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Chapter 06: The Living Realm
Caliwone ducked, barely missing Helena's left fist as it flashed past his left ear and struck hard at her kidney. Anticipating his strike, Helena brought her right hand around and across her body to catch his fist in the palm of her hand, simultaneously bringing her left elbow down onto the back of Caliwone's head. He stumbled slightly, managing to block her incoming knee to his face and break out of the submission she was attempting to put him in, throwing himself backwards explosively and leaving Helena struggling for a moment to keep her balance.
He came to a sliding halt, his Super Saiyan 2 hair waving madly at his speed of movement and managed to reset himself in the small window of time he had created for himself. Leaping to the side and bringing Helena's charge to a standstill while she zeroed in on him, Caliwone planted his right foot and launched himself at her. Their fists struck, shattering the ground for a moment before it healed itself. The two fighters ignored it, matching shins, forearms, and knees in rapid succession.
With only a flicker of warning, Caliwone leaned his head back, barely dodging the flash of energy that Helena sent slicing between them in the close quarter's combat they were currently engaged in. It was the only thing he could do to avoid a wicked blow and settled for the blow to the stomach and head that ensued. Spinning with the blow to his head, he whipped a foot around that caught her across the right side of her face and the two flew backwards to crash on hands on knees on the ground on opposite ends of sparring arena.
Helena wiped blood from her cheek, ignoring the crackling blue lightning arcing around her in her matched state before launching herself in an arc toward him. Caliwone rose to his feet and set his combat stance. He had seen this approach often enough to know that it was not as direct an attack as she would have him believe and leaped back just as she struck the ground where his feet had just been. In the dirt cloud she had made, Caliwone was a hair to slow to see her vanish and was hit hard in the back. He flew forward for only a few feet before Helena was there again, striking him hard enough to send him in a different direction before slamming him down, then back up into the sky in a vicious combination that he could escape from.
He regained control of himself upside down in the air just in time to see Helena above him, her arms crossed in front of her face and her energy roiling. With a yell of effort, she ripped her arms apart and to her side, sending a sizzling crescent shaped blast of energy slicing toward him. Caliwone smiled tightly, seeing how open that final move had made her. Of course, that opening was only going to do him any good if he could avoid the blast itself and attack her.
Righting himself just as the blast honed in, Caliwone spun on his heel and flash-stepped. Helena never saw it coming. His fist drove straight into her solar plexus, knocking the air out of her in an explosive exhale and her eyes unfocusing as her brain froze completely. With his left, he uppercut her with just enough force to stand her back up, her body and back arching and almost casually with his right, placed his fingers in the center of her chest right above the heart for distance and closed his fist. With speed and power that very few legends had ever mastered, Caliwone punched her with no more wind up than the empty space between his fist and her chest. Helena hurtled down to crash explosively on the ground, digging a small trench as she went before coming to a stop.
"That move leaves you completely open," Caliwone said, frowning as he lowered himself to the ground. "Next time, try turning it into more of a sweeping motion rather than a forward facing. That way, it allows your body the opportunity to dodge or reduce damage if your opponent manages to sneak in."
Out of the cloud of still settling dust, Helena's hand could be seen giving him the thumbs up. "Good advice," she said sarcastically, planting a hand and forcing herself back up to her feet. "Want to tell me what little technique was that managed to bypass my attack?"
"It is called the flashstep," Caliwone answered. "A short range teleport technique used by the Shinigami of the Soul Society."
"Pretty handy," she muttered, giving her body another second to heal before resettling into a combat stance.
"It has its uses," Caliwone answered, stepping close and dropping into a combat stance himself. "But it has its flaws, too."
In a flash, the two moved, each moving to block the others inevitable strike with one hand while the other moved to the attack. And with another unexpected flash, an image of L appeared beside them. "We are ready," he said, his voice amplified loudly.
Helena jumped in surprise, her concentration broken by the unexpectedness of it. Her blocking hand missed Caliwone's incoming attack and Caliwone hit her full across the face and back into the ground.
"Is this a bad time?" L asked, looking between the two.
"Everything is finally set?" Caliwone asked, ignoring Helena's swearing and rude comments.
"I believe so," L said. "Why don't you come down and take a look. I have already alerted the others."
Caliwone frowned just slightly. "You alerted the others before me?"
"I tried to alert you first but you were not in your room," L said. "I did not expect you and Helena to be spending your personal time together in her room."
"Fine," Caliwone said, ignoring the attempt to goad him and allowing his Super Saiyan form to fade. "We will be right down."
"No problem," L said. "There is one more thing, though." Without so much as pressing a button or anything that L would have considered satisfying, the entire room came under a down pour without any warning. Helena squawked from where she lay and Caliwone flinched only slightly, glaring up at the image of L. The rain ended as abruptly as it had started only to give way to an equally intense heat and wind.
"There," L said, his voice not giving any hint at the satisfaction he must have been feeling as the wind faded. "Now you won't stink up the entire building.
Helena stood up, her hair little more than giant red puff ball, her green eyes blazing in fury. "L!" she started to scream.
"See you soon," L said before clicking off.
Helena fumed for a long moment, doing her best to reign in her emotions the way Goku was teaching her. "If he wasn't already dead," she said, flashing into her Super Saiyan state for a moment then out of it again and bringing her hair back into something more manageable then a giant poof, "I would kill him." She patted down her hair to something resembling her normal cut. "Go change and I will meet you in the hall."
"Thank you all for joining me," L said from his ever present crouching position on his chair facing nine large monitors set up in a three by three grid above a desk that wrapped part way around him. That of course meant that his back was facing the group as they all walked in to stand behind him; a fact that Caliwone noticed immediately and set his blood boiling. "Now that you are all here, I figured we might as well get this under way." He gestured to the monitors in front of him.
"Every monitor here provides me with a direct feed to each of the nine quadrants of space that we are monitoring," L said. "That, of course, is being directed by the head of each floor below us."
"In short," Koenma said, seeing the look of strained patience creeping across Caliwone's face, "L will be able to take direct control and action in a given situation right away. With approval from you, of course. Right, L?"
"Correct," L said after a long moment, still not turning to face the group.
Caliwone nodded. "Fine. That is enough lead up to all of this. Are there any immediate actions that need to be taken now?"
"Of course," L said, at last turning to face the group. "Most in particular regarding the two warring worlds Rekai and Domi. Their war has evolved over many centuries, like many do, due to religion; the belief of a higher power. Since the civilizations reached interstellar capacity and they began to visit each other's worlds, a feud has developed regarding Rekai's beliefs in a higher power and strong religious beliefs compared to Domi's strong Atheist belief. As each have visited each other's worlds, some of each's beliefs have begun to take root on the other's world and cause an ever growing disruption in each civilization and therefore, the belief that only one of them can exist."
"And the justification being that if there is a God, he would side with Rekai and if Domi is able to destroy Rekai, then clearly there was no God at all," Shayera said. "I have seen it before."
"Correct," L said. "What makes matters worse is that Tersanie, the world furthest removed of the six inhabited worlds and the most technologically advanced, has decided to take Rekai side in the war and has begun shipping materials and information to Rekai that would allow them to be the first of the two worlds to possess a true interstellar weapon of mass destruction in the area."
"What of the other three worlds?" Koenma asked. "What is their take on the war?"
"The collective agreement between the three worlds is to wait out the war," L said. "Like Earth, all three have their own religious sects across each culture and have all learned to live mostly peaceable about it. Not that they don't fight with themselves over other matters, of course."
"And if I were to simply destroy the weapon?" Caliwone asked pointedly.
"Then Rekai would assume Domi had done so with an interstellar weapon of their own," L said. "Most likely they would assume with the help of one of the other worlds and this war could escalate rather quickly."
"You said that Rekai had a strong belief in religion, correct?" Helena asked, to which L nodded. "Then what about a divine intervention?"
Caliwone frowned. "Explain."
"You said it yourself," Helena said. "A voice from a mountain top."
L smiled slightly and nodded. "Precisely. The Rekai would be very susceptible to that kind of manipulation. However, this kind of trick is likely to work only once and will have some impact on the other worlds, too."
"And the problem with that?" Caliwone asked.
"Each of those worlds have their own beliefs, Cal," Shayera said, resting her chin between thumb and forefinger. "I would imagine that some believe in one God, others in multiple. Some with a male God, others female, that sort of thing." She looked to L for confirmation.
"Which means that your interference will fly in the face of what others believe," Kurama said. "Which many will use as proof that their religion is right over another's."
"Which," L concluded, "could spark a whole new set of wars."
Caliwone sighed and rubbed his head. "So then why not simply enlighten them all to truth about Other World and remove any arguments that could be made?"
"And how exactly would you bring that to pass?" L asked. "By sitting down with each leader and explaining the complicated mechanics as to how it all works? That will lead into a whole other complicated questions including 'What is the meaning of life?' and 'What's the secret to getting into Other World' to name a few."
"It is better to allow them their own freedoms to act and behave as they see fit," L said. "Within reason, of course. The less interference, the better."
"So, no to the speaking down from a mountain idea, then?" Helena asked, looking around.
"Actually, I think we should go ahead with that plan," L said. "With a few general modifications of course. And specifically targeted to help restrict specific information about our intervention so that the stories passed along will carry as little facts as possible in order to limit its overall ripple effect."
"Fine," Caliwone growled. "How do we proceed?"
"I have a plan," L said. "Come with me, Caliwone."
Storms were a common enough thing to find on the planet Rekai, but rarely did they ever materialize so rapidly and without any of the normal geological indicators the way the storm above facility 3482 had. Lightning flickered occasionally in way that indicated that, as bizarre as this storm had evolved, it wasn't going to be an overly rough one. Besides, this facility was designed to weather against the worst that the Domi could throw at them. Considering what this facility was housing, that was probably all for the best anyway.
Yeafeffon Z'tisk kept his facial expressions as neutral as he was able around the many officers under his command. He had worked long and hard to position himself here where the driving spike that would end the Domi and their blasphemy against God for good. And he would be rewarded when his time came for spreading the truth and wisdom of God that had been passed down from times beginning.
Thunder crackled mildly above them even as the rain and wind picked up a bit as Yeafeffon Z'tisk checked the readouts from the final modification schedule he had received. As all had learned about him in his sweep into power, he did not accept failure gracefully and his reputation had proceeded him into his position here. The weak or the foolish had all been weeded out and replaced by his handpicked Rekai. All were loyal to him and to God. There was nothing that would stand in their way.
In the center of the storm, lightning spat angrily, its color and intensity suddenly very different from that of the more docile pattern. The thunder that followed immediately on the heels of the lightning shook the building to the foundation, shaking loose dirt and occasion small chunks of building to clatter loudly within the hallways. Many of the Rekai stumbled and grabbed hold of walls or railings as they ducked reflexively, their many eye slits widening.
Yeafeffon Z'tisk stood in the center of the command center, blinking rapidly at the bizarre turn this storm happening above them had suddenly taken, oblivious to the panic happening all around him. Never in the forty sun cycles had he been breathing for had he ever witnessed a storm like this. There had been stories, of course, of long ago when the Elders had suffered through such terrible catastrophes that God had sent to test them and cleanse them of the non-believers. But that was when the Rekai species had been young and still needed to be taught.
He staggered suddenly as one of the other's in the room bumped into him in his hurry to collect some of the scattered paperwork off the floor. That jolt had woken him up, though. Snapping him to full alert, Yeafeffon Z'tisk regained his composure. He lifted a long multi jointed hand to bring order back to the room when, impossibly and without any warning, a bolt of lightning ten times thicker than any that had been displayed so far slammed down to the ground with shattering force right at the outer edge of the power grid. Without so much as flickering hesitation, the bolt raked across the entire grid, obliterating every tower and communication array that the base had over a two kilometer strip before vanishing with an extended crack of thunder almost drowned out by explosions that lit up the landscape and the Plentomin mountains in the near distance.
Yeafeffon Z'tisk ducked reflexively under a table his arms wrapped protectively over his head as the thunder faded and the flashing light that lit up the now otherwise dark room faded into nothing. He remained there for a long few minutes, unsure as to whether the assault, created by mortal or God, was finally over before he poked his head up and looked out the forward windows.
Lighting and the subdued thunder that accompanied it still occasionally flashed in the sky above them as the storm still seemed to rage above them but the rain and wind that had been buffeting them like a cruiser on the open waves had come to a complete stop. All was as still as a grave as one by one, every Rekai slowly stood and moved cautiously to the forward window.
"Yeafeffon Z'tisk," a booming voice cut into the silence, making every Rekai jump for cover. All except Yeafeffon Z'tisk who was suddenly frozen in place, too terrified to move. "Step forward," said the voice again, the tone of command evident.
Yeafeffon Z'tisk did so, suddenly no longer frozen but pumped full of shaky adrenaline. He hurried outside to the bridge that looked over the sunken center of the facility. He gazed up into the center of the storm where an almost central black opening into an almost deeper black seemed to be but it was hard to tell; like a shadow within a shadow.
"There is no need to fear, Yeafeffon Z'tisk," the voice said. "You are the Rekai in command of this facility and the offensive against the Domi." This was a statement, not a question. Still, Yeafeffon Z'tisk felt as though the voice in the sky was expecting an answer.
"Yes, it is I," he said uncertainly. "Who are you?" Lightning flashed, the oddly colored ones and Yeafeffon Z'tisk got the distinct impression that he should know the answer to that already.
"As this is the first time I have ever spoken to your people, I will forgive such ignorance," the voice said. "But do you truly not know who I am?"
Yeafeffon Z'tisk fell to his knees and touched his forehead to the ground in a bow, instantly knowing that this was not some kind of Domi trick. This was God. And God had chosen him, in front of witnesses, to speak to.
"Forgive me, my lord," he gasped. "Please forgive my lack of faith."
"Yeafeffon Z'tisk," the voice said again. "I have witnessed the growing tension between the Rekai and the Domi for some time over whether or not a God, or multiple Gods exist. I am disappointed in all who partake in this meaningless squabbling and so, I have decided to intervene and deliver to you a message."
"I understand, my lord," Yeafeffon Z'tisk said, his voice trembling. "I obey whatever your command."
"The purpose in this life is not what you believe in, or who you believe in," God said. "It is the actions you take that determine my favor. How you live your lives; how you treat one another; the choices you make. Needless to say, I am disappointed in you all. Regardless what the Domi believe, regardless what the Rekai believe, or any of the other species believe, a war spawning from disagreements of this nature will no longer be tolerated. And so, I send you on a mission with those you who are here to hear it, to end these wars and to spread peace regardless of belief. Do you understand?"
Yeafeffon Z'tisk hesitated for only a moment. "Yes, my lord," he said at last. "However, I do not believe I am the one best suited for this role. I have pushed hard for keeping the religion… of you. I have helped to bring about this very war you speak of."
"Do not doubt that I have not seen this, Yeafeffon Z'tisk," God said darkly. "As one of the largest activists against peace, you will provide the biggest impact for peace as well as some redemption from your sins."
"I understand."
"Good," God said. "Go now and spread the word to your people and the worlds. And let them witness the power they are defying if they refuse."
Yeafeffon Z'tisk looked up, confused as to what God meant and was suddenly blinded by an enormous pillar of lightning that struck down from where Yeafeffon Z'tisk had thought God had been located in the clouds. The bolt slammed down into the center of the facility right before him, blasting through the shielding and barriers that protected the launching facility from enemy attack in an instant and incinerating the weapon the Rekai had been building to destroy the Domi.
The shockwave blasted Yeafeffon Z'tisk back into and through the window where his officers had been watching and listening to the exchange waited. His head swam from the blow but he shook the cobwebs free and hurried back to the platform as the bolt vanished. He looked down in awe at the melted metal and ground, some parts melted into sheer glass from the power. Nothing had survived. It was all gone, not a trace to be found.
"Remember," God said as the thunderclap faded and reverberated from the mountains kilometers away. "Live your lives without judgement. Peace before war." And then the voice was gone.
Caliwone stepped back from the portal that opened to the skies above Rekai with a twisted expression on his face. Behind and to the side of him, Helena and L stood at the controls to weather manipulator that had engineered the storm that helped to mask Caliwone's own lightning style attacks. With a flick of a button, L allowed the portal to close and stepped around it to face Caliwone.
"Well, that went about as well as I expected it too," he said dryly. "Well done, God."
"Don't," Caliwone said, his voice a mix of emotions that the Saiyan usually never displayed. "I am not a God. Do not refer to me as such."
L blinked at him for a moment. "You are aware that you effectively are one, correct?" he asked. "You are a member of Other World and therefore immortal in a sense, you are responsible for the growth and continued existence of this solar system, and given the freedom to create or destroy as you please-"
"Let it go, L," Helena cut him off, frowning as Caliwone brushed past them both. "You can see he is clearly not comfortable with all of this."
L watched coolly after Caliwone for a long moment. "I can see that," he said at last. "Funny how some people have no problems with taking on the title of God when they get a little bit of power. And then there are those who truly possess it and they hate the term. What do you think, a lack of commitment?"
Helena sent him a brief disgusted look. "Ever since Caliwone has been in Other World, perhaps even before he first came to Other World, he has always seen himself as a guardian in one form or another. He does what he does with that mindset and carries no wish to carry that position. He intervenes when others cannot and, yes, there is the warrior in him that thrives on the battles and challenges that often accompany those interventions, but his intentions are genuinely pure. If they weren't, do you think that he could be here in Other World in the first place, much less offered the position he is in?"
L considered her words for a long moment as Caliwone vanished from a teleportation pad. "I suppose you are right," he conceded. "Perhaps I have been underestimating him after all."
Helena nodded. "I did. For a very long time." With that, she headed for the teleportation pad and followed after Caliwone.
To be continued…
To any who are offended by my use of God to describe Caliwone, I do apologize as I am not overly comfortable with it myself. Gods have been used in these stories a number of times (Koenma, Kaio's, Super Saiyan God, Shinigami, etc) but never to quite like this to describe this kind of role. However, I felt it was necessary to confront this openly early on.
Beyond that, I am excited to see Caliwone finally get back in on some of the action that we have all been leading up to and I am excited for what is in store coming up. Let me say this now, but you guys have no idea what is coming. ;-)
The Dark Prince