(A/N): To those of you who are a bit squeamish, faint of heart, or simply don't enjoy gory or graphic elements. I've added a brief summary at the end.
For extra effect, you can start this chapter listening to the BleachOST3 song "Anguish", then when you see the bolded line with the word "destroy" play 'What Can You See In Their Eyes', and play the BleachOST3 song "Hollowed" when you see bolded line "What is this". You can find them on youtube.
Chapter XX – End of Dreams
A lone girl stood before the sealed gates, the area around her was stygian and had a malignant repulsive aura. The girl's her hair was a dark viscous red and came all the way down to her knees. Her skin was extremely pale and had rotting green patches all along her face and hands. She was wearing a black pulsating shrine maiden outfit with a katana slung over her right shoulder. The blade was surrounded by a pale cloak of glimmering energy that surged with life. Her entire form was shrouded by a foul cloying and decaying odor that was like a living entity of undeath.
"Can you see me now demon fox?" the girl asked coyly, as she stared at the large form past the barred gates.
The massive creature behind the gates glared at her intensely, with undisguised loathing and contempt. Its gigantic pointy teeth flashed and jaw tightened menacingly, causing wrinkles on its nose to appear. The beings entire bulk was taut, like it was ready to spring forth and tear apart the insolent girl before him. An overwhelming killing intent was exuded from every pore in the fox demon's body. "IF IT WASN'T FOR THIS GATE, I WOULD RIP YOUR PATHETIC BODY ASUNDER AND SEND YOU BACK TO WHATEVER FOUL PIT YOU CRAWLED OUT FROM!" he said in a deep reverberating voice dripping with hatred.
Amused laughter.
The girl was utterly unfazed, arrogance radiating from her, as her maw gaped wickedly. "You only say that because you lack the capacity to feel fear… you are an incomplete form", her head twisted at an inhuman angle, as if inspecting him. Her voice was raspy and spoke through a mouth that was formed into a devilish unmoving smile, "A lost little child like you is not even capable of understanding, the depths of madness from which I am derived."
Mocking laughter.
The demon fox's eyes became bloodshot from his intense anger, "SUCH WORDS FROM A COWARD TOO AFRAID TO EVEN COME NEAR ME!"
A piece of the girl's face fell off, revealing decrepit rotting flesh underneath which swarmed with maggots, "Worry not I will make you understand… and should know that I now have the strength to..."
Wicked laughter.
The beast's anger quelled and it laughed mightily, "HAHAHA! THAT IS IF YOU DO NOT ROT AWAY BEFORE YOU EVEN FINISH SPEAKING TO ME!"
She ignored him. "The worthless humans from the village have finally provided me with enough power. This makes your will no longer necessary", she paused, twisting her head again at an eerie angle while continuing to grin through her lipless and toothless mouth, "Why don't you just be a good little fox and surrender Kurama? I promise your death will be slow..."
The demon fox twitched hearing his true name called. His eyes seemed to struggle with some inner conflict.
"Oh, you didn't think I would know? You who has been sealed within a part of MY realm?" she said haughtily spiting the words out.
Vile laughter.
Her cackle this time, made his ears twitch strangely as if her fingers had plucked at the furs inside of them. His claws rent the ground as glared at her venomously, rage consuming his entire being as his body glowed with red chakra that boiled with power, "KNOWING MY NAME MEANS NOTHING WHEN YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" Though his mind was disturbed now, what is this presence before him? It carried an incredibly powerful will which at least equaled his own, and which was now pressing down on him like a mountain trying to crush his spirit.
Playful laughter.
The eyebrows on her closed eyes wrinkled, as her blotched rotting face looked on with its devilish smile, "So confident are we? You should know however you hold power here no longer, my mind has developed beyond the constraints of this place—", she gestured grandly, "you are but a nuisance now, in my presence and her in soul…" Her hand abruptly appeared on the handle of the katana gripping it tightly. "So I shall purge your will and consume your flesh and bones!" she hissed with an ecstatic tone.
"COME HERE GIRL IF YOU ARE SO CONFIDENT! I WILL TO REND YOU'RE BODY AND DESTROY YOUR PUNY EXISTANCE, FOOLISH WORM!" he roared causing the dark hall and gate to shake violently with a shockwave that caused the girl's hair to flutter. He felt his energy surging forth and all around him, but something was amiss. What was this ominous feeling?
Her flat eyelids tensed, then suddenly flared open. Black holes gaped, where her eyes should have been, and tainted blood started oozing out from them, streaming down her face. She drew the katana in a blindingly quick movement, the blade pointing towards Kurama's face. "Shall we have some fun then?" she said in a bloodthirsty hissing voice. "I shall end you, with something I created after encountering the only person to leave this place alive..." Moving her decaying arm in front of her, she lined it up with her heart. "Bane's Cycle: Torment of the Undying!" she uttered in a voice that vibrated with raw evil emotion. Reversing the grip on the blade, she plunged it into her own chest, causing black porous blood to flow out and quickly soak her outfit.
Their surroundings began to distort, disgusting yellow bile began seeping down the walls and pooling on the floor outwards towards them both. The gate holding Kurama began to melt, turning into more of the wicked bile, which smelled of rotting flesh. The bile started to boil all around them, and each time a bubble popped the rank stench of feces and urine filled the air. The darkness in the area began to pulse like a heartbeat making a loud thumping noise. The atmosphere grew heavy, as sizzles of smoke puffed here and there, from the intense heat of that was coalescing everywhere.
Kurama wondered for a fleeting moment what this ability portended, what is this forsaken bile everywhere? Even to him who was a harbinger of hate and vengeance, this environment was extremely distasteful and chocking his senses. When he saw the bars finally melted completely though, he completely lost himself and charged forth ecstatically, "DIE PEST! I SHALL HAVE MY FREEDOM AND THIS VESSEL SHALL BECOME MINE!"
The world fell into darkness.
Blinded, Kurama was unable to see anything but he felt the environment changing around him, drastically. He heard disgusting sounds everywhere, the sounds of flesh tearing, the sounds of bones snapping, screams of pain and anguish, a charred burning like meat being cooked, and the pulsating, of what sounded like a heartbeat.
Everything cleared.
A hellish landscape appeared before his eyes. His vision was filled with unimaginable horrors— all over there was flesh, skin, and bones warped into misshapen forms. Twisted perverted limbs and decrepit faces writhed in agony and eternal suffering all around. Pillars of meat, with various body parts and organs, stood out emitting a vile stench and sucking in noxious air like a breath. Lesions, boils and sores dotted the landscape, which was like a gigantic raw muscle, as far as the eye could see. Putrid thick bile filled the crevasses forming puddles and small lakes. The sky was the color of rotting meat and greenish yellow clouds swarmed about it like cancerous tumors. There was little light here, an ominous rank mist covered and rolled over everything like a poison, unveiling and hiding the landscape intermittently.
The demon fox had seen much in his existence, experienced much in his time, and had lived in a world of darkness while sealed for a long time… But this place— was something beyond nightmares, something that transcended reality, something his mind could not even conceive much less understand. He felt his skin crawl for the first time since his inception. He would have vomited if he could, but instead gagged in disgust trying to expel something that wasn't there. His will wavered, what wretchedness is this? Kurama shook his head violently, screaming in protest, "NOOO! I WILL NOT SUCCUMB TO THIS DEPRAVITY!" His mind raced wildly as he released all of his power to stave off the dementia all around him.
Devilish laughter.
The girl was standing on a massive boil about two hundred feet away, it as oozed filthy yellow puss under her weight covering her feet in it. The mists parted here and there revealing her occasionally. She held her katana casually over her shoulder, as darkness flowed from it. Her head was rotating causing a sickening snapping and twisting sound as she eyed him with her black gaping holes, and that wicked smile of hers, "Are you ready to meet your end demon fox? Or shall I just watch you writhe in the insanity of my realm?"
Sadistic laughter.
Her voice sounded like it was in his head, despite the distance. Kurama's eyes burned with palpable fury so great, he could no longer think coherent thoughts. Only his instinct remained, and only one thought drove him forward— he must destroy her reality or perish in the attempt! His red visceral chakra boiled around his body and he snaked his left claw back gathering power in it rapidly, causing lines to form and fluctuate around it wildly. A low pitched buzzing ensued.
The girl lowered her katana angling it outwards as wisps of foul blackness trailed after the movement, her eyebrows tilting upwards in expectation, she hissed, "Yeessss! Come let me enjoy your squirming efforts!"
"I SHALL INCINERATE YOU!" Kurama screamed with a roar shook the vile landscape.
Screams echoed around him venting their own misery.
Whipping his claw forward in a blur, he released tremendous power from it in an arced wave of glowing red energy. It flashed towards the girl at incredible speed burning the fleshy ground as it sped towards her, humming with energy.
Going into a low stance, she leaped from the boil and started running towards the wave of energy so fast it made a tear in the muscled landscape as she went, making blood spray up behind her in a torrent. Jumping high into the air, she raged, "Harrraahhh!" Then brought the katana forward with both hands, slicing into the turbulent red wave with incredible force, as she met it head on!
The wild energy burned and sizzled around her, with her own dark chakra lashing out from her blade in protest, she was pushed back rapidly skidding across the vile landscape. Their energies mixed together, her black tainting the red causing it to weaken.
Kurama seeing his wave being cut, immediately charged and lunged forward, landing with colossal force near her just as the wave split. The action caused a massive shockwave that blurred everything momentarily. Following this, he launched another boomerang of red chakra in rapid succession.
The wave parted around the girl and surfed across the ground for a great distance before exploding causing flesh, organs and body parts to fly everywhere. Seeing the demon fox crashing into the landscape, she tried to brace herself from both attacks, but it was too late.
The strength of the shockwave was enough to flatten all in its path and hit the girl with a vengeance, sending her flying back through the mists an incredible distance. The other arc of energy trailing was after her. Her body ripped through several fleshy towers and hills, before she was slammed against a large bony ridge. This created a bowl shaped impression around her with deep cracks appearing all throughout it. Lacerations formed on her rotting flesh from the impact and maggots slipped through falling to into a pond of viscous bile below. She gasped in a ragged breath, choking on black blood that spewed from her mouth. The second wave hit the same spot straightaway, causing a spark that looked like a setting sun, followed by a massive explosion. The ground in the area trembled with violent force and was ripped asunder in a giant circle all around.
The demon fox roared in triumph, "GGRRAAAAAHHHHH!" His tails whipped about excitedly. Determined to make sure she was dead, he shook his body, starting to spread out small balls condensed red and blue chakra all around him. The spheres came together slowly, collecting into a shimmering dark sphere of immense chakra. It grew slowly in size as all of the orbs came together above his head, then when it reached its full mass. He opened his mouth and swallowed it.
A gurgled laughter came from all around, "Hahawhrawrha!"
Kurama looked around carefully. Where is she? Did my last attack not connect with her? Momentarily confused, he sensed a presence above him suddenly and looked up.
"You didn't I would be killed by something like that did you?" she laughed wildly, while holding her sword back behind herself. Forming a series of hand symbols with one hand, she called out, "Bane's Cycle: Decadence!", then opened her left hand. An acrid green cloud surrounded her open palm with a hissing sound, followed by an enormous rotting skeletal hand extending down towards Kurama's head at a blazing speed. "DIE ANIMAL!" she screamed loudly in her raspy voice.
Unwilling to be caught in the explosion of his own power, he dodged backwards a significant distance to avoid the hand then spat the orb of chakra at the girl. "HAHAHA, IT IS YOU WHO WILL BE DIEING!" he cackled.
"Like I'll get hit by such a petty attack!" she shot back, and jerked her hand up towards the approaching sphere.
The decaying hand followed hers and intercepted the ball, and much to Kurama's astonishment, actually held and started squeezing it.
Puffs of smoke and a sizzling sound could be heard, while the chakra from the sphere burned the rotting flesh on the hand, but also changed form as if it was about to burst like a water balloon. Distorting past the point of stability, the orb imploded, creating a tremendous explosion, which knocked her back through the air, due to the vicinity, and dispersed the skeletal extremity. Gore flew everywhere as nearby towers and tortured bodies were eviscerated.
Seeing her being knocked back, Kurama snaked his tails up, the tips lit up like matches, and glowed vibrantly with his red chakra. The mist around him steadily cleared, as he built up his power.
The dark girl shifted her position in the air, and landed on top of human sized sore. "YOU'RE BEGINNING TO ANNOY ME DEMON!" she hissed angrily, glaring intensely at him. Sheathing her sword, she made a rapid series of symbols with both hands this time, "Bane's Cycle: Harvest!" Placing her hands on the fleshy pillar, a small black summoning circle appeared under her.
Kurama was unable to see her summon, from where he was. "DO NOT WORRY DISGUSTING CREATURE, YOU SHALL NOT SURVIVE THIS!" he roared back. Flicking his tails methodically in her direction, searing chakra beams erupted from them.
Leaping off of the tower in a blurred movement, she landed on the fleshy ground and rushed towards him with her katana before her. The rays streamed by her, as she rapidly dodged from side to side, to avoid them.
Their power was enough to incinerate the fleshly ground, leaving large gaping holes where they struck, which quickly filled with a mixture of bile and blood.
Seeing her avoiding the beams, Kurama shot them in a concentrated cluster instead. Knowing this would connect, he quickly readied his next attack by vibrating his chakra imbued fur, this spread hundreds of small black and red chakra balls all around him.
"Foolish animal!" a voice yelled in his head.
Just then, Kurama felt something grab all of his paws at once. Looking down, he saw large diseased hands grasping all of them and holding him down with incredible strength. His skin, where he was held began to itch, his fur becoming decrepit and falling off in strands. They were also sapping away his strength, he wavered.
Unable to dodge the beams completely, the girl was struck head on with three of them, which she managed to block with her weapon. Their impact however, was enough to sear the flesh from her forearms and burn her face, before she was able to deflect them away in a rage.
Pointing his own tails at the hands, he fired off two red chakra rays at each of them. The energy rays hit the diseased hands directly and caused their flesh to redden than disintegrate, but Kurama's paws were also badly damaged and burned in the process. He staggered for a moment trying to regain his strength. The wounds from the hands were festering, slowing his natural healing considerably. He raged in frustration, "DAMN YOU AND YOUR VILE JUTSUS!"
Laughingly slyly, "You've been lucky so far, but this ends now demon fox!" she yelled in loud vicious tone.
Regaining his composure as the pain eased, he ignoring her words. His tails fluttered, and he sucked in the vast collection of orbs.
The rotting girl brought her left hand up and disappeared.
Looking around in a frenzy, Kurama sensed her behind him and rapidly spun, immediately springing backwards into the air.
She was standing on a tall spire, a considerable distance away, which looked like a broken spine with entrails hanging off of it in places. Sheathing her sword in a blur, she put her hands together and performed an incredibly fast series of hand symbols. The dark girl stuck her hands out, palm facing up, like she was about to cradle something, calling out, "Bane's Cycle: Calamity!" A gargantuan magic circle appeared in front of her.
Having an unobstructed line of sight, Kurama opened his mouth towards her, just as he hit the ground, rending his claws into it. An immense black and red glittering orb of chakra spewed forth from his throat in a blur, and caused him to be pushed back several body lengths. It created a deafening sound, like the crash of thunder.
The girl's black pulsating chakra flowed forth from her hands rapidly gathering around inside the circle, warping and twisting its form. Flashes of white sparks could be seen and the axis of it collapsed towards the zenith of her outstretched hands. It looked like a starry sky falling into itself. Helixes of energy sprung forth from her back, quickly adding to the mass of the black hole in front of her.
The gigantic ball of energy surged forth with incredible celerity, disintegrating the area around it as it passed, and creating a crackling tunnel of sparks behind it. It was heading directly towards the girl's jutsu. The fully formed vessel of dark energy warped and blurred the space around it, sucking in the landscape to its foreboding depths.
Kurama despite his considerable distant from the hole felt himself being slowly pulled in, and he strained with every fiber of his being to resist it, "What is this?-!"
The orb slammed into the cascading darkness and began twisting and churning.
Even as the girl's hair and clothes were being blow back by the waves of force coming from the sphere, her expression radiated something akin to rapture, "YYEESS!"
The extraordinary power behind the ball momentarily halted the pull of gory debris, causing it to sit suspended in the foul air of the intermittent mists. However, it slowly began to twist apart, like the unraveling of apple peelings. Strings of energy wormed out of from the mass of chakra. Eventually, it was dispersed entirely and was absorbed into the glittering and twisting vessel.
Seeing the attack fail, Kurama raged in anger and lifted up all of his tails then snaked them up, pointing towards the hole. The pull resumed and he felt himself being drawn it again, as he prepared a last ditch attack.
"HAHAHAHAHA! COME DEMON FOX! PREPARE TO MEET YOUR END!" the girl screamed in ecstasy. Muscles, bones, and flesh were ripped from the terrain all around him and sucked in.
The mist having already dissipated, all he saw was the gaping black hole which resembled her eyes drawing him closer and closer.
Struggling mightily Kurama growled in a vengeance, "IT'S NOT OVER YET YOU DAMNABLE EXISTANCE!" His tails flared and flickered with intense red chakra, while every muscle in his body burned in resistance to the pulling. "RRRAAARRRGRRR!" he screamed, as he launched a series of concentrated beams of black energy, which made zooming noises, at the spinning twisting nether.
All nine beams hit dead on, causing tremors through the debris, but they fizzled and were sucked into the whirling depths.
"IT'S USELESS! SOON YOUR POWER WILL BECOME MINE AND YOU WILL KNOW THE NOTHINGESS OF THE VOID KURAMA!" she yelled in a disturbingly euphoric voice.
NO! His mind screamed, as he was drawn closer and closer. So this was her true purpose behind the jutsu! His sanity returned, but the situation was gravely dire. There was only one thing left he could do— if this attack failed it would mean the end of him. Closing his eyes, he craned his neck upwards. A huge pyramid shaped prism appeared above his back and started spinning. Its point was aimed directly at the void that was drawing him in. Red, blue, and green swirling lines of chakra shot from each of his tails into the flat of the pyramid. They moved back and forth in a weaving pattern pumping the last of his power into the prism causing it emit a phosphorescent white that became increasingly brighter. The tip started glowing with a blinding orb of light that shimmered with heat and obscured the pyramid prism, creating a high pitched whizzing tone.
The girl sensed the attack he was forming and her face became serious suddenly. Her hands started trembling in a controlled manner and the helixes reappeared from her back. They began feeding the vortex again, increasing its strength further and further. It churned and hissed like a pot boiling over with a thick liquid.
With the spheres highest fervor reached, Kurama opened his eyes, and turned his head back towards the black hole, which sparkled with twilight. "THIS IS THE END OF YOUR WRETCHED SCHEME GIRL!" Kurama shouted brisling with confidence.
Insane laughter.
"YOU'RE RIGHT! IT IS THE END FOR ONE OF US!" she shouted in return gleefully.
The light from the prism glowed intensely and the world was bathed in white…
(A/N): Summary: Kurama exchanges words with the girl inside Naruko, and they end up battling it out. After quite a few blows are exchanged, Kurama gets caught up a powerful jutsu that's seemingly trying to absorb him, and is forced to launch a unique ultimate attack. The ending to the encounter remains ambiguous.