from the right, and not giving any warnings, started to play around with the strings of her clothing, ogling her nice barely covered undeveloped figure in the meantime. She had managed to close the gap between the two, which would make Fate’s scissors to be quite impractical to use.

 

She was on the girl’s side now, fiddling with her top’s straps and playfully teasing to tear it off several times. It’s really just to make the girl more and more uncomfortable to affect her ability to judge her current situation, really. Arisu definitely didn’t have any ulterior motives when she did what she did. However, as she did so, her thoughts ended up floating somewhere else, and her hands slowly stopped at what they're doing as Arisu continued to talk, with a clear change of tone in her voice.

 

“What kind of thing do a little girl like you actually seek from this tournament? The money prize? If so, then how do you actually seek to use the money? And why are you running around here half-naked?

 

Do you even care about that, or the fact that you’re participating in a deadly tournament in the first place?” Arisu asked. By this point, she had stopped her teasing of the girl, and had her gaze locked on her face instead of her body. Her tone was actually that of someone with a genuine concern to the girl. It took a moment of silence between the two for Arisu to actually realize how she’s been acting, and she immediately changed her expression as soon as she realized that to show less concern about the girl and to keep her image from earlier. Realizing that she had been sidetracked by her own antics this time, Arisu immediately called off the unnecessary illusion, and uttered a spell to summon an ice dome covering the two of them. The inside of the ice structure was relatively small, only around 3 x 4 meters squared, but that was the intent.

 

“Ah…right, I got sidetracked. Well then, I suppose that I’ll allow you to decide now. I honestly have little to no interest in killing a little girl like you, but if you forced my hands then well…don’t expect any mercy.

 

So…with that said, I shall give you two options. First, defy my words and continue attacking me, which would result in our mutual death at worst, though since my real body is still outside, this won’t become anything aside from a minor inconvenience for me. You can say that this is a cowardly tactics, but it’s still a tactic nonetheless, and it had proven itself to be terribly effective in our current duel, if we can even call it that. I might consider playing around with you and defeating you soundly the normal way instead, but we’ll see.

 

And second, is for you to admit your defeat here to me. If you chose this, I shall spare your life, no questions asked. And well…since your helicopter would be blown up once you admitted defeat, I guess it won’t hurt if I ask for my helicopter to bring you along for the ride.

 

So…how’s that? If you take too long to answer, then I’ll end you immediately instead.”

 

---

[Astolfo]

With their combined efforts, he and Nori had both bursted that odd goose bubble. As soon as it had shattered, their new found opponents were enraged, as if the two had interrupted a tender moment between the feather heads. One of the two geese looked more enraged than the other, as the other hid behind it’s friend with it’s feathers ruffled in shock. Zyg could barely concentrate due to the graining on his ears, this honking had become quite unbearable.

 

With a flap of it’s wings, the lead goose flapped its giant wings. It must have been molting, since with each flap, it lost feathers that were clearly aimed for both Nori and Zyg. Although they seemed to be just feathers, Zyg was not going to underestimate two supernatural geese and whatever abilities they possessed. Zyg made sure to leap out of the way of a storm of feathers that made contact with the temple grounds. When the feathers pierced the land, the elegant plumage had turned into a violent inferno. The blast force was enough to knock away Zyg to the West most part of the battlefield.

 

Explosive feathers? This was most certainly fowl play! As soon as he was able to get back on his feet, he took a closer look at the two geese, who had not ceased their onslaught of attacks. He analyzed the birds and noticed that both geese were glowing, one pink and the other red. The red glowing goose, who was in the lead, was the male, and the other was obviously female. Scans showed that the geese shared a significant amount of DNA. Zyg snorted when he realized what he was fighting. Of course he was a cybernetic raptor, but now he was fighting giant magic sibling geese. What was this tournament?

 

Zyg caught a glance across the way at Nori. Her expression showed the fact that their situation had turned dire. Sure, Nori had the abilities to reflect these projectiles quite easily, but what was he supposed to do? Play leap raptor until the male goose ran out of feathers?

 

---

When the bubble had been destroyed after Nori and Zyg’s combined attack, the girl had expected some sort of response, although it hadn’t quite matched up with what had happened next. Hundreds of razor-sharp feathers flew towards the two of them at an incredibly fast speed. Dodging out of the way and bashing others out of the way with her sword and slicing them apart in a whirlwind, the fragments that flew off immediately exploded afterwards. Even more unfortunately, said explosions caused another massive shockwave as they triggered the thousands and thousands of maggots that had been laying around.

 

Thankfully, with the bubble popped, no new ones had formed, but the thousands that littered the grounds quite literally turned it into an almost carpet-bombing style attack. Dashing out of the way as fast as she could, she sprinted and burst towards the eastern side of the playing field. Looking back for a moment, she realized the two of them had been separated.

 

”sheet!”

 

This had just gotten a whole lot more dangerous. Both of them were on the complete opposite sides, now with two very angry and protective geese between them. This was going to be trouble. As the feathers continued to rain down faster and more violently, Nori immediately noticed the connection between the two geese and the glowing colors. The smaller of the two - in relative terms, given how both were still colossal - seemed to be boosting the other one’s strength. About to launch an attack directly towards the smaller one, Nori prepared to dash forward and around when she noticed the belly of the creature glowing a pale orange. Hesitating, she flipped through the various possibilities, before realizing nothing at this point could surprise her anymore.

 

Is this freaking bird gonna breathe fire or something or what?

 

Holding back before she potentially got herself killed, she looked across to the raptor. How on earth were they going to rejoin forces? Taking the monstrous enemies on together was already foolhardy, let alone fighting by oneself! Sighing, Nori began to charge up Ka once more in her full-length sword, while using Fū to strike away at the hailstorm of feathers with her short sword. There wasn’t much they could do at this point. Sure, she could bat away feathers, but eventually, she’d get tired, and for some reason, she felt like the goose had more than enough feathers to outlast her. Given her injuries and weariness already building up, while they only continued to gather strength, she couldn’t afford a fight of attrition. They had to do something, but what?

 

---

Zyg kept dodging the hail of feathers, they couldn’t get anywhere like this. These birds were more powerful than any foe he had faced previously, including his second strongest opponent, Nori. If combat was not the solution to this problem, maybe it could be solved orally. Setting his speaking system from English to Goose, Zyg started honking as well.

 

"Mysterious Geese, my friend and I are sorry that we attacked you out of nowhere. This isn't a daily occurrence for either of us I imagine." Zyg apologized. Who are you two, and what exactly is going on here? And why were you two encased in stone?"

 

---

Dim stopped rampaging, confused that he could understand the words of this machine before him. Looking to his sister, then to the raptor once more, he spoke.

 

“Who are we?” he honked. Dim looked back to his sister and nudged her head. Sum stood up, moving in front of Dim.

 

“We are the Lovers’ Guardians. We are here to protect souls unborn.” Shaking her feathers and straightening out her neck, she continued. “But our stone prison… that, I cannot share with you. A powerful binding forbids me from doing so.”

 

---

Souls unborn? Lovers’ Guardians? This was all strange for the raptor of science. Earlier, his scans had also shown another biological reading. Could it have been?

 

”Also, while I was dodging your attacks, I was able to scan your biological makeup...and it seems the female is…”

 

---

Meanwhile, Nori just squinted her eyes in absolute confusion, peering at the geese and her opponent, who had apparently stopped fighting, and were madly honking and squawking at each other. She couldn’t even be surprised anymore by the fact that a cybernetic robotic raptor was communicating with colossal twin geese made of stone and magic. At this point, the only thing Nori was feeling was confused.

 

What the hell??? Are they actually speaking? What???

[Hälō]

Sky Above Lacusta Castle 

 

“Ripper?” Tyson heard the voice of Mephisto echo from within his sub-consciousness. But why did it seem so far away? Blinking slightly at the suddenly realization that his eyes were becoming heavy, the man opened his mouth to speak but was unable to form any words… And then it all went black. 

 

“Ripper! Ripper!” Mephisto could do nothing but watch as Tyson suddenly fell into a deep unnatural slumber. “You fool, wha-“ The demon began, but silenced himself upon sensing a disturbance. “Them again…” Mephisto growled as he began sharpening his senses; this wasn’t the first time had felt this… presence? No. Whatever these entities were, they didn’t have a presence- they were foreign to this realm, completely alien in nature. 

 

“What are you?!” Mephisto tried his best to cast his voice into whatever plane of existence these creatures seemed to be operating on, but had no way to be certain that what he was saying would even register to them as speech. Mephisto waited for what seemed like eternity, before shifting his senses down towards the castle; only to discover the Kokoro’s corps had vanished along with the sensation that indicated that the creatures were close by. 

 

“…” 

 

Golden Gate Hotel 

 

"Hate to interrupt your nap, champ... but we're home!" Tyson was awoken by the pilot, as his helicopter touched down on the very landing pad that this nightmarish day had started on.

 

Stretching wildly, the man took a moment to inspect his freshly healed wounds before grabbing his trench coat and weapons and stepping out on to the roof the building. "What I tell ya?" Tyson turned to face the two men in the helicopter with a grin, before extending his hand out towards both of them for a handshake. "I think it goes without saying that you two both owe me a drink..." Tyson was only half kidding. Although his wounds had all completely healed during the flight back, his body was still very much sore from the battle... 

 

 

 

Oxfield Scrapyard

 

“So…how’s that? If you take too long to answer, then I’ll end you immediately instead.”

 

Fate had remained deathly silent up until this point. She had completely underestimated her opponent, and now she was paying the price for her hubris. Glancing around at the dome of ice that formed over her and Arisu, and then at her feet and sheers that were now incased in a thick layer of magical frost, the girl could do nothing but accept that she had been beaten.

 

Returning her gaze to Arisu, Fate peered into the woman’s eyes for a long moment, before speaking. “Even now you talk too much…” Her tone was surprisingly calm, almost as if she wasn’t still in grave danger. The reason she had entered this tournament in the first place was to insure her survival, and if this woman honestly had no intention of taking her life, then she had no reason to resist any further… she’d just need to find a new way to protect herself from her pursuers.

 

“I surrender.” 

 

[Dad]

Sahill Cathedral

 

He could smell their anguish.  Pol was strengthened by it, feeding on the suffering that Morgan and Dirk were enduring.  How entertaining it was to see them struggle, and claw at a chance to fight back.  How daring were these lesser beings to strike at the throne.   His throne.  The THRONE.  OF THE MAD.  KING!

 

Pol turned around just in time to see his throne become surrounded by vines, and begin to crumble beneath their weight.  He was livid at this.  The throne was sacred, and such a travesty would not go unanswered.  But before he could counter attack, he was fired upon by a weapon he did not recognize.  With no time to react, the shells pierced through the Mad King's armor chest plate, cracking it nearly in two.  That crack let forth a plume of light, which staved off a very minuscule portion of the madness set forth by Pol himself.  He swung his mace in rage, empowering it with a purple hue.  The mace crashed into the ground, shoving Morgan and Dirk backwards.  The Mad King used this displacement in order to cast a spell on his foes, in an attempt to imprison them.

 

Even inside of the madness, four crossed beams of purple light came raining down around Dirk and Morgan, and began to close in.  The dark ground on which they presently stood began to burn, as the power of these beams became clear.  If the beams of light successfully closed in on Dirk and Morgan, their deaths were ensured.  Escaping the beams was a task of its own, as the Mad King approached in an attempt to cut them off.

 

"You will rot here!" he cried.  "In the tomb of the lost!"  Raising his enormous mace, Pol slashed widely with the blunt weapon at Morgan and Dirk, trying to force them into the beams of light behind and around them.

 

Shan'ri Temple

 

Sum looked to her brother, then back to the mechanical raptor.  "Forgive me," she said as only the raptor and Dim would understand.  "But the grounds on which you tread are sacred.  Your presence here--" but she was stopped by Dim, who honked furiously.  "You say nothing more, sister!" he went on.  She lowered her head, frightened and ashamed.  "You.  Machine.  And you.  Person.  Your kind have treaded on our land time and time again.  You disturb the cycle that we protect, and you threaten us for it!?" he said as his feathers spiked up.  Sum looked up, understanding her brother's rage.  Though she disagreed, she knew that Dim was right.  If they wanted to live, they didn't have a choice.  "It was you who put us here!  And it will be you who remains here."  Dim, who was as angry as he was ashamed of the predicament he and his sister were in, took an offensive stance again.

 

Sum, stood beside Dim, and opened her mouth wide.  Dim launched his feathers at Zyg, while Sum let a stream of fire erupt from her belly, out of her mouth, and directly at Nori.  Sum kept pouring on the heat in short bursts.  "You must understand!" she said, honking.  "We must remain here!  And you must flee!  Flee!  The sorcerer's eyes are upon you!  They are upon us all!"  Even if Nori couldn't understand Sum, Zyg could.  And even if it meant the guardians would die here, perhaps their message would get across.

 

 

Decadence Forest

 

 

Palea couldn't move in time to avoid the onslaught of both Nero and Camille.  The upfront blast from Camille shocked her, and stunned her for a very brief moment.  And in that small window, Nero found an opening and poured several fire laden swords into her torso.  Impaled and weakening quickly, Palea spit violently around her, hissing and biting at everything she could get her hands on.  With her wings now clipped by Nero's flames, she could only claw forwards, snatching at the ground as she collapsed.  The fire quickly began to eat away at the enormous moth, while a thunderstorm cracked high above them.  With Hobbes' spell finally coming to fruition, he had predicted this situation accurately.  With Palea dead, the fire need not spread, and a drenching rain began to shower down over Nero and Camille.

 

While they were victorious, Calvin was now without a mother, and the pack of leopards that were once lead by Kira, were now without a head.  Calvin scrambled over to his mother, licking her warm face.  His tears could not be seen in the rain, as the cub nudged at his mother's lifeless body with just his head.  He desperately tried to wake her, but to no avail.  His cries were greeted by the cries of the remaining leopards, who now circled around him carefully, as they mourned the loss of Kira.

 

But now was not the time for sadness.  Nero and Camille were still in a bind.  Because even as the rains poured down, they still had a battle to fight.  Between each other.

[VCR_CAT]

Dirk Rider: Sahill Cathedral - B8

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CNPEWuckio

 

As Dirk's bullets cracked open the king's armor, a strong beam of light poured out and with it the King's throne room began to become more clear. Focusing on the light that was rushed out, Dirk used to fully complete the gold-tinted blade of light in his right hand, taking a long drag on cigarette before flicking it away. The King brought down his mace; forcing the two of them back; Dirk gripping his sword as he holstered his gun. Light was the key; and Dirk knew exactly how to use it.

 

The King taunted them; summoning four beams of light rained down near them and began to close in. Looks like it was go time.

 

"Nah dude," Dirk replied, using the light from the beams to form a second blade in his other hand that glowed a bright-purple hue; contrasting the golden one in his other hand. "I think I'd rather shed some light on this situation."

 

Activating his Neon Burst, Dirk's eyes began to glow a bright gold. Moving with completely inhuman speed, Dirk weaved his wave out of the beams; sprinted directly at the Mad King with both blades gripped tightly. While the room seemed to shift and turn due to the darkness around them; the bright gleam of Dirk's swords kept his goal in sight; and kept him sane enough to throw his strength at the King. With a loud yell, Dirk swung both swords in a quick one-two succession downward towards that Mad King's chest piece; where the crack was.

[Cosmo.]

Odette after a long nap nap in the helicopter, arrived at the hotel. " Oh dear me, i must have slept for ages" she said as she quickly fixed her hair and put the hat back on. She then got out the helicopter saying goodbye to the pilots. She held her hat as the helicopter took off, there was another participant near her. She didn't have much time to study him before the duel, but thanks to the Eye, she could feel a strong dark aura, very different from the pure green and shining auras emanated by the elven artifacts. He was quite tall, well, she was quite short so to her everyone seemed tall. Dark-skinned and was wearing casual clothing, if it wasn't for the mysterious force emanated by him, she would confuse him for a normal american guy. Staring at him would have brought no conclusion, so she decided for an approach. " Have i met you before? i'm Odette Chrysalis and you, sir? Why don't we go talk downstairs in front of a cup of tea?"

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

It had felt...good, very good, very very good, to do that Morgan decided. Letting loose, throwing her magic in every direction, so good. She could take her mind off the distressing thoughts that this darkness was dredging up in her so long as she kept it up.
And so she decided that’s exactly what she would do. The Mad King had come into the fray himself, swinging wildly, but Morgan didn’t give a damn. She was too lost in losing herself in the madness.
So what if the floor was heating up? So what if there were beams of light coming in at her? And especially so what if that man got in the way?

Morgan commanded the roots to come to her. They wrapped around her body, though some of them burned up in the beams of light, and yanked her past the beams and closer to the destroyed throne. As she was pulled past the King, she shot at him with a quartet of flaming skulls. The explosions they caused would surely cause some damage, and at this point all that Morgan cared about was doing SOMEthing. ANYthing to get these voices out of her head.

Bonejangles seemed confused by his master’s state of mind, idling near the edges of the fight. But once Morgan gave a command he leapt to action. “Grab him!” She called “Grab him and hold him!” The skeleton lurched forward, attempting to wrap its bony arms around the Mad King even as the skulls flew in their direction.

---

It...it worked. Camille stared in shock at the dead body of the giant moth. They had done it, they had killed such a powerful beast.
Killed.
He. Killed.
Camille suddenly turned to the side and puked, emptying his stomach contents onto the forest floor. He killed it. A living thing was dead now because of him. Camille had been made in part as a weapon but...He hadn’t ever done more than subdue a living creature before.

He stared blankly at the ground, knowing he had an enemy nearby but not really caring. Then the sounds of the mourning leopards came to Camille’s ears. He looked up at them, and saw Calvin by his mother’s side. Guilt clenched at his stomach. She needn’t have died. Had he not come here, the leopard would be alive, the moth would be alive, everything would be as it should be here. And now he was being asked to fight, and maybe kill, another person?
And for what? Freedom? A chance to escape the clutches of his depraved father and live his life as a free man? It was a nice thought but now that Cam saw what had happened here he began to realize just how selfish it was.

“We’re all...so selfish.” He said out-loud. He tried blinking away the tears that he only just realized were falling down his cheek. “If it’s like this in the other arenas all of us are...horribly selfish. We come here for our own desires, and take away other’s hopes, other’s dreams, other's lives. Even people who don’t have anything to DO with this.” Cam’s thoughts wandered to the helicopter pilots, whose life hanged in the balance. Even if every contestant lived through this people would die in this "game". Even beings as innocent as these creatures in this forest.
“Why?” Cam turned to Nero directly for the first time since starting his speech. “Why do we get to choose what’s worth all this? Who are we to mess with the lives of others? No matter how noble a goal one might have, is it really worth so much pain and suffering?” He glanced up into the sky, and shouted for the world he knew was watching. “Do you truly believe its anyone’s right to play with the lives of others like this? Is there any way to justify the horrible things done today? ANSWER ME DAMN IT!”

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

“I surrender.”

 

As Fate said that, the ice dome that surrounded the two girls and that bound Fate to the ground immediately disappeared, leaving the two of them alone at the ruins of the battlefield. There was some momentary silence between the two, but then that silence was broken with a hearty laugh from Arisu.

 

"Ahhhahahhah, this is wonderful! Didn't think that it'll end this smoothly."

 

Calming herself after a minute of laughter, Arisu then put up a big smile towards the scantily-clad girl before her. She still couldn't really understand the reason she relented from just killing the girl like she was originally intended to, but looking at her looking as calm as she was, it's enough for Arisu for now.

 

"With this battle settled, it's time for us to return then."

 

She said as she wiped the big smile from her face and picked up her grenades from behind her shirt. She walked around the arena and placed each of them on the rods Gyro left to trap them inside. After she's done, she dragged Fate away from her position and into the center of the room, where Arisu put up an ice dome around the two just as the grenades exploded, destroying the forcefield keeping them from escaping.

 

"Anyway, meet me south of this place." Arisu pointed at a direction as she said that. "It's not too far, and it'll be an open space where our helicopter will pick us up to get out of here.

 

If you end up getting kicked from the hotel since you lost, you can stay at my place instead."

 

Realizing that she had been sounding way too kind, Arisu shook her head before turning around, preparing to leave Fate behind.

"Also, I'll go get you some better clothes. I completely disapprove your sense of clothing unless you actually plan on attracting perverts by dressing like that."

 

With that said, she immediately dashed away from the room and left Fate behind, intent on grabbing her Philosopher's stone before she left.

 

---

[Hälō]

“Hm?” Tyson looked around for the source of the voice, only to be met with the tiny form of a young lady. Instantly recognizing her as one of his fellow contestants, the man arched an eyebrow inquisitively, before bursting out in a fit of laughter. “Good to see you won your match!” He tried his best to conceal his shock at the fact that this young woman had successfully won a death match with one of the other trained killer that had gathered together in the room yesterday. 

 

“But yea, if by tea you mean whisky, then I’m in!” Smiling, he nodded towards the elevator that would take them down to the bar. Although he did notice that Mephisto was oddly silent… 

 

[Cosmo.]

“But yea, if by tea you mean whisky, then I’m in!” The other contestant said. They took the elevator and reached the bar, then proceeded to order. Odette went for a cup of Earl Grey. " So, let's get quickly to why i'm here." She said with a smile on her face. " I, wanna propose a little alliance, nothing big..." She then took a sip from her tea "if we have to duel each other, when one surrenders, the other must have mercy. It won't reward anyone, except maybe having one less death by your hands." " So, deal?" She said with a big creepy smile on her face. Odette didn't care if he accepted or not, she just wanted to study his and his aura's behaviour. This contract was more of an excuse to study him, she could've easily tore him apart, so it would be his gain if he accepted. " So, deal? "

[Dad]

Sahill Cathedral

 

Pol was being outmatched, and out classed.   Working together, Morgan's big skeletal brute managed to wraps his large arms around Pol, while Dirk shattered the chest piece that armored the Mad King.  Tossing the skeleton puppet away, and knocking Dirk backwards, Pol grew irate.  Now, the remaining two pieces of his armor began to crack, light brimming from them.  Morgan's skulls also found their mark, shattering what would have been Pol's leg guards almost in an instant.  As this happened, the castle around Dirk and Morgan quaked, and the ceiling began to crumble.  A vast amount of light returned to the bottom floor now, showing the floor a bit more clearly.  But behind Pol, his broken chest plate  and leggings slowly began to rematerialize, in an attempt to restore his power.

 

The spaceless walls around Morgan and Dirk roared, as if hungering for something.  But that would become more clear, as Pol pointed a very large hand at Dirk and Morgan now.  Without a word, the king vanished completely.  The sound around Morgan and Dirk drained for just a moment, almost as if they went deaf.  And then, a whistle slowly peaked in their ears, as if a tea kettle was going off.  Pol reappeared, with a very close, wide arc swing of his enormous mace, aimed directly for Dirk's head and Morgan's torso.  As he swung his mace, the air around its end boiled, as the mace grew hot.  Every inch it grew closer to Dirk and Morgan, they would feel it.  And the impact around it--should the strike miss--would be just as great.

 

"I'll return you all to the graves from which you've risen!"

 

 

Golden Gate Hotel Lobby, Northern Tower

 

She awoke, dazed, on an armchair.  The last twenty four hours were a blur, and the last thing she remembered was introducing a missing contestant to Gerald.  "I was going. . . .to do. . .something.  But what. . . ?" lost in her thoughts, Steph turned her gaze to the rather large television in the lobby that stood at a bold eighty inches, hanging from the rafters.  She had nearly forgotten about the matches going on.  And it seemed two contestants had already returned.  And just as she thought about this, another had surrendered.  It seemed the first cluster of events was coming to an end, except for a stubborn two, who had accrued the remaining viewers to the last stream standing.  One dressed as a male, yelled to the viewers, pleading for some kind of understanding.  The other gazed on, in shock at the death of the rather large leopard that had periled before them.  Steph, who had no real care for anyone or anything involved in these contests, was suddenly very interested.  Why did these contestants seem so. . .familiar?

 

 

Decadence Forest

 

The storm overhead began to quiet, the rain slowing to a halt and the wind's whistle going silent.  An enormous streak of yellow light blazed across the sky, temporarily catching Camille and Nero's attention.  It appeared to be going in the direction of the Golden Gate Hotel, and showed brightly on the stream of Camille and Nero's battle.

 

 

Golden Gate Hotel Lobby, Northern Tower

 

A sudden, powerful explosion rocked the top floor of the Northern Tower.  For a brief moment, the lights flickered, and the stream went dark.  It was returned a few brief seconds later.  Steph frowned, as she turned her attention to the elevator and followed its shaft upwards to the top floor.  "What are you doing here, Ilgad?" she thought to herself.  She dashed to the elevator, in an attempt to cut off Ilgad before he could go any further into the tower.  In the elevator, Steph's thoughts continued to scramble.  She couldn't create a cohesive thought in regards to the events of yesterday.   What had happened?  She tried to shake the notion from her head, but somehow she just felt lost.

 

As she arrived on the roof of the Northern Tower, Gerald was already there, standing before a man who looked as though he was very, very angry.

 

"Gerald?  What is he doing here?"

 

"We're discussing business, Steph.  Nothing too berating.  He arrived here because I asked him to."

 

Ilgad stared Steph in the eyes, as though her very presence angered him.  "How dare you show your face to me.  Do you wish to die here?"  Steph could only scoff.  It was very clear that these two had a history.  Ilgad stretched his wings, and flapped them twice, whipping up a vortex beneath his feet.  Gerald held up a hand, calming him down.  "Things will be as we discussed, yes?"

 

Ilgad continued staring at Steph, only returning to Gerald when he snapped.  "Ilgad?"

 

Ilgad nodded.  "As you wish.  But I will make no promises.  If you send them to my home, I will do my utmost to ensure neither of them return."

 

Gerald chuckled.  "Well, that's all been planned for.  We'll see you shortly, old man."  Ilgad snorted at this remark.  Though he was much older than Gerald and he knew it, it was still disrespectful.  Silently, he flapped his wings again, kicking up a vicious tunnel of wind, before turning into a streak of light, and bursting into the skies above and streaming across the world.

 

Steph watched as Ilgad fled, irritated at his presence.  "Sir, the final matches of round one are drawing to a close, but slowly.  At this rate, round two will be held back for several days."

 

Gerald sighed, a slight frown crossing his face.  It was always this way.  Each and every time.  "Steph.  Instruct the pilots of Camille and Nero to go forth with plan B.  The crowd is growing weary and it's about time to get things to move along.  As for Saul and Elspire, you don't have to concern yourself too much.  They'll be doing battle very shortly."  The duo returned to the elevator, as Steph pressed a button on her wrist.  A slight bit of feedback rang out, as she got in touch with the pilots that belonged to Nero and Camille.  "This is Steph.  You've been instructed to proceed with plan B, and you are not to deviate.  Is that clear?"

 

The two pilots, who were flying on opposite sides high above the forest, each lowered two large, rounded steel balls from their respective helicopters.  The balls detached, and began speeding towards Nero and Camille rapidly.  "Plan B is a go," they each said simultaneously.

 

Decadence Forest

 

The steels balls sped towards Nero and Camille, passing them by and circling around.  When the steel balls returned to hover several feet above the canopy of the forest, a display was visible on either side of them.  It began counting down from sixty.  Hobbes, who could see the steel balls even from his home, slammed his fist in rage on his small coffee table.  "You boys had better get a move on."  

[Mr. Hyde]

Elspire Ferdinand

 

"And I am Saul, last of the Titans, and heir to the Jotunheim Throne."  Elspire was dumbfounded.  This whole time he though he was just fighting a big human with an affinity for magic.  The fact that he was face to face with the last titan was quite the honor.  Not to mention they were just doing battle merely moments ago, and Elspire was holding his own.   "I will allow you to see your kind, our battle can wait until after. If I may request; I would be honored to join you and witness the rebirth of the Dragons."  Elspire's eyes started to tear up, but he wiped them away immediately.  Saul had shown him a kindness that enemies never really gave each other.  But were they really enemies?

 

"Saul Jotunheim, prince of titans huh?  It's nice to meet you.  I heard stories about the titan's from my mother, Niphron.  However, whenever my mother talked about them, she was sure they were extinct."  The scent of dragons had become overwhelming now.  They slowly emerged from behind cave walls, and the ground.  He was overjoyed.  These dragons were amazing, but they were probably not as near as strong as his mother was.  A larger dragon was slowly approaching him, his body tattered and chipped.  He seemed to be the oldest male in the vicinity, and Blake prepared his tongue to speak the words of dragons.  It had been a while, since he'd last talked to a dragon, so his pronunciations might've come off a bit messy.  "Hello crystal guardians, my name is Elspire Ferdinand...you have nothing else to fear in this cave anymore, Ublik is dead.  You owe me no thanks, It was an honor to do something for my kind."  

 

 

All the dragons twisted their heads in confusion.  How was this human speaking their language?  The older male who had approached them earlier nodded his head, for he had seen the fight that had occured between the two.  "Elspire Ferdinand, I am Geodin, elder crystal dragon.  We will keep our thanks, but you have our eternal gratitude.  You seem to be the offspring of one of the most powerful lightning dragons in all the land, but you still have much to learn when it comes to wielding all of that power."  Elspire blushed, he was being praised, and at the same time scolded.  Old people, no matter what species, tended to be good at that.  There was another scent that Elspire could discern within the cave, but smelled fresher than most of the dragons within.  He looked over Geodin to try and figure out where the smell was coming from.  "Ah...judging by your confusion, I can tell you smell our most prized treasure...You are free to go and see for yourself what it is, but be warned, it's heavily guarded.  We will show you the way, and try our best to help you with any other troubles."

 

Elspire nodded his head, and they trekked farther into the cavern.  With Saul in tow, and half an hour of travel, they made it to what seemed to be a giant pool in the middle of an open cavern.  The fresh dragon smell he had caught wind of was in the center of the pool.  It was a giant egg, gently placed on a stone pillar.  As he approached the pool, he could hear noises coming from beneath the water.  It was almost a hypnotic noise, but Elspire could hear the malicious intent through each beating of his eardrum.  This pool was infested with sirens, the lowest of predators.  Like angler fish almost, the lured their prey in with a distracting melody and then drowned their victims.  This pool would be better off without them anyways.  Elspire flashed a toothy smile.  "Siren soup, coming right up!  ROAR OF THE LIGHTNING DRAGON!"  

 

Opening his mouth wide, Elspire discharged his electrical energy from his mouth straight into the pool.  The minerals that soaked in the water helped the electricity spread all throughout the water, as Elspire wasn't about to hold back his lightning attack for a little while longer.  He still had some of that residue purple lightning he had eaten earlier.  

 

Zyg 0001

 

"You.  Machine.  And you.  Person.  Your kind have treaded on our land time and time again.  You disturb the cycle that we protect, and you threaten us for it!?  It was you who put us here!  And it will be you who remains here."  The geese seemed angrier than before, but what were they talking about putting them there?  It was not their doing in the slightest.  The two stood in their offensive poses again, and let out a fury of attacks, exploding feathers and a fire breath from the female.  

 

Zyg did his best to avoid all of the feather fire, but the feathers were coming to quick for him to not get scratched by a few.  He was almost impressed, his armor wasn't so easily battered like this, it could withstand tank piercing rounds.  These feathers were something else, probably magic enhanced.  As he avoided fire, the Female honked out loud.   "You must understand!  "We must remain here!  And you must flee!  Flee!  The sorcerer's eyes are upon you!  They are upon us all!"   There was a sorcerer now?  Why were the contestants being watched.  Zyg left the questions in the back of his mind for the future, but now he had to find a way to incapacitate his opponents.  If there's one thing Zyg was sure of, these two were innocent in all of this.  What were these sorcerers' plans anyway?

 

Zyg switched from Goose to English, and he yelped towards Nori.  "Listen, I think these are good guys, so let's try our best not to kill them.  Let's clip their wings instead!"  Zyg hopped over a barrage of plummage, and decided to get in close.  The female was too busy spouting warnings, and fire from her mouth at Nori to pay attention to Zyg.  Getting in close was his only option, those feathers would prove to be useless if the male were to get caught up in an explosion as well.  He also wouldn't risk his sister getting the aftermath of that either.  Zyg heated his claws, swiping at the male, aiming at anything that wasn't vital.  Hopefully if the geese could not carry on fighting, they would surrender and give the two more info.