Heirs of the Void

Heirs of the Void is the saga that takes place in the aftermath of The War of

Worlds saga, and is told from the perspective of White and her few allies seeking to put an end of the threat of Itami and his remaining pawns once and for all. This arc is closed for participation unless one's characters are already part of the cast, such as the numerable Heirs, all of which can be found here.

Please speak directly with Axis of Destruction prior to making any plans to participate in this story arc.

Arc Theme

Heirs of the Void 000: Precursors to Annihilation
Vulkas finds the entirety of the last few moments flashing before his eyes, recreating itself over and over again. "''I cannot let it end here, I cannot let all of this be finished by someone else, I need to act.!" ''Before he is sent away, he opens his mouth. "Wait! Before I am sent away with you others, you must listen to what I have to say. I understand if you do not believe me to be worth giving an ear to, but I assure you, it is in your best interests to listen."

Strangely, he feels as though he had not even been budged, and slowly he sees White, in front of the now confined and immobile girl, turn toward him, an ironclad expression on her face.

"How and why are you still here?" She says in a low voice, her voice carrying an incredibly deadly omen of barely restrained wrath.

Vulkas breathes in and out deeply. "Perhaps I am destined to speak with you here. I understand your anger but..." Vulkas stares back with extreme strength. "I cannot let you walk away from this alone. I ask, and insist, that I accompany you."

Her eyes narrow. "What possible reason do you have?" She points to the bound girl. "Do you feel some kind of misplaced sympathy for that thing? Or despite the fact I went out of my way to save you, no, everything at my own expense, you do not trust my intentions? ...Or perhaps you fancy that you can service your desires of flesh with it?"

Vulkas shakes his head. "Please, cease the assumptions. One, any sympathy I could give that thing is minimal. It is born of murder and destruction, and every waking moment near it makes me...rather furious." He moves closer. "And as for trust, I thank you for saving me and my allies but a single act of kindness does not a trusted friend make. I will not even adress your final accusation for its absurdity." He breathes. "I wish to continue the fight. While I am tired of today's events, I understand that the battle isn't over, there is more to be done that I assume you will continue. I wish to assist you."

She looks at him now as if she desperately wants to be angry at him, but is struggling to muster the energy to do so.

"...A positive spirit, Duty, are you not?" She seems to grimace with the words.

"Indeed, I need not indulge more in what I am then." He puts his hands behind his back. "But please, consider my words and if you accept, I assure I will be a valuable comrade."

She seems to take on an exasperated expression. "...Figures. Duty never deviates, no matter how obtuse they require themselves to be in order to make sure their duty in life is followed... ...what a pain in the ass."

She briefly looks toward the girl. "We have rules here, and you will follow them. Break them, and I will exile you for real next time, or you will die. Am I understood, Vulkas Iradrek?"

Vulkas nods, moving one hand forward and extending it. "I understand every word, do not worry."

She turns her head toward him. "You may not aknowledge that thing as a person, or even specifically as having a gender. To do so will aknowledge it as an individual, and I have no intention of preserving its present state of being. I need only keep it alive for that time in which I must prepare for my brother's return. I will not and you shall not offer it any kindness, not matter how draconian my actions may seem toward it. Its bindings may never come off under any circumstance, unless you feel the need to be responsible for the ensuing apocolypse this world eater will bring.

Furthermore, at the risk of your own life, you are to obey my instructions to the letter and either purge or slay those I designate. Not a single mark may be left unattended. Also, do not interact with the being in any capacity, or I will hamstring you."

Vulkas blinks, breathing again. "I have memorized everything you have said, if need be I will run through it every day to prove my understanding."

Her eyes narrow slightly again, before she turns and sits down before the girl. "Uuuuugh. Leave me be for the moment. I need to decompress. After a while I'll call for you. Are you familiar with spacial shaping?"

He creates his Shift of Planes. "I've never had the need to attempt such a thing, but If I must I shall try."

"Create a dwelling within this void then if you can, and excuse yourself. I need to be alone." She pauses, before smiling faintly. "And don't worry, the Void here obeys me, well, at the very least, it won't eat you immediately. Just don't stare too deep..."

Vulkas nods, before walking away as he begins to play. As he walks, stone like material begins to form around him, and after a moment a medium sized castle like home is created, with him walking inside and closing the door with a final, sharp note.

Once he has departed, she seems to lose her ridged air, and breathes a soft sigh. "...Forgive me brother, I hope in whatever form you do exist... ...that this does not cause you pain. ...Hang on, at least for her sake..."

Vulkas sits down inside, and three orbs of light in different colors begin to dance around him rather frantically.

She isn't heard from for a very long while, in fact things are incredibly quiet outside.

Vulkas eventually gets fed up and waves the orbs away, standing up and going upstairs, going to what appears to be a balcony.

He eventually gets a summons from White to return.

Vulkas leaves the balcony and eventually walks out of his home.

Heir of the Void 001: Sanctified Archer
"FWhite sits kneeled before the bound Child, not turning as he approaches.""Are you ready to put yourself to the test? This will determine if you are worth teaching and following in my path." She intones.

Vulkas squints. "As ready as I can be, what is it that I must do?"

"As you may have gathered, we have won merely a battle, not a war. In order to subdue their most prized avatar, I had to disperse the power of Itami and Alpha across the realms. Pieces of them have now awoken in those they had long before selected, their Heirs, so to speak. I was once such a Heir, before I... ...well that's not important. The point is, our task is to either purge or destroy the Heirs. If they do not consent to being purged, then they must be eliminated. No mercy."

She looks back upon the Child. "You may think my treatment harsh, but the truth is that thing is the Primary Heir. If released, Itami's power will flow back into it once again. In order to keep his power fragmented, the Primary Heir must not be destroyed or otherwise purged of its contamination until all other Heirs have been neutralized. That is why we must wage this campaign. Your first target is one whose status as a Heir has recently awoken. I need you to infiltrate this facility."

She creates a spacial diagram of a massive flying fortress, at the very center in some kind of vault is a biosignature highlighted compared to the others.

"The occupants there will view you with hostility most likely, so do not let yourself be captured or noticed. Break into the secret vault, purge the newly awakened Heir, and then bring her here. ...Oh, and she looks like this."

Another diagram replaces the first, showing a woman with long white hair, deep in slumber inside a strange giant laboratory tube, curled in a fetal position. Her face seems vaguely similar to White's.

Vulkas tilts his head. "They have a rather large resemblence to yourself, but I assume the reason for that is not important. In the off chance that I am noticed, am I allowed to use as much force as possible to make sure that my mission isn't detoured?"

"Correct, you are. Dispose of bodies and do not allow them to spread an alert throughout the fortress. You may very well die if their full numbers march upon you."

"I understand. Must I return within a specific amount of time or just soon?"

"Return as soon as you are able, but do not rush, stealth is required here."

Vulkas nods. "I am ready to begin my mission then. Anything else you must tell me?"

"...No." A silver - black portal appears behind her.

Vulkas walks through the portal, taking out his Twilight Siphon as he goes through it.

His vision warps and distorts in a sea of greys, whites, and blacks, before he finally appears at the fortress, miles upon miles into the atmosphere. The fortress appears incredibly beautiful and ornate, silver and white metals adorn its features, with hints of diamond. Upon a brief inspection of his surroundings, he appears alone but he feels making rash assumptions could get him in trouble fast.

Vulkas spends little time admiring the fortress after taking his quick glance. He remembers the diagram White originally showed him, knowing he has to make it to the center. He quietly scales up the fortress, looking to find a way in that isn't the front door.

A rush of wind nearly knocks him over as what looks like a demonic-angelic dragon surges overheard, with what looks like an angelic winged humanoid riding it with a long spear.

Vulkas cocks his head, somewhat curious before he continues scaling the fortress.

The dragon and its rider appear to be making another pass.

Vulkas quickly creates a seal in front of him, which seemingly melds him to the wall hes scaling.

When he gets to the top, he find a huge battalion of angelic soldiers patrolling the courtyard.

Vulkas takes his time to form a plan, sitting down as low to the ground and out of sight as possible, and has his astral self quickly move across the courtyard, invisible. When he reaches past the courtyard, he calls his body to him, which instantaneously comes out and back in of existance, appearing where his astral self is.

A few of the soldiers seem to look around, as though feeling a disturbance, but not in a manner that indicates he has been noticed. He is now closer to the center of the complex, where a massive central tower looms. He catches a glimpse of a batallion entering a concealed elevator, heading down, nearby the central complex.

Vulkas quietly heads across to the elevator, entering the shaft and hanging on the wall, looking around to make sure he hasn't been, and wont be spotted.

Without warning, the elevator drops at unholy speeds straight toward the ocean, making a sonic boom as it travels.

Vulkas eyes bulge in surprise, barely able to hold back any noises that would give him away. He recovers, getting used to the speed quickly though.

The elevator keeps barreling down, and far below, he can start to see the bottom. And the elevator shows no signs of slowing down.

Vulkas keeps his conviction. "I doubt their elevators are methods of execution..."

The Elevator slams into a base of water, sending a massive waterspout almost all the way back up, drenching him and deeply rattling him from the impact force.

Vulkas still hangs on, ableit now extremely annoyed.

The elevator has stopped, leaving Vulkas to freely curse the psychopath who designed the elevators.

He does so in his mind, quickly leaving and creating a symbol where no one is around, melding himself to the wall as he looks around to gain an idea of his surroundings.

He appears to be in a deep interior labortory section, filled with human sized lab tubes, many filled with the shadows of humanoid beings inside. According to the map he was given, this section of the fortress is where he will find his mark.

Vulkas leaves from his observation point, gazing at the various lab tubes.

They appear to have some sort of humanoid beings, some in various stages of some sort of transformation. Some look like meager dolls without any form of identifying features, while some sport red or white hair, and six wings from their backs, like the angelic beings outside. However, he senses his mark is much further in.

Vulkas eyes each being with a sense of whimsy, continuing his search for his mark.

Far deeper within, he soon runs into a wall where there should be an entrance to the chamber described.

Vulkas looks around to the closest thing to a door.

There is no sign of any door. However, a series of three dragon statues, each with a different colored crystal in their mouths can be seen. The wall he is faced with appears to have similarly sized holes.

Vulkas inspects the statues, particularly the crystals as he eventually removes one, placing it into one of the holes.

The crystal does not seem to achieve anything, but does not react in any way. Listening closely however, he hears a mechanical noise sometime later, suggesting a mechanism is engaged.

He does the same for the other two crystals.

Surprisingly he is able to solve the puzzle, and a release mechanism engages, beginning to pull the wall open.

After the wall fully opens, Vulkas slowly walks in.

He walks into a central large chamber with sealing runes across the whole circular room. At the very center is a console with a huge tank filled with liquid. Inside, he finds the woman he had been enlisted to find. He notes an odd red crack in her side spreading to her stomach and right side of her chest. She appears asleep.

Vulkas inspects the crack from afar, being eventually looking to see if he can find a console of sorts to let her out.

As he looks, she opens her eyes, and they seem to be the same pinkish red as the Child. He finds  the console right in front of the tank.

Vulkas eyes the console before attempting to release her.

The tank's glass implodes, sending huge waves of liquid surging onto the floor, her body tumbling onto the floor, being drug along the floor.

Vulkas walks over to her body, creating a symbol on her body that covers her with a robe. He picks her up, starting to leave.

After the shattering of the tank, alarms begin to blare in great numbers, and the crack begins to glow, yet the woman's surroundings grow darker and darker. She seems to shift in his arms, her arm extending toward his face.

Vulkas doesn't notice her arm at first, as hes caught up with the alarms going off before looking back down.

She grabs his face hard, and forces herself free from his grasp, and flings him into a wall. She gets up, though is slightly hunched over, a trance like expression on her face as her eyes glow unnaturally with the strawberry red color.

Vulkas quickly recovers, stretching. "I apologize if you have been deeply disturbed. Im only here to help you. If you do not allow me to do so, the both of us will be in a mess that would stop the both of us from digging ourselves out of." He looks around, wary over both the alarms and her expression.

The crack in her side begins to grow rapidly, and he begins to feel the same sensation from her as he did the Child when in battle with it. Her side itself is turning into pure red energy, which oozes from the site outward to the rest of the body. The very center of the opening begins to form a poreclain white skin with hardening scales, and as it travels down her leg, begins to turn it dragonic in form, with a similar skin color. He realizes that the corrupt force inside her is altering her at a drastic rate.

He remembers what White had said: ''Purge the awakened Heir, and then return her here. ''His trial had begun in earnest.

Vulkas' eyes widen before he charges up a wave of pure positive energy, flinging it towards the clone as he coats his arm in it.

She ducks under the wave, manifesting an unstable blade of negative energy and slashing at him.

A blade of his own, made of positive energy emits from his arm, clashing with her blade as he covers his other arm with it, attempting to grab her wrist.

The two blades violently react to each other, bucking and tearing at each other. She makes a strong attempt to evade his grasp.

He steps forward, moving her blade out of the way as he fires a close range blast of positive energy at her wound.

She screams in agony as the energy begins to circuit through her body, disrupting the flow of negative energy.

Vulkas gets rid of his blade, grabbing the wrist that her blade is on. He then pushes her to the ground, surging more positive energy into the wound.

She squirms, trying to break free, her strength nearly overwhelming.

Vulkas increases the amount of positive energy hes using as a response.

She blasts him away with a massive burst of negative energy that heavily singes him.

Vulkas grunts in slight pain, healing himsef with his own positive energy as he moves in again, creating a whip of positive energy that he swings, trying to wrap around her leg.

She doesn't notice, as the corruption continues to spread, both legs are dragonic and now a tail is beginning to sprout.

Vulkas uses her not noticing to his advantage, pulling quickly with all his strength to throw her off balance.

She tumbles down with a heavy crash.

He rushes over to her and holds her down, creating claws of positive energy, ripping into the wound, and starts to pull.

She screams as the corruption furiously fights back, attempting to hasten her mutation into an avatar, her lower half fully compromised.

Vulkas grits his teeth, using more positive energy to strengthen the claws as he continues to dig and pull.

The corruption begins to lose ground.

Vulkas rips out the corruption, blazing both the corruption and the exit wound with positive energy to finish the job.

The woman lets out an agonized howl of pain as the corruption is ripped out of her, collapsing on the floor, her wet exposed body dripping water and blood onto the floor, unconscious.

Vulkas takes a moment to collect himself. "That corruption was far too vile..." He picks up the robe he had created for her earlier, picking her up and covering her as he starts to leave after healing her wound to stop the bleeding.

Her breathing begins to settle as he walks, but he can start to hear the footsteps of soldiers.

''You're short on time. Get out of there.''

Vulkas quickly makes his way back, avoiding the soldiers and using symbols to warp around.

A pillar of jagged ice erupts in front of Vulkas, he feels a presence above him on a terrace.

Vulkas stops in his tracks, quickly glancing above him to see the source of the ice.

He sees a silver haired male with pale blue eyes staring down at him, an aura of cold surrounding him.

"Explain yourself."

Vulkas creates a dark shroud over his mark's face. "I am not here to disrupt or do harm. Nor do I wish to engage in combat." He eyes the area to scout out his escape.

A ring of ice blades erupt around him.

"That is not an explanation. Shall I call the soldiers who are currently hunting you down over?"

"...I came here to retrieve something. Its nothing of importance to you or anyone here."

"Do you speak of that woman? Do you take me for a fool? What is her significance?"

"If she was left here untreated, it was likely that this fortress would have fallen to her and her corruption. I am removing her from the premises for both my sake and yours."

"...Who sent you? And how could you known of this place, let alone that chamber?"

"It seems you overestimate the loyalty of those around you. Not that it is compromising. It was one of your own, but it was done for the right reasons."

"..." This information seems to cause some manner of pause. He tosses some manner of sigil at Vulkas, after which the ice disappears, with him leaving soon after.

Vulkas catches the sigil with his spirit hand, and inspects it while on the move.

He isn't able to discern anything from it immediately.

Vulkas looks for the portal he came from.

He sees it open in the distance, toward the edge of the fortress.

He darts for it, diving through it.

Heirs of the Void 002: Children of Destiny
Vulkas arrives from the portal, his mark in his arms and the sigil given to him seemingly pocketed in his robes. He takes a moment to catch himself, slowly walking as he looks down at the woman. "What could have happened if that corruption was left to fester?"

''A new avatar would be born, and Earth's demise assured. Our cause would be held back from the effort to destroy her. Better to purify before that point.''

A rumbling voice responds, both White's voice and entirely not. The voice surrounds him from all directions, and his eyes seem to imagine the lurking shadows of dragons amidst the endless darkness. This fades as White reemerges.

"Well done."

Vulkas seems somewhat taken aback by the initial voice, but shakes it off. "Thank you. However I must be honest. Unfortunately, I do believe I gained unwanted attention."

"Not a concern. It would have been unlike his character to enduldge violence in this instance."

"Would it be within his character to give a stranger something without reason?" Vulkas shows her the sigil. "I assume not."

She gives him a smile. "That knowledge is not important at this time. It would unfairly grant you an advantage in your destiny."

Vulkas squints but decides to make no resistance. "Very well. As for her..." Vulkas nods towards the person hes carrying. "What shall be done?"

"I will take care of the rest. You on the other hand..." She stands aside, revealing the unbound, slumped over Child. She appears sprawled helplessly on the 'ground', her strawberry red eyes wandering aimlessly.

"I need you to oversee its bathing and general stability. You know, so it doesn't cause another apocalypse?"

White smiles mysteriously. "No pressure."

She disappears in a wave of black rippling energy along with the woman Vulkas retrieved.

Vulkas blinks. "Im sorry im to do what?" He looks around, realizing White has gone and left. He slowly walks over to Child, rather wary.

''Watch for a maw on the belly, its stomach growling, or it trying to gnaw on you. If persistent in the third or immediately after the first time, inform me. And don't be too rough or you'll make it react, ranging from increased difficulty in your objective to an intense outburst.''

''Obviously don't be a pervert. I will gladly end you.''

By this time, the unintelligent being awkwardly manages to look at him in a gawking manner.

Vulkas nods, once more creating a robe and gently putting it over the being, picking her up and walking to the home he made for himself earlier.

The Child jumps out of her skin, his touch causes her pores to jolt out as if in freezing water. Her sense of touch only recently permitted overwhelms her primitive mind. She doesn't attempt to flee, but has gone statue still.

Vulkas is seemingly confused by this, but makes nothing of it. He enters his home, walking to the bath in which he begins to fill with water.

The Child shakes noticably, though regards the water curiously.

"A-Aoyu~?" The phrase seems to be just babylike gibberish.

Vulkas shakes his head. "It is called water. It cleanses the body and soul." Vulkas creates a small orb of water in his hand and molds it around.

She definitely doesn't understand him.

Vulkas looks a little dissapointed but says nothing, instead he gets rid of the orb of water and creates a symbol that creates soap. He takes the robe off her and gently starts placing her into the bath.

The cold sensation of water against the skin makes the Child flinch and squirm.

Vulkas makes the water a little warmer to calm her down. "Do not make this any harder for me, that is all I ask."

After a mild tantrum, the Child appears to settle down, sinking a fair bit into the water.

Vulkas lets her settle before he rolls up his sleeves, grabs the soap and what appears to be a brush, wetting both and putting some soap on the brush. He then begins to gently scrub her down.

The next hour is a virtual wrestling match due to the brush itching her skin, but he finally accomplishes his task. She lays in the bath, panting.

Vulkas wipes sweat from his forehead as he sets the brush down, getting rid of the water as he creates a towel that he uses to dry her.

I see you two have had a lovely time, White remarks in his head, her tone makes it hard to tell if she is teasing him.

Vulkas rolls his eyes. "Of course. The constant fidgeting and occasional splashing was absolutely wonderful."

''Good, then that means you will bathe it every week. Dry it off and meet me outside.''

Vulkas makes a huff of contest and finishes drying her off, putting the robe back on her and picks her up, heading outside.

As he walks, he notices the Child seems to be gumming his wrist, he can feel her teeth touch his skin but almost no force behind it.

Vulkas doesn't pay it any mind other than finding it only slightly annoying.

The Child regards him with a meek look.

He raises an eyebrow, somewhat curious but continues walking.

The Child begins to press against him, trying to more securely wrap her legs and arms around him, this proving difficult, she appears to be trying to make laying against him easier and more comfortable, making him feel the opposite as she continues pressing herself against him. She also lightly puts her mouth on him again.

Vulkas sighs, before finally giving in and giving up his own comfort to allow her to take a much more comfortable position. "There. Happy?"

"Bouuu?" Another unintelligent response is his reward.

He just looks at her, somewhat squinting his eyes. "Vulkas. Vool. Khas." He points to himself.

She nibbles his shoulder, this time he can feel the teeth.

He gives up communicating with her, leaving his home to finally find White.

He finds White and the woman from before, now clothed, her hair styled, and awake, standing over her. White appears to be studying a strange multicolored orb, before finally dismissing it with a wave and standing up to face him. She seems to gesture as though she wants him to hand the Child over.

He happily gives White the Child. "She's is a tad...clingy. In a literal sense."

"It," White stresses with a light hiss. Without warning, bandages begin to wrap around the Child's head, quickly muffling the short cry out of alarm it gives out, and before long, is completely encased.

White soon has the being returned to her sealed state. She gestures to the woman, who is clad in simple green robes and braided hair. The woman regards him with a quiet, dignified look.

"I had to do a manual operation to complete her genesis, she wasn't entirely completed, much less operational." White explains. On the woman's back is a strange, yet simple bow, that appear to have a surreal quality to its presence.

"She lacks a name, but perhaps as her partner, you'd be willing to offer one?" White suggests.

Vulkas thinks for a second, before placing a hand to his chin. "Kyomu." He seems to regard the woman. "Would you like that name?"

"It would be... acceptable. You are... Vulkas, my partner?" She says slowly, as though trying to process her thoughts.

He nods. "Yes, that is me. I look forward to our working together." He smiles, slightly bowing.

She offers a nod of her head.

Vulkas turns to White, suddenly more formal. "I do believe that you have called me here for reaons more than just introductions." He seems to have something on his mind, quickly spurting it out. "How exactly did all of this...begin, per say?"

She seems like she is about to disregard his question when Kyomu speaks as well.

"Yes, how did things come to this? Surely it could have been avoided?"

White seems to become heavily burdened, and closes her eyes, and begins to tell them everything that has transpired up until that point, before Phoenix and her actions then, being recruited by them, her long and wartorn history with her brother, his crusade for justice, and her own failings that led to this state of affairs.

Vulkas seems extremely interested. "Its strange as to how all of that unfurls to create the current situation. Regardless of whether this could have been avoided or not, it is our job now to fix things, yes?"

"Indeed. I ask that you stay dedicated to your tasks. We cannot deviate."

"Of course." Vulkas looks ready for the next mission, more determined than ever as his eyes turn from yellow to a golden orange.

Heirs of the Void 003: The Nonexistent City
Break time's up, if you plan on doing a second dive anytime soon, get back here.

Shinwa sucks in a breath, part of her consciousness retrieves something she had stashed away a long time ago from a discreet location.

''Drei. I need to know... is the Dives merely the fastest way to bring him back, or is it more than that? A less than pleasant individual warned me to stop and implied I would regret further dives.''

Shinwa soon falls silent, and after some period of time, when a search to find her is sent, only a pile of clothes and ash are left of her. Soon after this, a great extended period of time passes in which everything is frozen, as if all possibility had become zero. When the group finally is unfrozen from this state, the city, minus the World Tree, has appeared into what seems an endless inky black abyss, where no possibility seems to exist.

In fact, the only forms of 'life' is Drei, the three familiars, and Volmond. The familiars and Drei note strange red and white threads floating about them in the billions, each individual possessing very different threads, with only a few intermingling with each other's. Curiously, most of the red threads surrounding Volmond have been turned to ash. In conjunction with this, his condition has been rectified, though no possible means could have done such a feat in such a timeframe.

"...You've awakened then, Zwei," notes Drei. "Are you... whole again?"

"..."

"I see, very well then." Drei swishes his tail lightly. "Will you be fine with that?"

"..."

"What's going on, Drei," asks Elstia. "I can see him, but... can't sense him."

"He's here and not, awake, but distant. Essentially his mind is omnipresent at the moment, but condensing. As such direct communication with him is impossible."

As they look about the doctor's chamber, they notice all signs of technology and its operation have frozen, everything colored in a deep dull grey. The passage of time seems irregular if wildly abnormal, and the only animate entities are themselves and Volmond. However, after enough time, they begin to make out faint, moving shapes, darker than the void they are in. These indistinct shapes appear to orbit an incomprehensible radius, with them seemingly on its outer range, the focus of their orbit seemingly far off into the void.

In addition, the sense of being watched is noticable, but no entity, much less any particular intent can be discerned at this time, but there is a strange sense of anticipation, as though the unseen was anxiously waiting for something.

"..."

"I'm aware."

"..."

"Indeed."

"Drei?"

"The surroundings. He noted them briefly."

For a while, things remain as they are, the silent presence lingering over them. What feels like hours pass before a strange signal like vibration begins to resonate, the reverberations begin to register a pattern in morse code that seems to indicate the group head outside.

Heirs of the Void 004: The Incubating Contagion
White looks at the two for a moment. "I have another target of concern. Are you two ready?" Kyomu seems to look at Vulkas before beginning what appears to be warm up exercises.

"I shall be ready shortly."

Vulkas glances at Kyomu with slight confusion. "...I am uh...ready, yes."

"Stiff muscles. Why are you looking at me like that?"

He looks away. "Aplogies, its just that I usually don't expect people to start random bursts of stretching." He laughs a bit, but clears his voice after.

"I shall be apt to inform you before I take care of my body's needs including urination, digestion, sleeping, and other such nessessities of the body."

She replies in an even, perhaps incredibly subtle dose of sarcasm.

Vulkas rolls his eyes a bit.

"You two will get along just fine if you are already having a lovers quarrel." White says with a faint smile.

Vulkas only appears slightly embarresed now, but quickly shrugs it off.

"Your next target is a more minor issue, but could present a serious problem if unattended."

Vulkas and Kyomu are presented with a hologram like image depicting a human woman undergoing a horrific transformation, angelic wings ripping out of her back, a stinger tail extending from her posterior, while black crystalline structures are ripping open her skin, growing into almost armor plated structures. She is oozing black and red liquids, similar to blood.

"This woman needs to be removed of her corruption before it takes advantage of her present situation. The facility she is in lies within poses a problem however."

Vulkas grimaces at the sight of the transformation. "More of a problerm than Yosei?"

"This facility having no exterior, given that it is located at the bottom of the ocean."

"I see. And where exactly is our mark within this facility?"

He sees what looks like a deep vault far below the rest of the facility on the hologram.

"At the lowest point of the facility. It's their highest security vault."

"Its rather strang how common putting the things with the most security at the bottom of it all."

"Don't get comfortable. When you are ready, let me know."

"I was ready moments ago, and I still am."

A grey portal begins to open before them. "Then get ready. I don't imagine this will go easy for you."

Vulkas nods and walks through the portal.

Kyomu flickers as she enters the portal, temporarily a black figure, before too disappearing through.

White watches with a quiet demeanor.

''Was this all worth it? Can I even change anything?''

They soon appear in a dark metal area, what looks to be a simple closet.

Vulkas carefully listens, making sure that no one is nearby.

He can hear the sound of footsteps marching through metal halls, echoing in such a way that he can never feel truly at ease, considering the sound dynamics throw off exact positioning. Kyomu seems to be moving to open the closet door.

Vulkas lets her open the door, creating a sigil in his hand just in case people were nearby.

She has an odd bow on her back as she opens it, but no one is outside at present. The doorway reveals part of a pure metallic sheeting for walls on the opposite end of the hall facing them.

Vulkas walks out, looking around.

Vulkas can see the facility is mostly metal, lit by neon blue lights running through the walls. He soon hears White speaking to him.

''Beware, I sense two Heirs now in this location. Be advised.''

"Two Heirs? This won't be changing the original target, no?"

''It may complicate matters if one's defeat triggers an early relapse. Consider it a precaution in the face of potential danger.''

Vulkas nods. He turns to Kyomu and simply shrugs.

Kyomu appears to be looking down a hallway, quietly scouting.

Vulkas does the same, placing sigils here and there that hide and meld with the walls.

Kyomu seems to be now traversing down the hall, as though she has decided that this way is the way she is going.

Vulkas follows after Kyomu, ever vigilant. He leaves behind sigils wherever they go, all giving a faint glow of confirmation to settle there before they turn invisibile both in sight and in sense.

Eventually they start hearing louder footsteps than normal, as though heavy armored boots are clomping through the same hallway.

Kyomu's eyes glow with blue circuit like features. "Patrol of three walking towards us at significant distance, two behind us. They appear to be facility guards. Threat level under assessment."

"It's likely that they aren't worth taking out. I suggest hiding. We are capable of melding with the wall because of the sigils I have put on the walls."

Kyomu seems to shimmer before fading from view, his awareness of her presence fades as well, to the point he feels alone in spite of the contrary. The footsteps are now much louder, and gruff voices can be picked up.

He shakes his head and melds to the wall, assuming that Kyomu is just hiding.

The soldiers come out from around the corner, talking amongst themselves.

"So why the security hike?"

"It seems that the cousin of the big boss is suffering an unknown mutation due to contact with the enemy."

"Knowing him, the boss is losing sleep over it."

"Poor bastard."

Vulkas waits for them to get far away enough, but that doesn't stop him from listening in on the conversation.

"Certainly is freaky. I wonder where Director Lux is at a time like this."

"I don't know, but that weird red glowy shit creeped me out."

"I know right?!"

Vulkas eyes widen, gritting his teeth. "Seems the corruption has already started....I need to get to them, fast."

The soldiers start to make their way further away.

He melds out of the wall, seeming much more determined. "Kyomu, we might not have all that much time as we would hope for."

She seems to 'pop' back into view as though she was always there, running ahead.

He doesn't question it at all, quickly catching up and already surging positive energy across his body, preparing himself.

They make decent progress, when they pass a window overlooking a central chamber down farther below. They see the white haired woman from White's report, and her on going horrific transformation. Her body is almost completely crystaline, having turned completely black save for her hair, which is now iridescent. Despite the jagged spikes erupting from her back, she appears to becoming beautiful in a divine sort of manner, but it is just as easily being corrupted by her still exposed skin appearing to boil like water, her body seems to be warring against itself, the black crystal vs the broiling skin, which seems to grow random mythic shapes, at one point part of her shoulder become's a dragon's head with half formed eyes as but a mere example of the many grotesques forming and returning to her still fleshy body.

He is barely able to make out the tell tale sign of red cracks sprouting from her face, moving down her cheeks toward her neck. The most apparent thing he can detect however is her screams of wretched agony.

He grimaces upon hearing her screams, coating his arms in pure positive energy and forming claw like hands with them. What he sees is a being of true horror, and it hurts him to watch. "Kyomu...we must save her. This...this isn't right."

"Our mission is to purge the corruption from her system as to not take advantage of the transformation. We were not told to assist otherwise. I suspect we would kill her if we did both, the agony of tearing out the corruption will be extreme as is."

He grits his teeth even harder, but complies. He wasn't about to compromise the mission for this. "Understood...lets get this done, then."

Kyomu walks to the window glass. "You head further down to the ground level of that chamber. I will distract them from up here. Be sure to take the normal route or you'll grab their attention."

Vulkas nods, and takes a deep breath. "Good luck. I will do my best to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible." He quickly heads off, going through the normal route.

She turns her atttention to the glass, before summoning her bow, notching it with an energy arrow...

As Vulkas continues downward, he begins to feel the presence of a second Heir, much like White had reported. However, before he can dwell on that, two armored guards attack him with their riot batons, hiding behind riot shields as they strike.

Vulkas ducks and slams open palms into their shields, pushing them both back and getting better distance between them, and small sigils begin to glow on their shields.

One of them charges at him while the other seems to race for a button on the wall.

Vulkas jumps onto the shield of the one charging him, and the sigil launches him into the other, drop kicking them at an insane speed before they can hit the button.

The baton flies out of the guard's hands and just before the baton can hit the button, the alarms go off anyway as a loud explosion and the sound of glass shattering goes off. Kyomu seems to have been getting busy.

Vulkas' eye twitches and he lets out a loud sigh, and he picks up the guard, throwing him at the other. "Oh dear..."

He manages to make a lot of progress, though the number of stationed guards is impressive. Finally he starts to reach the bottom floor, but it is there he feels the presence of the second Heir. Judging by the violet cystals growing on the door into the main chamber, they are already compromised and aware of him. He can feel their presence, a sharp, tense sensation.

The presence makes him take a deep breath, still keeping positive energy flowing through out his body. Without hesitation, he enters the main chamber.

Almost immediately a crystalline female being lands in front of him, her entire body composed of violet crystal, some almost bladelike in design. He notices that red cracks are rapidly swelling, the corruption seems deeply agitated, as if it knew they were coming for it and its other sealed in the next room.

It appears to be in a hurry to take over the woman, as if sensing the urgency of preventing itself and its other from being destroyed. However he is able to take note that her movements are awkward and stumbling, her feet occasionally dig in and she almost leans away from him, as though trying to resist the inevitable process.

Vulkas is disgusted by the sight, coating his fists in positive energy as he stares down the corrupted woman. While he felt extreme pity for her, he felt no remorse for the corruption creeping throughout her being. He starts walking forward, eyes glowing a faint orange with pure determination.

A crystaline sword appears in her hands and she hefts it as she prepares for his attack.

From his fist grows a blade of pure positive energy, and he swiftly steps forward, raising his hand up in an arc and bringing it down onto the corrupted woman.

She swings her arm and a burst of violet crystals with red energy flickering off of them soar toward him.

He dodges some of them, quickly darting back and cutting some of the violet crystals with the positive energy sword, creating a sigil on the ground that causes the floor to create a shattering wave that hurdles towards her to sink her down.

She flaps her wings, rising up into the air, before beginning to charge a large sphere of negative power.

He does the same, just with positive energy as he grits his teeth, as a green aura covers him, giving him green eyes and insect wings.

The sphere surges toward him while the crystaline female attacks with another volley of crystal spikes.

He fires out his own sphere, colliding and clashing with hers, and the force from both causes a massive explosion that destroys the new volley.

She charges through the explosion, moving to stab him with one of her arms turned into a long broadsword of crystal.

He suddenly has a black chain in his hands that blocks and redirects the broadsword to the side, and he swings the chain, revealing a kama that swings down onto the woman.

She seems to not expect the attack and suffers a hit to the shoulder.

He uses it to pull her in closer, coating a fist with positive energy to punch her.

The damage seems to have disoriented the infected woman, making her sluggish to respond to his punch.

He uses the moment to sharpen his fingers with positive energy, digging them into her body to try to rip out the corruption.

The punch itself seems to have disoriented the control of the corruption, making its control completely unfocused. As a result, he hears its victim moan in pain, as well as...

"''Clare... Clare... ...I'm so... ...so... ...sorrrrrryyyy..." ''Her voice is in agony.

As horrible as he feels for this being, he keeps his attempt at ripping out the corruption.

The corruption, unfocused, bulges and oozes out of her slowly as he pulls. Meanwhile, the pressure from the other room deepens, and he feels an ominous presence building in the room, followed closely by loud metal crushing noises and horrible, gurgling screams from the occupants.

"Im not done, I need to hurry!" He does his best to pull harder, albeit his attention is now vaguely unfocused due to the growing presence in the other room.

He by this point has pulled the corruption out that its roots are failing, the woman's eyes are rolling back into her skull.

With one last yank, he tugs the corruption from her body, throwing the mass at the ground, and blasting it with a sphere of positive energy, holding onto the woman with his other arm so she doesn't collapse.

The corruption lets out one final hiss before dissolving, the woman slumps over, unconcious. With the heat of battle gone, he cannot help but admire her strange, but incredibly beautiful form. Her body has a beautiful violet crystal sheen to it, the crystal spikes a lot more elegant and beautiful compared to their corrupted state. She seems stable, but that leaves... ...a far more urgent problem left.

-[Avatar of Mutation]-
He stands at the still crystal encrusted door, dread rising quickly from the intensity of the energy behind the door. It is far more perilous in strength than either the crystal woman's corruption, or that of the corruption in Kyomu.

He quickly sets the woman to the side, placing a sigil around her to protect her in case things get dodgy. He keeps his Twilight Siphon drawn, taking a few steps towards the door, raising a hand forward and slamming an open palm into the crystal surrounding the door, instantly shattering it, going in.

What he sees is from the stuff of nightmares, a huge glowing red entity fills the room where the transforming woman had been seen, trails of corruption flowing into her from vaguely humanoid figures of red corruption, which he realizes were most of the people in the room who didn't escape when the entity took full control, and are now being harvested, less than bulbous humanoid shaped sacks of corrupt energy for her to feast on.

The red entity begins to solidify into a more stable form, taking on flesh and sinew...

His Fae Resistance state fades off as he he eyes this mass of hulking corruption. He grits his teeth with intense disdain as he grips his Twilight Siphon harder, flowing positive energy through it as he takes a rather defensive stance. He can barely even look at this monster, wanting to rid the world of its existance. "Vile..."

The figure continues to solidify, becoming the woman seen before, transfigured and gargantuan. Her skin is an ashy grey, with obsidian black armor and long black horns twisting from her form, with glowing pink eyes like the Child. Her long white hair drifts like a mighty storm cloud, rumbling bolts of lightning flash from it. Her hands swirl with primal energies, while her body is almost completely split down the middle with divine like seeping through a crack in her.

Beautiful angelic wings many times her size, almost cramped by the confined space loom in the chamber. Silently, the transfigured being, most likely the 'Clare' the crystal woman from before spoke of, stares down at him with her glowing pink eyes, which unlike the other corrupted individuals, seem to possess blatant intellegence. Intellegence much like... ...the entity that controlled the Child.

"''Ah, you arrived. I was beginning to think you'd miss our rebirth." ''The being speaks, in an inflection of the woman's original voice, marred by a primordial, ancient dialect. Its mannerism is almost identical to the being that controlled the Child.

His eyes widen ever so slightly as the voice he once heard before fills his ears again. "I will never let you be reborn. I will hunt down every little part of corruption you threw into people, and obliviate it all, one by one."

She chuckles with an inhuman tone. "''What a childish misunderstanding we have..." ''An arrow of blue energy rockets into the being, mildly unbalancing them, but they quickly regain balance and idly turn toward the source, Kyomu, who sits at the top of the room's windowsills.

"''I see you brought her to spite me, how amusing." ''She turns back to Vulkas. "But you misunderstand, dear Vulkas. I am already reborn, this woman's soul is soon to sputter out and join the Lost in eternal paradise, free from individuality and concern of life, eternally unbound by this cruel empty universe, nay, the Veil itself."

Vulkas merely shakes his head, and starts spinning his Twilight Siphon, trails of positive energy being left in its wake, and it sounds as if the very air is being sliced. "I brought her as an ally, not for spite. I couldn't quite care less about damaging your pride or doing something spiteful. She is here because I trust her to assist me, in the act of removing you from existance." He suddenly stops swinging the Twilight Siphon, eyes staring through the Avatar with pure determination. "Oh hoo... You think yourself strong, a lion among the prey... Well, it's a shame to let that stand as is... 

perhaps I will test the limits of our vessel."

The avatar unleashes a large burst of negative energy that scorches and melts the surroundings, and the whole structure quakes from the weight of the sea threatening to bear down on them.

He remains steadfast, and quickly darts to the side as he creates an Astral Clone that darts to the opposite side, also wielding a Twilight Siphon that they both attempt to swing at the avatar.

They elect to leap toward the ceiling and crash against it, causing it to shake ominously as it begins to buckle, bursts of water rocketing in, knocking the two aside.

Both create sigils onto the holes, sealing the cracks and keeping the water from coming in, as the clone turns into pure astral energy that hurdles towards the avatar.

They begin to hear ominous chuckling as a static like energy begins to surround her. Kyomu meanwhile begins to charge an arrow.

''Vulkas. We need to focus on as much damage over time as possible over raw power. The more we can pelt her, the more we can disrupt the focus of the energy of the Avatar. We need to disrupt its flow instead of outright destroy it. We don't have the ability to match it as a unified force. Back me up. I will try to launch intenser purifying bolts into her while you pelt her. If we're lucky, we can prevent the girl from being lost. ...If we fail to exorsize her, we may have to Exterminate. ''

Vulkas knows the severity of the situation and he nods at Kyomu. He quickly starts darting across the area while making sure not to crash and cause more holes, leaving sigils across the walls that slowly begin to feed flows of positive energy into the area.

The static abruptly bursts through the area, dissolving the ceiling, with the Avatar flying up into the hole as water surges into the hole, the effect beginning to crush the facility due to the structural failure. Kyomu appears to gain a silver aura and begins to bolt up through the hole after the Avatar, who appears to be making for the surface.

Vulkas begins astrally shifting through the water, teleporting at a fast rate to keep up with the avatar.

The Avatar explodes from the ocean in a tremendous explosion, floating above the water's surface, awaiting the two. Meanwhile, her mere presence unbalances the elements, and a titanic hurricane begins to engulf the hemisphere she is present on, titanic winds howling, gigantic waves roaring. A powerful silver aura surrounds her as the lightning in her hair is extremely pronounced.

Vulkas appears before the avatar almost instantly, creating spheres of positive energy that orbit around him likr a solar system. He keeps himself focused, waiting for Kyomu before making a move.

She too appears rapidly, her bow notched with multiple high energy arrows.

The Avatar chuckles, her voice causing ripples in the scenery. Without warning, bolts of silver energy erupt toward Vulkas and Kyomu, the speed unexpected, even Kyomu barely dodges.

Vulkas astrally shifts out the way as fast as possible, but leaves doubles behind that will definitely get hit, to see what kind of damage they do.

The bolts blast the doubles, turning them to powdered dust.

"Kyomu, I do believe its best to not, get hit by that."

"Less chat and do your job and pelt her. We don't have time for your chatter." Kyomu reprimands, firing a large burst at the Avatar, who growls at the sting.

He rolls his eyes as the spheres of positive energy start flinging into her at various directions, and he starts charging up even more.

"I know how this works, you think you can do anything?!" The avatar blinks, appearing next to Vulkas and slamming her fist into his chest, the force rather like getting rammed by a train.

In a mere blink of an eye, before he is surrounded by a blue stonelike aura as he enters his Golem Resistance State, and barely even flinches as he can now easily start flinging constant streams of positive energy bolts at her.

She then retaliates with a flurry of both white lightning strikes and titanic thrusts to his chest.

He keeps the Resistance state up as he astrally shifts, along with moving at high speed to dodge her attacks, all the while leaving mass amounts of positive energy to wail on her. "It appears to be I'm doing something, aren't I?"

She sparks with white static and opens her mouth, a white sphere forming inside.

Vulkas makes sure to get as much distance as possible inbetween himself and the avatar, as he summons his Shift of Planes, and starts to play.

She unleashes a huge beam of white 'nothingness' toward him.

Just as if fate deemed it so, the white beam was just...gone, as he ended his tune. As if just rejected from reality itself.

The melody seems to end on a horrid sharp screech as the beam seems to suddenly get energized by the technique, moving at blinding speed now.

With a flash of red astral light that eminates from the violin, Vulkas is suddenly transported out of the way, with a red whisp slowly circling him. "Thank you..."

She is charging another shot, when she is interrupted by a large, giant arrow of white light that shocks her, disrupting the charged shot, stumbling.

"Annoying ant!"

Vulkas takes no hesitation to continue his onslaught of bolts of positive energy, continuing to play his violin and instantly doubling the amount of bolts.

She seems to recover amidst the bombardment, appearing behind him and slamming her foot into his back.

He barely manages to whirl around and block the blow, deciding not to engage in a close quarters fight as he warps away, hoping Kyomu can get another good shot at her.

The Avatar nimbly dodges another shot, though strangely a sword slash appearing as pure positive energy cuts into her, ripping open a substantial wound in her form.

Vulkas quickly takes notice, and in an attempt to increase the damage, starts aiming the various bolts towards the wound.

The shots do make their mark, helping to stagger her a fair bit, a few faint cracks on her belly can be seen, glowing white.

He continues the focused onslaught, now purposely getting a little closer to better distract her.

She angrily swings a massive broadsword at Vulkas. "Filthy worm!"

As tempted as he is he doesn't engage in close combat, dodging the swing.

The Avatar flickers and then disappears.

Vulkas' eyes, see through her vanishing act and already know where she's going to be and where she is.

She reappears behind him, launching silver energy arrows at him, much like the ones before.

He knows the moment she attacks, quickly turning back with a large sigil in hand, that redirects the energy arrows back at her.

The sigil turns to dust upon being struck, and the arrows speed even faster.

The dust of the sigils actually form their own, tiny minature sigils, activating all at once and warping Vulkas away in perfect timing.

It isn't long after that another slash staggers the avatar occurs, and this time he can see a tall man with brown hair and a white overcoat with a longsword, the source. He silently glances at Vulkas before dodging a swing from the avatar.

Vulkas' eyes narrow at the sudden newcomer, before widening upon recognizing who it is. His focus falters for a mere moment, but he shakes his head as he realizes now might not be the best time for such a realization.

A large bolt of purifying energy impales the Avatar's side, causing her to howl as she begins to contort unnaturally, Vulkas senses an opportunity.

His eyes narrow, darting as fast as he can towards the Avatar as he coats his hand in positive energy, quickly shoving his hand into her wound and surging their entire being with positive energy. "Let your tainted soul be overwhelmed with what is right!"

The cracks grow far worse, and the newcomer and Kyomu press the attack, their attacks compounding the damage being dealt to the Avatar, who seems to be swelling as though pressure was building inside her, even as more and more damage to her form become apparent. The battle is long and intensive, and progress merely creeps along as the Avatar begins to groan in pain more and more as they slowly reach their critical point.

Finally, Vulkas begins to detect the unity of the corruption falling apart, a final push soon approaching, her form rippling like water.

While he's been surging energy into constantly, the prospect of ending this once in for all motivates him- as his eyes flash a brilliant orange gold, letting out a roar like battle cry as even more energy is outputted into her.

Her body turns pure red and explodes in a violent shower of corruption, the parts that don't hit any living being dissolve, but due to Vulkas' proximity, he is inevitably covered in the ejected corruption, which seeps inside his skin, and he begins to feel it broiling into motion in the form of unnatural alterations to his stomach, as a lion's head rips from it and roars, he can feel the corrupted version of Clare's consciousness in his mind, whispering and snaking in his mind, trying to worm into him.

''You took my body from me... so how about you share yours? Don't worry, I won't modify you... much. I'll just overwrite your existence, how about that?'''

Vulkas' eyes widen but in response a bright orange glow comes from them. "I will admit your determination is strong- but it is nothing, compared to mine." With a flash of pure, astral power the corruption is wiped away, instantly being removed from his existance.

With this, the majority of the corruption has faded away, the three now stand with a fragmented blue soul, which is quickly shrinking and disappating, but Kyomu seems to have taken the situation into her hands, and is seemingly trying to piece the soul together again.

Far below, a faint splash is heard as the crystaline woman emerges from the water below, coughing and gagging can be faintly heard.

Vulkas seems to shudder for a moment, collecting himself as his eyes go back from a brilliant orange, to a shining yellow. He descends below, gently picking up the woman and lifting her out of the water. "I apologize we couldn't have taken care of this sooner."

She doesn't respond, but he hears her mournfully mutter, "Clare..." in distress.

"Clare will be fine, I can assure that. My partner is taking care of it."

"This is my fault... all my fault..."

"Hush, do not bear the weight on your shoulders alone. That leads to nothing but torment."

She just shudders. Meanwhile, Kyomu has pieced the soul together and melded the parts, and what looks like a translucent blue image of bits and pieces of Clare are appearing around it.

He waits for Kyomu to finish,  just hovering above the water as he looks up to Nobuyuki.

The spirit looks at him somewhat indifferently and seems to regard Kyomu a moment before walking off one direction in the air, but certainly not in a hurry.

Before anything, he glances down to the woman. "Are you capable of keeping yourself from falling into the water? I...do believe I must talk with someone."

She doesn't really respond, nor does she seem like her mind is in safe waters, his personal business seems lost to her.

He sighs. "I only ask that I no longer need to carry you. But if you insist on not giving privacy, I will not make a scene." He floats up, heading to Nobuyuki.

The spirit pauses, but doesn't turn around.

He remains silent for a moment, hesitating. "I....while likely foolish to assume, I thought all of my immediate family was gone, uncle."

"Ah, but I did not live in that village of my sister's, nor did I have the interest to. I have... had, my own affairs to attend to." Nobuyuki responds.

"So many affairs, that the investigation of your family vanishing was not highest priority?" For once his tone sounds coarse, but he takes a breath. "I shall not get emotional here, not now. But dear uncle- tell me this. How long have you known I was alive?"

"I know what lurks in the shadows of your mind," He begins, before he hears Nobuyuki's voice in his head - Vaerkai,

"But know that my priorities were in their right place, and that often times there are those who watch but do not aid, not because they are cold hearted, but because they should not intervene."

Nobuyuki's head turns so that Vulkas can see one of his eyes, which deliver a piercing gaze.

"Your grand father, and indeed the allies he held counsel with, were far more urgent matters than you understand. Of course, this most recent battle is proof of this, or did you think that this is just a mindless abomination with no rythme or reason to its methods? No, today is an example of what I was hoping to prevent, yet, failed. As you know by now, that is."

Vulkas stares back with a similar gaze, seeming unphased by Nobuyuki's as he listens. "I had no such chance to even understand, uncle. You know of my tormentors but you too do not understand. I know that this...corruption, is more than just chaos without thought. While I still hold respect for you- I ask and do believe that I should be given at least some benefit of the doubt." He pauses. "My point is, that instead of wandering aimlessly, or spending time as a prisoner I could have started assisting the fight earlier. If you had just come before me."

Nobuyuki's eye shifts slightly. "Then you do not see why I chose this time now of all times to appear before you, nor why I remained away all that time, if that is indeed the stance you take." His head turns away.

"Some times things happen for a reason. Sometimes things do not happen for a reason. Both are equally true."

He is silent for a moment.

"Think on why you fight now, so that you might understand why it is I chose my own path. Though, with the evidence in the care of your partner and resting in your own arms, I feel as if it will not take you long to delve into understanding. There are things left to be resolved on my end, but we will talk again soon. Fare you well for now, violas." He fades from view.

Vulkas closes his eyes, leaning his head up as his words ring through his mind. He soon opens them with the faintest smile. He remains quiet however, floating over to Kyomu slowly.

Sukimu shudders, seemingly having entered a very light sleep, but is still haunted in her mind. Kyomu seems to have made some additional progress, but Clare looks far from complete, any disturbance could be costly to the procedure.

Vulkas stays at a reasonable distance, gazing down as Sukimu and frowning, able to tell that she is tormented. He surrounds her with a faint aura of positive energy, to ease her mind.

Vulkas eventually is able to note that Sukimu's crystals feel similar to how Clare's own body was gaining a crystalline form, and recalls how remorseful she seemed over Clare's situation.

Meanwhile, Kyomu seems to be nearing completion of Clare's form, but it looks almost paper thin with no innards as of yet.

He tilts his head, saying nothing still as he just stares at the crystals for a moment, before soon watching Kyomu.

Kyomu works for almost an hour before she seems to reach any form of completed state in regards to Clare. When she does, she sighs. Clare has been remade, but remains bared and in the same form she had been transformed into. Whatever she was, whatever life she lead... was lost.

"I've brought her back, but... ...she'll be this way forever now. With so much damage, I had to rely on the last available record... ...this one." The restored Lambda seems in a deep sleep.

"...She won't wake up for a long time."

He floats closer, again frowning faintly as he looked at Clare's new form. "Ultimately, this is better than the outcome had we not stopped her corruption. I still feel terribly sorry, however..."

"We did what we were called to do. The very least we should do is drop them off at a better location than ocean, and be on our way."

"Yes, of course. Do lead the way, if all is taken care of." He took a breath, relaxing himself.

Kyomu begins to ripple as a silvery portal appears next to her.

Vulkas quickly steps through.

When she emerges, they are at a seemingly empty area of torn down urban areas. "No life detected in the area. Safe enough."

He nods, descending to the ground and looking around. "Should I attempt to stir this one and explain the status of their friend?"

"No, they will be fine without knowledge of hopelessness. It is not our duty to enlighten them. Only prevent their fate from being unfairly altered." She sets down Clare and immediately turns to the portal, which turns black.

"It is time we were off."

He nods and gently puts down Sukimu beside Clare, floating back up and heading back through the portal.

>threat 001<: The Collapse
A few days had passed after the calamity that had consume Echo and its inhabitants, and things had continued on as if nothing had happened, or rather, that was the impression most had gathered. Only the most ancient of forces would have anticipated something could happen, and fewer cared or truly knew of what was to pass.

Those who did, knew that a rebound was about to happen, and its force would be so great none would be successful in ceasing its effects.

The first signs of the calamity start very small, almost unnoticeable. Across Earth, reports begin to spread of headaches occurring across the entire population, while at first dismissed by most authority figures, quickly becomes a topic of concern once the headaches begin to evolve into various ailments of increasingly worrisome types, such as intense fever, agonizing and inexplicable pain, even vomiting. It begins to come to a head once all across the world, a strange warping effect begins to appear across the planet, only serving to deepen the agony of the affected populace.

Then out of nowhere, it hits, a massive wave that surges across the world, a massive blast that rocks the whole planet. The source undetectable, yet emitting a colossal wave of force, akin to one massive vibration, one that travels through the very fabric of all that is. In Fantasy, a similar wave of afflictions hits, followed by the wave itself with even less time between ailment and the wave itself.

Then realms across the whole universe begin to experience the same pattern within seconds of each other, as a singular pulse akin to a shockwave surges across reality. On Earth, horrific storms of mystic power surge without control or restraint, storms of fire rain down upon the surface, while terra rises into the sky, only to be torn by tornadic storms that rip apart whole cities, while across the globe, massive tremors are unleashed in extreme force, the likes of which have never been felt before, and hardly likely to be matched afterwards.

Such calamities are felt across countless realms as the pulse's effects begin to surface in mass, whole cities are wiped out in moments. ...Yet in the next moment, all becomes quiet, but another oddity begins- -the sky across the realms is tinted sickly greens, bathing the worlds in a sensation of being diseased.

The true horror begins, as realms without warning begin to become attracted to each other, undergoing ghastly fusions that drastically alter the worlds as well as their inhabitants. This same process appears to be happening to Earth as well, as the planet seems to swell unnaturally, gaining huge new tracts of ocean, yet even more, strange, alien landmasses across the waves. Portions of the Aether and Nether appear to slip onto Earth as well, having an adverse effect on Earth's normal terrain it fuses to. To the north, a piece of Aether begins to fuse with the land, causing a huge portion of the north lands to be infused with huge amounts of Aether, as well as its inhabitants.

To the South, a piece of Nether also fuses, resulting in Nether corrupting the South. These two altered regions of Earth begin to experience oddities all their own. Those dwelling in the Aether afflicted regions begin to experience high increases of magic, those already affiliated with the Aether undergo various transformations ranging from huge increases of power, becoming solid fonts of Aetheric power, losing their sentience in the process and transforming the inhabitants into Aetheric beings around them for several miles, while a similar fate awaits those in the south. Both regions see huge increases in Aether and Netherborn individuals, such as humans being converted en mass into Endlos, Aetherborn, and Netherborn.

Across the planet however, some humans undergo painful metamorphosis' into various Mythos, while some Mythos become humans, some people vanish from existence altogether, while others are outright petrified, turned into grotesque statues of various materials ranging from stone, crystal, or even energy, with those becoming the third detonating upon being disturbed in deadly explosions.

Even the Chaos Engines are afflicted, some ascending into divinity, becoming angels completely free from their mortal lives, rejoining heaven. Others begin to transform into regular humans, into Myths part of their genetic make up, or even hybrids of multiple races. Some are adversely affected and transform into fonts of divine power, those who interact with them becoming mindless divine entities that slowly burn themselves out into oblivion. Yet the Lambdas seem to only swell with the madness unfolding around them, seemingly being nurtured and enhanced by the power flowing into them.

In realms like Lost Academia and Castle Schere, tied to Earth, the waves of madness are incredibly dehabilitating to the residents, some of which are wiped out from existence, others driven to madness or put into comas. Some experience strange surges of power, though those that do feel deeply uneasy, as though something entirely unnatural had begun to sprout within them. Parts of these realms collapse into dust and disappear, some even phase into Earth, forever rejoining it. In The Kingdom, time begins to surge and sputter with extreme violence, making existence an absolute torture for hours and hours, and disappearing is hardly a surprise, as by the time the calamity had calmed, many had experienced the disappearances, only to be returned, drastically altered or even completely rewritten.

For what seems an eternity, these uncontrollable surges throughout reality rage, until it ceases with just as much force as when it had started, leaving the universe quaking in its aftermath, and a deep, uneasy feeling that something horribly wrong has happened somewhere within the fabric of reality.

Victimization
A young woman with short black hair and blue eyes watches the tv, the color of the screen washing out her skin. She sits on the couch watching a football game with a mild level of boredom.

"Uuuuugh, this team sucks!" She moans, as the well expected sound of the front door to the apartment opens, and her roomate walks in.

"Finally, you're an hour late. Exams or somethin?" She remarks without straying her attention from the game.

The roomate appears to be extremely tired, yawing as he comes in. "No, I was helping the proffesor with some side project shit, really advanced stuff. God I like forensics but he makes it so soooo BOOOORING." He flops down on the couch beside her. "Game going good?"

"It's a damned travesty. They call this professional football, look at that fumble! And how is that not a disqualification right there? Tell me where the quality went Mordecai because I definitely don't remember paying for crap like this!" She rubs her forehead.

"Auuugh, and now I have a damn headache! Guess it's time to turn off the box..."

Mordecai rolls his eyes. "You go through this every other week. If its not you celebrating some team pulling through, its you yelling at the fact that everyone sucks. And yeah its getting a little late. Think you're going to nod off?"

"Nah, no dinner. ...Ooooow, what's the deal today?" She seems to be earnestly rubbing her head in discomfort, and for some reason, he too starts to feel it. "This shit sucks..."

Mordecai rubs at his temples gently. "Oh just shut up about the headache already. You're giving me one because of it!" He groans. "Do we have any medicine or something? I feel like its getting worse."

"Uuuugggh... ...I think... ...in the medicine drawer in the kitchen... ...make dinner will you...? Feel like... ...shit..."

"Oh yeah, beause I...... totally don't feel like shit, either. But...sure." Mordecai gets up and stumbles to the kitchen, searching the drawers for medicine.

He finds some headache medicine fairly quickly.

Meanwhile, Mariel has wrapped up in blankets a bit.

Mordecai quickly opens the bottle and just pops it without water. "Mariel do you want water with it?"

"Uuuuugh. Fine, water..." She croaks.

He grabs a glass and fills it with water, bringing both over to Mariel. "God.... why can't this shit take effect.... faster."

She drinks it, almost desperately taking both water and pills. After a certain period of time, the effect of the drugs is limited, the pain is dulled but the pressure has not subsided. However it helps enough to the point where Mordecai can focus a bit better. Mariel appears to be trying to sleep it off til dinner.

Mordecai lets her rest as he goes to the kitchen, beginning to prepare dinner. He hums as he does so, but not too loudly so he doesn't bug Mariel.

Meanwhile, while dinner is being made, Mariel slowly begins to feel the headache medicine fail, the headache doubling, following quickly by a fever quickly beginning to rise, sweat builds on her body and her breathing is now labored. It isn't until dinner is done and he has brought dinner up to her that he can see something is wrong, as by this time she is shaking and pale.

"Right, so i know ou don't like this too much bu- Oh JESUS FUCK!" He quickly sets the dinner down on a table to the side. "Mariel what the fuck happened? Is it the medicine? Or, fuck I don't know!" He puts his hand to her forehead to see if she has a fever, quickly retrieving his phone from his pocket with his free hand.

She tries to speak but only coughs instead, her teeth are clenched. "''Fuuuuuuck..." ''She wheezes.

About this time, Mordecai takes notice of a weird warping effect upon their surroundings, and his headache returns with a vengance despite the medicine, following by incredibly high fever and the feeling as though he was going to vomit.

He stumbles once more, only barely able to keep himself standing by sheer will. "Goood what the FUCK is going on...." Mordecai fumbles with his phone as he attempts to call emergency services.

Just as he hits the button to submit a call, a massive force rocks through the apartment as a sensation akin to a 'wave' rips through the apartment, and indeed the whole city, and outside, the sky begins to darken with loud pearls of thunder crashing outside. Sirens begin to blare, as earthquakes begin to rock the city.

Mordecai nearly collapses to the ground, barely able to move due to both the fever and the extremely strong earthquakes. He still manages to get up and grab Mariel, placing her underneath the desk for safety as he attempts to squeeze in to his best ability. "God its the fucking apocalypse!"

Without warning, he hears a massive crash as what can only be described as fire rain begins raining down on the city, one such ball of fire smashes into their roof, creating fire throughout the apartment. Mariel coughs due to the smoke.

Mordecai is essentially running on fumes and instinct at this point. And in this case, his instincts are yelling at him to get the fuck out of the fire plagued apartment. He does his best to stay coherent, holding his breath as he grabs Mariel again, rushing out of the apartment before the fire can spread.

As he bursts out of the apartment, he sees the city is being engulfed in chaos, with fire raining from the skies, chunks of earth are floating into the sky and falling back down, flattening buildings in the process. Unnatural lightning flashes throughout the skies. Meanwhile, Mariel begins to cough heavily, her fever to an extent that he can feel the heat strongly through his clothing. Her shaking has gotten worse, and she appears delirious, her eyes unfocused.

"Holy shit. Its uh, you're gonna be alright Mariel. Don't fucking worry." Mordecai was the one doing all the worrying, considering unlike Mariel he was actually cognizant enough to actually realize what the fuck was going on around them. He never paid too much mind to the Myth stuff, but he would have to assume this is some sort of Myth deciding humanity doesn't deserve to live. As if that'd stop him from staying alive. And he sure as hell wasn't going to let Mariel die either. He recalls where one of the emergency shelters is and makes a beeline for it, doing his best to avoid shrapnel, rock, and fire as he's on the move. He doesn't move too fast on the account of carrying someone while under the effect of a headache and fever however.

A single massive earthquake rattles the area one final time, before things stop as soon as they had begun. For an awful moment, everything seems petrified in stillness, an eerie quiet.

Mordecai slows down, catching his breath as everything settles down. He has trouble even saying anything now, both confused, shocked and afraid all at once even though everything appears to be over. He looks down at Mariel to see if she still is as bad.

She seems just as bad as ever, yet his attention is drawn to an errie shade of green spreading across the area, the whole area now feels as though the area is diseased some how, sickly greens can be across the skies and landscape. Soon after, he can feel a faint rippling again around them, most prominent around Mariel, who is seemingly reacting to the sensation with moans of pain.

Mordecai finds himself getting increasingly angry. Who the fuck is sick enough to unleash this devastation? Who the fuck in their mind thinks they have the right to fuck with people like this? Mordecai doesn't bother answering or even considering this questions for longer for a second, too caught up in the fact that he appears incapable of helping Mariel with her pain.

It is soon after all of this that without warning, the rippling intensifies, almost completely distorting her for a good few minutes, once it begins to settle, an odd blue glow encompasses her, followed shortly by her beginning to scream in a shrill voice, thrashing like a madwomen, getting knocked out of his arms. Her eyes are bugged out, saliva dripping from her mouth as horrible waves of pain practically ripple through her body, her body and muscles thrashing visibly in tandem with the waves of agony.

At first the blue glow is faint, but soon it grows stronger, along with it, the pained howls of his roommate escalate until her voice is so damaged she gurgles from the anguish, foam in her mouth. He can see various blood vessels have bulged tight against her skin, the blood practically pumping in large visible waves through her body, particularly in the facial and hands region. She appears to be growing a bit bigger in size, as her clothes seem to at first constrict and then tear at various points.

Mordecai is freaking out at this point, unsure of what to do other than watch in horror as his friend undergoes this horrid transformation.

Blood begins to ooze from her mouth, specifically around the gums as her canine teeth begin to grow and sharpen, blood pours from her ears as they start to lengthen and realign closer and closer to the top of  her head, her fingernails bleed as they grow into the start of claws, and an odd bump in her shorts begins to pull them off her, until what looks to be a small fox like tail can be seen growing from her tailbone, growing thicker and bigger at a rapid pace. The lengthening ears finally come to rest at the top of her head, where what looks like fur begins to grow, covering them until what can only be described as fox ears are fully formed, at this point her body has completely outgrown her clothing, now with her body oozing blood, and her form exposed to the elements, he can now see similar claws grown from her toenails.

It's only after several prolific cracks can be heard as her bone structure is forcibly rearranged and her muscles undergo adjustments to allow for the new limbs and form that the horrific experience ceases, and Mariel lies covered in blood, surrounded by the blue aura, which almost resembles flames at this point, unconcious. After a moment, the blue flames appear to be sucked into Mariel, and she is still.

Mordecai quickly turns away and vomits from the sight of the transformation, as well as because of the fever. He wipes his mouth, and by the time the transformation is over he has no idea what to do. Quickly though, he picks her up once more as he tries to finda better area to hide out in. "Oh my god Mariel...Im..."

She seems to be alive, in pain, yet also clearly unresponsive. Around them, disaster still is ongoing, but the worst seems to have occurred. After around an hour, he sees her finally stir, barely moving, but he can see her blue eyes open once more. She makes a faint cough, followed by a faint intake of air.

It's around this time that he begins to feel dizzy, as a strange warping sensation begins to occur around his vicinity, the sensation penetrating inside of him, making him feel strangely liquid, as though the waves might at any point, cause his solid form to liquefy and disperse. With this sensation comes a wave of pain unlike anything he has ever experienced, and something deep in his bones tells him to leave Mariel's vicinity.

"Mari...Mariel you're...oh my god..." He suddenly seizes up, the feeling in his bones telling him to do nothing but run. He slowly stumbles forward into a more open area despite the ongoing disaster, before slowly breaking into a sprint, before the pain hits. It comes out of nowhere, as if a car had hit him at the fastest speed possible. He keels over. as a quiet yell of agony slowly begins to build up in his throat, growing louder and louder. His yelling is vast and full of torment as the pain merely increases. The first thing that occurs is his clothes begining to rip- along with his skin. Every inch of skin on his body begins to shift and tear open, blood essentially spilling from every point in his body. His yelling is unending and by far nearly the loudest thing anyone could hear in the vicinity.

He begins to grow in size at a rather alarming rate, and his bones begin to simoultaneously grow and break. Green electricity is surging all around him as he continues to grow, blood only pouring out more and more. He slowly takes on a monstrous appearence as he no longer looks human. From his skin grows a crocodilian like black dermal armor with his head growing larger to accompany the giant maw of a mouth that was taking shape. His yell has turned into a terrible roar at this point, more and more electricity and blood surrounding him. He has resorted to being on all fours as his legs and arms resemble a dinosaurs, with giant and monstrous claws. From his back is growing an extremely large, semi aquatic-like tail that slowly starts swishing in the air, smashing into a nearby building.

At this point what was left of Mordecai is gone, as he has now become an insanely large and terrible monster. His roar is earsplitting, sloshing blood around everywhere as he rears up on his hindlegs. Electricity is surging from his mouth, suddenly shooting up as a giant beam of pure green lightning. A sound of extreme thunder accompanies it as it parts the clouds in the sky.

Mariel is jolted awake by this, and is quickly looking around, quickly spotting the giant creature, she is barely shielded from view due to rubble. She panics however, and looks around wildly for Mordecai, screaming for him, before finally panic siezes her and she begins to run in sheer terror from him, gasping and wheezing, entirely off balance due to her new tail and modified legs and arms. The new sounds she hear and the range of things from a distance make her completely disoriented, resulting in a mad, mindless hobble, unable to focus, her mind nothing more than a blind flurry of flight, away from mortal danger that consumes every facet of her mind.

The transformed Mordecai, has trouble piecing together what has happened, and doesn't acknowledge what has actually happened to him. All he sees is a terrified Mariel, which makes him extremely concerned. His first reaction is to chase after her, which he does at an alarming speed. The only thing on his mind right now is to protect Mariel, despite being unaware of what has actually happened to the both of them, and why she is actually running.

Out of sheer desperation, she dives into a ruined building, and tries to hide in its dark depths, frantically praying in fear. Every square inch of her is quaking in mortal terror, she can barely stop herself from gasping and wheezing as frantically as she is to try and muffle her sound. She digs herself under boulders, trying to hide.

Something snaps in him that makes him actually realize what has happened to him, on account of not actually being able to enter the building. He is able to sniff her out and figure out where she is. He reaches out extremely fast at first, before moving back and slowly moving the boulders away from her. "...Mariel?" His voice his actually somewhat the same albeit a little more rugged, and his mouth isn't actually moving.

Mariel lets out a horrible screech before clawing her way towards the very back, trying to get away from the perceived monster.

He puts his hand infront of her, gently scooping her up and bringing him close to his face. "Please, stop screaming!"

This only makes her lose her mind, wailing like a banshee. "Don't eat meeeeeeeeee!"

Despite Mordecai no longer being capable of the expression in his kaiju form, he still looks absolutely done with the situation. "God damnit Mariel."

This continues for a while, as she squirms in his gigantic grasp. At this time, he starts to feel a sense of 'control', and oddly enough feels as though a pressure on him has lifted, almost as though he could become much smaller now...

Mordecai takes a second before suddenly his form begins to shift as he grows smaller, looking more and more human. As he scales down, Mariel goes from being in his hands to his arms, and at some point he sets her down standing up before him, taking his human form, albeit clothes ripped to the point of indecency, making him yelp and hide behind some rubble.

She looks like she could pass out from shock. "M-mmordecai?!"

He shouts from behind the rubble. "I WAS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT THE GIANT FUCKING MONSTER WAS ME! BUT YOU KEPT SCREAMING!"

"IT WAS A GIANT FUCKING- -wait do you hear that?" The sounds of Myth Attack Sirens are going off.

Mariel hears some rustling and Mordecai cursing, somewhat disgusted. He comes out eearing random clothes. "You do not know how gross it is to undress some dead dude and steal his clothes. Also im not surprised considering the apocalypse just happened. But....Mariel whats happened to us?"

"Us? You're the one who turned into a fucking dinosaur, I- -...why am I naked? HEY WHAT THE HELL STOP LOOKING AT ME!" She starts throwing random bits of rubble at his head.

Mordecai gets rather annoyed, but turns around. "I SAVED YOUR LIFE! THE APARTMENT WAS IN FUCKING FLAMES AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE DYING! YOU HAVE A FUCKING TAIL AND EARS NOW MARIEL!" Mordecai groans. "You're naked because you literally ripped your clothes off when you went all crazy and did some sort of transformation, I don't fucking know! Look for some clothes off someone like I did!"

Her face turns bright red, before she finally takes note of her body's changes. "...Oh my god..."

She seems incredibly flustered. "I-I-I can't just take someone's clothes! That's just... creepy!"

"I did it! Im not walking around naked as a baby! Are you kidding me? Look shits gone down the deepend so I think you can take one moment to throw away morals! But if you want to walk around a naked fox all the time, BE MY GUEST!" Mordecai says nothing for a while.

"Seriously just put on some clothes, you're making me feel awkward."

She grumbles before beginning to hobble through the rubble, searching for anything to wear.

In the meantime, Mordecai is having somewhat of a mental breakdown, albeit doing a good job of hiding it. Everything around him is essentially desolated. And what the fuck has he become? He feels stronger of course, but not just in strength, something deeper than that. Maybe he could just...draw it out.

And with that, Mordecai's hands suddenly surge with green electricity, sparking out of control. "Holy FUCK!" The electricity stops with Mordecai's shock.

He eventually hears her come back, with a set of clothes similar to what she wore before, only noticably too small, her shorts and shirt big enough to service appropriately, but small enough to show more skin especially in the belly region than normal. He can tell she tried to get shoes on, but her clawed toes have lacerated five holes open in them, similar for her gloves.

Mordecai, both scared and excited about this, quickly turns back to Mariel with a grin on his face, albeit it slowly fades as he remembers recent events and how horrible it was. ".....You had me really worried you asshole."

She appears red in the face as the tail she had tried to tuck away in her shorts stubbornly forces its way out, leaving her shorts unable to accomidate for her rear guard. She furiously begins trying to control the tail but to no avail, and without a way to manage it and the shorts. In frusteration she begins to curl up in a ball and cry.

Mordecai initially began to laugh very quietly, but quickly stopped as she began to cry, only feeling pity for her, and feeling like a bit of an ass. He walks over to her and crouches down, trying to comfort her. "It'll be alright Mariel, we can figure all this out."

"How?! We're freaks, that's not exactly something that you can just fix! Look at these stupid damn ears! They keep flopping around, it's driving me crazy and thetailissowierdandsensi- -nodon'tworryaboutthatbutseriouslyhowamIsupposedtowearpantsnow?!" She begins blurbing incoherently.

Mordecai rolls his eyes, despite her having somewhat of a point. "Please, just calm down. If we're gonna get through this we need both of us to stay sane. And besides, one, just cut a hole in your pants or some shit, and two the ears are a little adorable. You got off easy. You don't turn into an overgrown lizard, do you?"

She sniffs. "I don't have a knife..." Her tail is swishing with her agitation.

Mordecai thinks for a second before looking at her hands. "You have claws now, don't you? Try ripping a hole or something." He shrugs.

She stares at her clawed hands for a moment. Reluctantly almost, she begins to try and claw a hole open. It takes a good while, but she manages to fit her large fox tail through the hole, and at last she seems more comfortable, ignoring the size being too small.

She then sits on a large piece of rubble, uncomfortably as the tail proves once again a hinderance to her sitting normally. She appears to be trying to find a way to sit without the tail posing an issue.

Mordecai seems a little uncomfortable as well. "So what do we do now? Just wait around for the government to come around or something?" He grins. "Or actually, how bout I show you something pretty cool." He raises his hands slightly, trying to do what he did earlier, in which his hands are covered with surging green lightning once more.

What little balance she had is lost as she falls back in surprise and fear. "Woah woah woah what are you doing?! Is that lightning?!" She is now trying to right herself.

Mordecai laughs. "Hell yeah it is! And its....uh, green? Whatever. Point is IM HOLDING FUCKING LIGHTNING IN MY HANDS MARIEL!" And with that, the electricity goes away. "...I may have lost concentration."

"This is bad Mordecai!" She snaps, getting herself righted again. "You don't think experimenting with this is a bad idea? What if we get even worse because we are tampering with this shit?"

She looks off in the distance. "I think we need to leave. That siren is probably because of you. We need to leave before an Agency gets here. Who knows what they will do."

Mordecai groans. "Look its probably not a big deal! If anything I'd say the worst has already come in my case." He sighs. "But yeah you're right, we should get moving. Where to exactly, im not sure."

"Away from the city, from anywhere we've lived... we have to leave everything behind. Imagine what our friends would have said about us... face it... we might as well be dead. We gotta get out of town."

Her tail swishes with anxiety.

Mordecai looks a little glum, as he breathes out a breath of exasperation. "I guess. I never planned on leaving this early, and certainly not under circumstances like these. But lets start moving, AFTER....one question."

Mordecai walks over to Mariel and sits down beside her.

"Can I pet your tail?"

She claws his face with a rather vigorous swipe.

Mordecai reels back and falls over as he dodges the swipe. "Guess thats a no. Welp, lets get this journey started, okay?" He gets up and dusts himself off, as he starts walking.

She glares holes in the back of his head for the next hour.

He turns around and starts walking backwards to talk to her. "If you're actually mad at me about the question, It was mostly a joke. Sorry."

"Of course I am, it feels weird to begin with, I don't need you foddling me." She huffs.

"Alright, no petting, I promise. Unless you at some point become open to it, but until then, I will not ask again. Also if it makes you feel any better, being a giant lizard didn't feel good at all. There was some weird shit going on."

"You can still wear pants properly..." She mutters, shifting her weight, uncomfortable. She glances at the area they came from, narrowing her eyes, as she notes black helicopters barely visible over the area, tiny dots, but she can still tell due to how they fly.

"...I bet that's the Agencies reacting." She walks a bit faster, closer to Mordecai.

Mordecai squints. "Oh yeah. I can barely make them out. We should move faster, I guess? I mean they don't have reason to go after us, do they?" He blinks. "Oh right. Giant tail. Kinda makes it hard to blend in."

"...I never got to eat dinner." Her stomach gurgles violently.

Mordecai shoots her a look. "I think we have worse things to worry about than dinner, to be honest." As he says that his stomach growls, which makes him groan in response.

"Promise we will eat when we get out of the city?" She begs.

He reluctantly nods. "Yeah sure. But like I said, pressing matters."

They manage to finally make it to the outskirts of the city, by this time, the Agencies are now swarming the city, the feeling around the region as they start to more actively take evasive measures away from them becomes more and more tensed.

Mariel could not feel more out of place in the woods and the wild, and Mordecai can sense it, every step is utterly lacking in confidence and comfort.

Mordecai isn't doing so well himself either, but doesn't show it. Instead he walks closer to Mariel to ease her nervousness. "Whatever it is, nothing here is going to hurt either of us. You're going to be fine."

She surprisingly clings onto him tightly. He can feel the presence of her claws, but not painfully. She appears to have a miserable look on her face.

"...I'll never see Mom and Dad, will I...?"

Mordecai stops walking. He's rather silent the moment Mariel mentions her parents. Quickly however, he hugs her. "Mariel im sorry but...I don't think thats a possiblity for either of us."

"I know... ...but I walked out on them after an argument. ...And now I can't apologize for how much of a bitch I am..." She begins to laugh hysterically. "I'm such a bad daughter..."

"Mariel. I understand that but they're your parents. Whatever happened between you and them wouldn't change how much they love you, okay? And besides, even if you think you're a bad daughter, I still think you're a good friend." Mordecai looks away. "If you get emotional like this im just going to get emotional too."

"I'm sorry... I'm a blubbering fucking idiot..."

"Oh hush. The fact that you think these things just shows you're actually still human." He stops the embrace. "No need to worry about it, okay?"

Her stomach growls and she notices a small roadside restaurant. "Fooooood...."

"You're lucky I thought ahead." Mordecai rumages around in the pockets of the pants he took, and pulls out a wallet. "Last thing we need is to be homless AND broke. But um...Mariel do you think its really a good idea for you to be....well....seen?"

He sees her ears droop sadly.

And with that, Mordecai gets hit with an instant feel of pity. "Oh my god how can something be so sad and adorable at the same FUCKING TIME?!" He looks back to the restaurant and then back to Mariel. "Just this one time okay? The last thing we need is someone in there calling the police or something."

"Yeassssss!" Her ears perk back up.

He groans and turns around, heading to the restaurant.

She is right behind him the whole way.

Right before the door he turns back to Mariel. "You're sure we should enter? I mean not that I wont crack any skulls if we get insulted."

"Sooooooooo hunnnnnngryyyyyy..."

"Okay okay, whatever." Mordecai opens the door to the restaurant and walks in, looking around and gauging the place.

The place seems not too busy, but no one really notices him. However, the air becomes incredibly tense and aggressive when they see Mariel. He can tell they are close to springing up at her.

Mordecai puts himself infront of Mariel. "Look we really don't want any trouble. We're just hungry so let us get some food and get the fuck out."

"Well we're hungry for her head!" The man changes, only to be blocked by a man with long green hair and a business suit.

"I would reconsider. She and her friend are under Agency Protection."

"Oh yeah? And who do you think you are, wierdo?!"

"The Administrator of MPD Division 2, Lux R. Sigel. Stand down or you will be under arrest."

The restaurant gradually settles down, the man sitting down with a hateful glare. The man, Lux, then turns and gives them what looks like a oddly sly wink, before walking towards his seat and meal.

Mordecai seems confused but certainly isn't going to make a show. He turns to Mariel and shrugs, before finding a booth and sitting down.

After they sit, Mariel looks at the stranger. "...Do you think it's safe?"

"Hell no I don't. Even so its better than having to deal with an entire restaurant attacking us. But one more thing. If they're MPD why doesn't he just take us in?"

"You haven't broken the law near as I can tell and you look like hell." Lux says sitting next to them out of nowhere.

Mordecai chokes on his own spit, surprised by Lux. "Christ!"

"I am told not to do that, perhaps I should listen to Issac on that. In any case relax. But not too much. The AMUs were deployed to this area after that freak incident. That being said you look like you need clothes and a good meal. Take this money for it, I got more than I need."

He hands them several hundred dollars.

Mordecai looks a little suspicious, but gratefully takes the money anyway. "Thank you Mr. Sigel. But, with that freak accident, are we allowed to know anything about it?"

"We know nothing more than you." He says nonchalantly.

Mordecai hands Mariel half of the money Lux gave him. "It was absolute hell. I don't know if you or anyone saw it but...god."

"I didn't. I was... elsewhere."

Mordecai seems a little sad, but shakes it off. "Well, I guess nothing can be done now."

"Aye. I'd be careful for now on boy... it's bad enough with otherworldly beings invading... ...we don't need Kaiju making it worse," He says in an undertone to Mordecai. He stretches, before getting up and leaving.

"Enjoy yourselves, but don't be stupid, I just covered for you after all."

"Thanks, again." Mordecai turns to Mariel, and waits for him to leave. "Did you hear that? I think im a fucking kaiju Mariel. Like straight up Godzilla!"

"...Greaaaaaaat." She groans. "Please don't use your nuka breath..."

Mordecai is practically beaming. "I think i've got electricity instead of radation though which is kinda lame but whatever. I doubt all what happened to you was...you know."

"I can't even... ...really remember it. ...I think my brain is shutting that part out. ...All I know though is that I have three new parts, all of which are massive nusances. I mean, this tail is so- -nevermind. Anyway let's eaaaaat."

"Keep talking about your tail and you'll probably grow another one. But yeah I agree, im actually really starving." Mordecai takes a look at the menu, looking more determined then ever."

She pales like a ghost at that idea. "Get me a grilled steak. And spicy fries. Ooh, some mozzarella sticks!"

"You're an adult, you can order for yourself but fiiiiiiiiiiine. Im getting steak as well though." Mordecai waves someone over and tells them what they want. After they walk away Mordecai seems a little happier. "Really glad that Sigel guy came around. I don't really know if any actual stores are nearby though."

"No... ...we're out in the goonies now. We need to get a move on anyway like he said. Maybe once we get out of state..." She mumbles. A guy on the opposite booth behind her glances behind himself toward her, eyeing her tail. He quickly looks back to his meal soon after.

Mordecai glares a hole in the mans head, sighing. "At the rate we're going that'll probably be a while. Hmm...I have a proposition after we start walking. Maybe it'll help speed up the way."

She is about to ask what he is talking about when she lets out a high pitch yelp of alarm as the man grabs her tail and massages it, Mariel continues to cry out, her face turning bright red. She squirms, trying to get free.

Mordecai's eyes glow and surge with green electricity as he gets up, instantly slamming a fist into the man's face. However, mid-swing his arm and half of his chest has turned something akin to his Kaiju form, just a scaled down humanoid version. There is enough force in his punch to send the man flying back a good amount.

The man lands in a heap, and this is enough to rile up the whole crowd into a maddened mob. Just as they are about to attack, everyone begins to feel incredibly sleepy...

Mordecai tries to stay awake, but his eyes noticably stop surging with electricity, as his arm slowly reverts back to its human form. He tries to turn to Mariel to see how shes doing in his last moments of awareness.

She seems as unfocused as he, falling over, the red in her face is still strong. He can tell she's tightly crossed her legs, before fainting.

When he wakes up, he and Mariel are in what seems like hospital beds...

Mordecai groans quietly, trying to sit up to get an understanding of his surroundings. "What?...."

He sees Mariel in a bed next to him, sleeping soundly with a light expression. He does note the shadow of a man obscuring the door window leading out.

Mordecai squints with confusion, looking to the source of the shadow.

He can't see through the glass, but they seem to turn and begin opening the door.

Mordecai waits for the man to open the door, with a rather impatient look on his face.

Lux steps through the door. "We seem to meet more often than expected." Lux sits in a chair next to him.

"How about you get dressed for the day? I bought you two clothes. The fox girl was irritating to find clothes for, she appears to be growing the start of a new tail. A stub for now, but it will probably make life harder."

Mordecai blinks, ever so confused. "Yeah uh...no kidding. Im gonna guess it was you that made everyone take a trip to nap zone?"

"Indeed. It would have been troublesome otherwise. I do have questions though..."

He presents their state ids. "Is this your names? And if so, how did you forge these?"

Mordecai seems even more confused. "Those are our names, yeah. But what do you mean by forge?"

"Myths don't carry this kind of id, the Agencies hand out specific ones for Myth identification and verification. It's illegal to have them so you wou have to have forged them." He has a strange, almost creepy smile, as though he was trying to disect his brain with his gaze.

Mordecai shakes his head. "Oh. Okay. I guess like you said you don't actually know what happened at ground zero or some shit. Me and Mariel were human. Whatever the fuck happened well...turned us into Myths I guess?"

"Because I am supposed to believe that. Though a rather large number of myth sightings were reported just after that whole affair. Doesn't prove anything." He seems to look at a laptop as though browsing data.

"Curious though, you were in school until today, and all these check out... ...even this information is accurate? Everything seems too clean... how is that possible?" At the same time confusion is on his face, these factors seem to excite him.

Mordecai groans and is getting impatient, laying back onto the bed. "Look I told you, we used to be human. You really think me and Mariel have connections deep enough to make everything look top shop? Hell look through birth records or something, family, I don't know."

"You would be surprised what magic can do. As for those I've looked through them already. At present I am inclined to think it might be true." With this his face is now serious.

"You need to register yourselves."

Mordecai drags his hand across his face in an aggrivated manner. "You mean as myths. Can we just have some time to talk things through? Me and Mariel."

"Yes, but I need an answer before the hospital catches on."

"Answer to what? I seriously don't get anything thats going on, all I know is that we used to be human, and now I turn into an oversized crocodile in the blink of an eye."

"If you will register or not." He gets up and stands outside the door. Meanwhile Mariel is still sleeping.

Mordecai sighs. He sits up more and sits on the side of the bed. "Oi. Mariel. Wake up." He pokes her.

She moans, her face turning redder. As she shifts in her sleep, the blanket is lifted from her, and it's then he realizes that Lux had disposed of their old clothes and given new ones to them, on the dresser. However he notices with Mariel's form that she seems to have her first tail, and the tiny stub of a second one growing from her, slowly lengthening and bulging out in size, no more than an index finger's size so far, but noticeably growing, almost in pulses, in tandem with the periods in which her face is the reddest.

Mordecai moves back a little bit due to her moan. "...Uh....Oh...um. Oh." He himself gets a little red, which is interrupted by him noticing another tail growing. "...What in the ever living fuck." He hesitates but gently shakes her. "Um, Mariel...?"

She eventually opens her eyes with another moan, her eyes unfocused and hazed, as though something is clouding her mind. The redness is particularly strong, and the tail stub grows a few more inches. Her gazes finally clears up, and the redness goes full attack mode when she sees him and realizes she is naked, all within the same time and frantically covers herself, but he is able to see the tail sprout even further right before it is obscured by the blankets, but she seems unaware of what's happening.

She slowly blinks as she looks at him, lightly shaking from the surprise at him seeing her uncovered.

"Im sorry, sorry! I just, I just didn't mean nor did I know you weren't clothed, I was trying to wake you up because we needed to talk, and the Sigel dude came in here, shits gone down the river-" He continues to ramble, clearly flustered.

"What do you want?" She asks, wanting to cut to the chase. He can tell however she's trying to keep her voice from cracking, as her red face continues to burn, and it looks like she's trying to keep her focus on him and not get lost in whatever is happening to her.

He snaps out of it, clearing his throat. "Well, like I said the Sigel guy came back here. I guess he helped us out at the diner when things went down and after a small conversation, he wants us to register as Myths. And uh...there's clothes on the dresser over there. Ahem."

She blushes strongly. "...We-well you're looking at me... did you wake me up just for that? I thought it was... ...something else."

Mordecai blinks, with a somewhat shellshocked face as he slowly turns redder and redder. "................Did you want it to be something else....?"

"...What's the wierd look, I thought you just had something worrying you or something, seeing as you woke me up just to talk..." She looks away from him, still red as a tomato.

He quickly looks away as well, laughing nervously. "Yeah yeah of course, im always worried. And thats how I always look, I don't know what you're on about. Whatever, lets just change clothes and do this registration bullshit."

"...Register...? But we're human, we can't just give into this life like this...! I don't want to be known as this... ...thing!" She snaps. Her tail has snapped up, revealing the second tail as well, which has grown fur and is half the size of the first. It appears to have slowed down growth, but not stopping.

Irritably, she gets up after he looks away and swipes her clothes, putting them on. She pauses when she sees the second tail, her eyes get frustrated when she sees it. "Not another one!"

"I told you if you kept talking about it you'd grow another one." Mordecai stares at the door. "And yeah I don't want to register either. But its that or we figure out whatever the government does with unregistered Myths. Sorry, Mariel. Can you throw me my new clothes when you're done?"

He is smacked by his new clothes as she throws them. "I'm not a Myth, I won't accept it, I won't! You can give up all you want!"

"Ow." He grabs the clothes and puts them down beside him. "Mariel im not giving up! Its just paperwork! Seriously if you think my humanity is fragile enough to bow down to an ID that refers to me as a Myth then theres a whole lot about me you don't know. Just please. Don't make this any harder than what we've already gone through." His voice quiets down near the end.

An aura of blue flame lashes out as she seems to lose it. "Make this harder?! On who?! You?! It's not your damn humanity I'm worried about, did you think of that?!" She pants, as the flames die out as soon as they had come, before shakily collapsing onto her knees.

Mordecai turns around the moment the flames start, both shocked and somewhat afraid. He grimaces in confliction, unsure of what to say before opening his mouth. "....If you don't want to register, then fine. I just....im sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

"I'm scared..." She whimpers.

Mordecai sits up and crouches down beside her, gently embracing her to console her. "I am too. I just try not to let my fear get the best of me. We're in this together, okay?"

She nestles her head against his chest, her second tail now fully growing out to match the first. Actually now that he notices, with the arrival of the second, the first one seems to have grown a bit bigger, making it almost comparable with her own body's size, and the second is quick to match. She sniffs, tightly returning the embrace.

For so long, all she had known was simplicity, security, and comfort. Her mind now races with alien thoughts, thoughts of desire, longing, temptations. The warmth of Mordecai's body against her ignites the deep fires of these maddening thoughts, only adding to the strange feelings her tails induce in her, a sensitivity she isn't used to. Now, her own identity is being called into question, and every bone in her body screams for things to return to normal, for some manner of rhythm and reason to return to her life.

...She wants to just be her regular old self again. ...And this new strange feeling just won't quit, won't leave her alone.

...And Mordecai is making her hunger, making her doubt, and making her want to change... ...and it terrifies her.

...But what else can she do?

Heirs of the Void 005: Observance
When Kyomu and Vulkas arrive, White looks as though she is dwelling on something, but the expression soon passes upon their return.

"You've returned, good. Your mission went as planned in results, but was unfortunately not as desirable in how close it was to dire straits. We will have to work on your teamwork and skill in training excersizes. However, Kyomu, I need you to stand watch over that location, and bring that person here once your task there is fulfilled. Vulkas, you have... ...a visitor." White speaks in her usual manner, carrying a minor note of concern in regards to their performance, but nothing major.

Vulkas puts his arms behind him and locks his hands together, nodding once White tells him the news. "Where are they?"

"Behind you." The voice of Nobuyuki is unmistakable.

Vulkas cant help but roll his eyes, turning around and regarding him with a nod. "Must you do that?"

"If your mind was rattled from a minor greeting from behind, I worry for your guard." The spirit says in his aloof voice.

"Not so much rattled. More so in you being too clingy to having flair in your entrances." He crosses his arms, letting a very faint smile take over his face.

"I consider myself lacking in flair. Stage theatrics bore me." Nobuyuki rolls his shoulders. "We will be departing while your mistress gets her affairs in order."

His head cocks a little, raising an eyebrow. "Where to, exactly?"

"If you believe that much will be explained, then you forgot a few things about your dear uncle." He spawns a portal behind him.

"Mm. Its almost as if I havent been around you for quite some time." He lets out a scoff like laugh, turning around and walking through the portal.

His feet end up in deep snow.

He doesn't mind, instead floating up into the air above the snow. "....Curious choice."

Nobuyuki appears beside him. "We're paying someone a visit today... ..." He suddenly casts a baleful glare toward 'something' in front of them. "Kindly shove a steel rod up thy arses, this is a private affair. If you do not wish to be eviscerated, kindly remove yourselves."

Vulkas' eyes widen a little, realizing where they are. "...How can we be in Southern Frontier...? All of Echo is part of...that thing, now."

"Negative, or I would have been caught up in it as well. Your... ...grandfather had a role in that. OI, SCRAM!" Nobuyuki barks, a flicker of red energy swirling around him briefly, and the large dark cloud of spirits disappates.

"Freaking cads... ...Anyhow, the southern half of the world was ripped off from the rest of the realm, sparing a number of the population. I'm afraid the same can't be said for the positive spirits, the vast majority are gone. The Shapeshifters and Elementals are likely all but extinct."

Vulkas lets out a sigh, shaking his head for a moment. "So wretched. Of course all that is sparred is the evil in society."

"Oi, mind yourself. You have negative family members, after all. Myself partially included. Plus evil isn't the... ...appropriate word to describe them. You may be relieved to know that Azayakana is safe... ...for now, at least. There is concern, at least from my perspective, that she may be a target for that entity you face."

"If I must be honest dear uncle, when it comes to family i've had little time to continue keeping respect for them all. For obvious reasons." He sighs, and frowns a little. "At least she is safe somewhat, and not gone."

"Let's be off. We have somewhere to be, and a few people to meet."

He nods. "Do lead the way, then."

He leads Vulkas on, eventually reaching an obscure tent hidden in the snow.

He seems rather curious, waiting outside the tent. "Do we enter?"

Nobuyuki enters, gesturing for him to follow.

He does so, albeit probably too cautiously.

When he enters, he sees a shapeshifter woman with cream colored hair and darkened eyes, though one seems hazy, and her left leg and arm seem limp. She silently lifts her head, looking at Vulkas. He can tell from her clothing, which is styled similar to a Japanese shrine maiden, that she is a Spirit Dragon.

His eyes widen a little at the sight of her, just stepping closer. "It's a pleasure to meet one of your status."