Disclaimer: Neither Gideon020 nor I own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form. The Realm of Dark Skies, and all attendant characters/concepts, is our mutual creation and thus legally ours. Note: set late 6th season of the anime, like all my works.
Author's Notes: at long last, I return to the writing scene, in co-operation with Gideon020. This is our first actual project together, and there are three more planned after this. Once those are finished, the two of us intend to rewrite and resurrect "And Hell Followed With Him" and "Me and My Infernal Shadow". Unfortunately, due to a computer error, both my copies of those stories have been erased- which means that we will be redoing them from the beginning. Hopefully, this will make them better than they were before. Before anyone asks, work is unlikely to resume on "Waaagh Ranma" unless I regain my inspiration for it.
Prologue: Called to Hell
Dawn was breaking in Nerima, and so far it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. The air seemed to ripple with peaceful energy as birds sang merrily and flowers gently put forth their most spectacular blooms. Yes, it looked like a beautiful day. Until the peace and tranquility was broken by a loud splash, followed by a feminine voice raised in a furious bellow.
"DAMN YOU OLD MAN!"
"Hah! If you can't guard against a simple attack like that, how can you call yourself a martial artist boy?" Genma laughed, ducking beneath Ranma-chan's retaliatory kick.
"You grabbed me while I was asleep! How was I supposed ta guard against that?" Ranma retorted, lunging forward in a grapple attack. And so the usual routine continued, with Ranma and her father sparring until Kasumi had breakfast ready, whereupon Ranma finally dunked Genma in retaliation, turned himself back into a boy and sat down to eat. Finally, Ranma and Akane set off to school, in their usual hurry to get there without being late. Well, sort of…
"Are you okay Ranma? You look… tired." Akane asked. It was true; Ranma did look like he hadn't gotten much sleep- to the extent that he was actually lagging behind slightly on the fence. The truth was that he was tired; he hadn't slept a wink last night due to constant, terrible nightmares. He was just barely drifting off to a dreamless sleep at last when his father had started his sparring session. Rather than answer Akane, for various reasons which included his ego, he simply gave her a dismissive wave and tried to force himself past the tiredness, in part by trying to recall the nightmares that had kept him awake in the first place.
It was successful, to a degree; the imagery had, naturally, become somewhat faded over time. But still the visions, of a island that seethed with dark menace, of a sky being swallowed by malevolent shadows, of a landscape torn by war conducted by dozens of varieties of abominations, each more hideous than the last, jolted Ranma into a state approaching wakefulness. Shuddering slightly, Ranma quickened his pace to reach school; once he was there, then he could fall asleep without repercussions.
In a place further from Nerima than the most distant star, yet closer to Ranma than the next heartbeat, the war from Ranma's visions was beginning to play out its inevitable end. Constructed in an unknown time by a powerful sorcerer, a true master of the black arts, the descendants of that being had since guarded their ancestral holdings –and the gateway to earth concealed within its depths– with the utmost vigor and dedication. Alas, an age of peace had descended upon this artificial world, and thus the current incumbent had been unprepared for when strife had reared its ugly head once more. From the depths of the Void Between, the infinite abyss between all realities, a new challenger had come, with force hitherto unmatched by any who had preceded him. Unleashing wave upon wave of dark minions upon the unprepared landscape, all resistance was steadily being crushed.
The massive energy harvesting facility situated off of the island's "coast" had been conquered, a demonic leviathan arising from the black depths to usurp the vital energy flow for its own hungers. Its supply lines cut, assailed from without and besieged from within by traitors and infiltrators, the military base had surrendered, placing its stockpile of arcane technologies and weapon systems at the disposal of the invaders. The sole town was in ruins, all resistance slain or driven from the rubble-strewn streets, now thronged by roving packs of murderous marauders. In the depths of the forest, in the mines and the ancient tomb-complex that burrowed into the very heart of the world, resistance was still persistent, with the last faithful followers of the warlock-king expending their lives as dearly as they could. But it was not enough.
High above the demiplane's surface was the greatest marvel of the witchling family who had ruled for so long; a great citadel of equal parts arcana and technology, which floated in what could be considered the heavens. From the control room, the once-proud ruler looked down upon his ruined domain and wept bitter black tears at the sight of his failure. Hardening his heart as best he could, he spun from the viewing port and headed towards a carefully prepared ritual circle, ready to give his life to what would more than likely be the greatest and last spell of his existence. Closing his ears to the sounds of his loyalists as they fought and died in the very next room, he gestured and invoked the arcane syllables, ritually gashing his flesh with a ceremonial dagger for extra potency. As the final screams died away, a great pounding and rending at the door began as his enemy tried to force its way through. Ignoring the sounds, the way the rune-inscribed steel begun to crumple beneath the inhuman force, his sole purpose was to complete the spell.
"Zena, Xenu, Shada, Hara!"
The door finally gave way as an undescrible mass of darkness and malevolence poured into the chamber, seething towards the warlock like an inescapable tide.
"Summoning from beyond the bounds, beyond the realms, beyond existence, bring me a power that defies all knowledge, all fate, all gods!"
The unholy mass towered above him now; there would be no escape. The magus took what would be his last breath and shrieked the final words, screaming his eternal hate and defiance at his usurper.
"Uru, Keri, Juni, LoxaAURRK!"
A razor-edged tentacle of darkness stabbed forth from the shapeless mass, impaling the sorcerer as the spell was almost completed. Despite this deathblow, a great bolt of utter darkness erupted forth from the center of the circle, stabbing up through the ceiling like a wrathful finger and vanishing into the void. The formless abomination chuckled, a sound of complete malevolence.
"Pitiful fool. Your efforts were doomed from the start. Soon, the world of your ancestors will fall to me as well."
The shapeless shape drew itself upwards, dark energy pulsing with obscene purpose about its mass for several seconds before it roared with fury, at which the dying mage chuckled faintly, blood spattering his lips.
"Heheheh... did you… really think… I wouldn't… seal the way? You are trapped… and my spell… will bring forth… the one… this place… will be… your… tomb…"
A final whispered laugh spilled from his bloody lips before his eyes closed forever. The monstrosity screamed as it tore the once-human's body apart and turned it into ash and cinders. Still consumed with rage, it lashed out at all around it, destroying everything in sight until its fury was spent. Calmed now, it settled back amidst the destruction, an air of calm satisfaction emanating from its bulk.
"No matter. No mortal can harm me… and by virtue of its very nature, the mortal brought forth will serve as a link between the two worlds. I will devour their soul, and use their body as the gate to unleash my minions upon a fresh world. Let them come. I will be ready…"
In Nerima, Ranma and Akane had finally reached Furinkan and, as always, the "Blue Blunder", Tatewaki Kuno, was waiting to challenge Ranma. Rather than simply charging at Ranma and getting flattened like he normally did though, he brandished his sword at Ranma with a triumphant expression written on his face. Ranma instantly recognized a disruption in the normal flow of things, and a tiny hint of caution entered his stance as he moved purposefully towards Kuno.
"Beware Ranma Saotome, defiler of women, craven enemy of all things good and decent! For today, I, Tatewaki Kuno, shall at last claim my long overdue victory upon you and release my two beloveds from thy vile grasp!"
"That's what you said yesterday… And the day before that... And last week too… come to think of it, you've been going on with that garbage ever since I came here. So just shut up already Blue Blunder, and come get your beating- I ain't in the mood."
"Vile miscreant! Your days of mocking your betters have at last come to an end! For I, Tatewaki Kuno, scion of the noble house of Kuno, am no longer the mere Blue Thunder of Furinkan High… I am the SHADOWED LIGHTNING of NERIMA!"
With this impassioned exclamation, Kuno thrust his sword menacingly at Ranma. At precisely that moment, a massive bolt of black lightning crashed from the sky and struck Ranma full on, instantly immolating him within a raging inferno of ebony flames. Ranma's agonized scream split the air for a heartbeat, before the flames vanished and his unmarked body collapsed lifelessly to the ground. Kuno blinked twice in disbelief, then cautiously walked up to Ranma and prodded the limb body twice with his bokken. Then, a massive grin split his face in half and he crowed with delight.
"Hahahaha! The vengeance of heaven is slow but sure; at last the kami have rewarded me for my diligence in the pursuit of the vile one's life by striking him down in full view! At last, the beauteous pig-tailed girl and the fierce tiger Akane Tendo have been struck free of their chains and their hearts released to my own worthy care! Oh my loves, I come for you now!"
The persistence of a tiny voice in the back of Kuno's mind finally paid off as it prompted him to look behind him. Oh look, there is Akane Tendo now- and what's this, Ukyo Kuonji as well? Why, from whence did Shampoo and his own twisted sister Kodachi come? And look at the expressions on their faces, and the way the light gleams off the myriad weapons they're holding… uh oh… Kuno's sense of self-preservation –which he did actually have– finally managed to ring the alarm bells, but by that point it was too late.
Two days later…
The persistent chorus of life-support systems was a sound Akane Tendo was all too familiar with, and she found them both unnerving and disturbing. She looked up from Ranma's face –so still it may as well have been carved from porcelain– and looked at the other fiancées. She, Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi had been sitting beside Ranma ever since he'd collapsed, in what was perhaps the longest amount of time the group had ever been together simultaneously without fighting. Shampoo wasn't there now; she was at the Cat Café, helping her great-grandmother search through both Cologne's private collection and the tribal archives in search of some esoteric martial arts healing technique or herbal remedy or magic spell or something that'd cure Ranma. Akane sighed softly, and then turned her head slightly as she heard the doctor come in, talking with Ranma's parents. As it'd turned out, Ranma actually did have a mother, and she actually lived relatively close near by; Genma had just been reluctant to contact her for some reason that was still a mystery. It had taken the news of Ranma's mysterious condition to finally get him to call her, and she was much more helpful than Akane's own father was- Soun was at the Tendo Dojo, weeping near-constantly.
"I'm afraid we've never seen a case like this one before Mr. And Mrs. Saotome. Physically, your son is in perfect physical shape- in fact, I've never seen anyone so healthy in my life. Mentally… even our most sensitive machines aren't registering anything other than the barest minimum of impulses needed to keep the lungs breathing and the heart pumping, and even then they need the life support systems to truly work. I know this must be hard for you…"
"He will remain on the life support systems." Nodoka Saotome interjected in a steely tone. "Money is no object."
Akane couldn't help the ghost of a smile; it was hard to say who had been shocked the most when it turned out that Ranma's mother was almost as rich as the Kunos. The smile disappeared as she returned to contemplating Ranma. What was wrong with him? How had Kuno, a character widely recognized around Nerima as an incompetent joke whose ego was greater than his skills, done this to Ranma, generally considered to be all-but-unkillable with anything less than an atomic bomb (and some had their doubts about whether that would work)?
Across the veil, in the darkness beyond, another hospital chamber was the site of feverish activity. Arcs of ebony electricity surged and crackled across the chamber, darting from one area to another in a maniac dance. Great streamers of semi-solid blood and quasi-liquefied flesh flowed across the ground, winding their ways up the bedposts to congeal together within the bed, assuming a more solid form. Several surges of energy smashed together in the air above the bed, and when the light faded a transparent crystal prism was revealed, with an eye surrounded by glowing runes encased within its depths. The prism slowly drifted downwards and was absorbed by the flesh-mass, which was beginning to assume a more recognizable shape. Finally, the few remaining arcs of energy drifted together to form a small sphere of energy, which slowly lifted up before slamming down into the form now sprawled upon the bed. All was silent for several minutes… and then the body began to move…
All right, first chapter done… and boy does it feel good to be back in business! Please review and let us know what you think. There're seven more chapters to come after this, and this should be one of our quickest updated stories.