Part Five: The Hunt
Chapter Thirty-seven - The First
"Still no more signs of our visitors?" Inferna asked. Fyuu shook his head. Cold had placed the Fyuu Elite Guard on, well, guard duty. Next to him and her they were the strongest. Inferna had left her own elite fighters back in the South Galaxy with her daughter, in case anyone decided her absence would be a good time to try and overthrow her Empire. None of the other soldiers on Cold's ship, or the ones on hers, would even be enough to deal with the odd creatures that had assaulted them, and subsequently dissolved into nothing three hours after dying.
Inferna just nodded to him as she walked past into the room he was stationed in front of. It was the room she and Cold had been examining before, when the researcher had come to tell them about the translation of the writing in the Grand Hall. The round one with the unknown machine. The machine was no longer unknown, however. Their men had determined that it was the recording device the man in the orb had said they'd used to make the recording they'd witnessed. "Progress?" she demanded, looking at one of her researchers.
"We're getting somewhere, now." the man said. "The technology is... it's incredible. The way this thing works... we didn't even know half of it was possible to do. It'll take some time yet, to get a complete grasp on how it functions, but we should have enough of the essentials understood to begin building our extractor system within the next few... er... days?" he shrugged and she waved it off. Time was quite irrelevant in this place.
"So it is possible, then?"
"Oh, sure." the man said. "The computer language used by the system is still binary. We'll have to break all of the data down to that base level to process and convert it but, in the end, even with the vast differences in design and technological level, binary data is still binary data."
"Good." Inferna said, nodding. She was agreed with Cold in this, transferring the data from that orb into their computers was a top priority, especially now that the Grand Hall translation work was slowing. They'd learned about as much as they could from those writings. Now the data on the one orb they had was what they both wanted to see. Well, that and the data in the other orbs, though they had not yet figured out how to safely remove them from the walls.
As she looked over the room she couldn't help but feel annoyed, yet again, at their attackers. Cold had been quite right, they couldn't risk losing what few men they had, which meant exploration of the palace had slowed considerably since their appearance. The two of them could still go off on their own to explore, but if they found anything interesting they wouldn't be able to have it investigated for a while as they had a limited number of guards to protect the scientists with. It was really quite frustrating, having such a large and intriguing place open to them but not being able to explore it with ease.
She was turning to leave, to go check on the progress in the Record Orb room and then head to her ship for something to eat, when it happened. Bright yellow light washed out from the walls, the floors, the ceiling, even the machine in the room. The researchers all stopped in their work and looked up and around as Inferna made her way back out of the room to where Fyuu stood. He was already using his scouter to talk to the others. "Rikoo and Yiku report the same phenomenon." he reported a moment later. "Neither is picking up any power levels on their scouters, though."
"I don't want to but... we should call everyone back to the Grand Hall, just to be safe." Inferna said, remembering the mention of the disappearances caused by a red light. This light wasn't red but, just the same, she'd rather avoid the possibility. Fyuu nodded and issued the withdrawal command to the other two and then he and Inferna lead the group in the room behind them back to the Grand Hall. Theirs was the last group to arrive and Cold was there waiting for them.
"I saw the light." he said. "The entire palace glowed with it. Any ideas?"
"None yet." Inferna replied. "I had everyone pull out just to be safe, though."
Cold nodded and turned his gaze toward the statue of Souzousha. The only door in or out of the room, aside from the building's exit, lay behind it. If there was anything more to this light it would come from there. The group stood gathered in near silence for several moments before Cold heard it. A soft clunking sound. Metal on stone. Rhythmic, like footsteps. He couldn't sense any powers, however. Though a moment later Fyuu's scouter went off.
"Reading?" asked Cold.
"One." replied Fyuu, frowning.
"It would seem our new guest is able to suppress his power." said Inferna as the sound of the footsteps rounded the statue ahead of them. It was a man in blue and yellow armor, face hidden inside his helmet.
"You are trespassing on sacred ground. The penalty for this is death." the man said as he came to a stop in front of the statue, his voice a deep baritone and only slightly muffled by his helmet.
"Straight to the point, are we?" Inferna asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you intend to try and kill us you'll have a time of it, I can assure you."
"I am Jikoku, first of the Shitennou. If you think you can defeat me you are welcome to try." He inclined his head slightly and seemed to look past Cold and Inferna, out the door. "But outside, away from the shrine."
"I'll take this one." Inferna said, turning to look up at Cold.
The Changeling nodded. "Very well, but be careful. This one is clearly different from those others." He turned and motioned to Fyuu and the three elite fighters lead the rest of the gathering out of the building, Inferna and Cold following and Jikoku bringing up the rear. Cold had their men move the ships back a good distance as Inferna and Jikoku turned to face each other, a hundred yards from the stairs into the palace and only twenty yards from each other.
"It's not like we asked to be here, you know." Inferna said, slipping into a fighting stance. "Or to be stuck here."
Jikoku reached behind him and drew his swords, a gleaming golden one and a black one so polished its surface was like a mirror. "The law is absolute." he said. "No exceptions will be made. Its sleep must not be disturbed." And then suddenly he lunged at her. His power increased quickly as he charged and soon he'd surpassed her own power. In the span of five seconds his power had increased five million fold. The Valkano was only just able to avoid being impaled on the man's gleaming golden sword, and only because he'd not used his full speed.
"Impressive." she said, taking a few steps back from him. "You certainly are a different order of being than those others."
"As I said, I am Jikoku, first of the Shitennou."
She gave him a small bow. "And I am Inferna, Queen of the South Galaxy." she said as she clenched her hands into fists. There was a sudden cracking pop as a bladed spike emerged from the armor around her right forearm. Then another as the same happened on the left. The skin of her head, directly above her ears, split open then as a pair of small horns began to emerge, her shoulder length red hair grew in length, her height began to increase, the armor over her upper body grew down over her abdomen, and her skin began to darken. A moment later the transformation was over and she now stood in her second form, five feet eight inches tall with waist length red hair, dark orange skin, a pair of small three inch black horns just above her ears, and foot long bladed spikes emerging from her forearms.
With the change in appearance came also a change in power and she lunged at Jikoku even faster than he'd lunged at her. With a resounding crack she slammed a right hook into his helmeted head and sent him flying backward. In a burst of red she shot after him. He recovered before she reached him and moved to dodge but she shifted her angle and her kick still smacked into his chest knocking him over onto his back. With a cry she thrust her left arm out and fired off a blast of energy but the red orb suddenly shifted direction mid flight and flew down into his black sword.
Inferna blinked and then scowled as Jikoku climbed back to his feet. His armor wasn't even dented and his power hadn't dropped in the least. She was more than twice his strength now, ten times stronger than she'd been before, and she'd put most of her power into those attacks. She'd expected him to be, at the very least, dazed. But he seemed wholly unfazed. "Perhaps that armor of his is more resistant than it looks." she thought. "Well, it doesn't matter. With my power advantage this will still be a one sided battle."
"Impressive." Jikoku said, parroting Inferna's previous comment.
The Valkano Queen couldn't resist. "As I said, I am Inferna, Queen of the South Galaxy." She smirked as he returned the small bow she'd given him before. Whoever, and whatever, he was, she liked him.
"It has been nearly a hundred million years since I fought someone from one of the Four Galaxies with enough power to even hit me." Jikoku said, brushing off the front of his armor. And then he began to glow yellow and in a bright flash his power doubled. When the glare subsided it showed that his armor had changed. It was now wholly yellow and seemed to be coursing with energy. There were now also small spikes on his shoulders, one pair pointing straight up, one pair angled up and out to the side, and one pair straight out. There were also spikes on each knuckle now, too, and yellow bolts of energy crackled around his body on occasion. Inferna scowled again as Jikoku charged her. She was still stronger than him by a fair amount, enough she felt she could control the fight, but it was still annoying.
She slipped around the swipe of his golden sword and blocked the swing of the black one with the blade coming off her right arm. Then her foot snapped up and slammed into his stomach shoving him back. She followed up with another blast of red energy but, once again, it swerved away from him and flowed into his black sword. "I'd thought that's what I'd seen." she mused, lunging at him again and taking a swing for his head that he deflected with the flat of his golden sword before smashing the hilt of the black one into her face.
As she stumbled back she reached out and gripped the hilt of the black sword, just above his own grip, and gave it a yank. She managed to tear it from his grasp and then pitched it behind her where it came down point first and imbedded itself in the ground. It had been a lot heavier than it looked, so it had only gone ten feet when she tossed it, but with the sword out of the way she thrust her arm forward again and fired off another blast of energy. It was only inches from hitting him when suddenly it vanished in a flash of black and she scowled more. His black sword was back in his hand again.
"Inferna!" Cold called.
She turned and saw him drawing his own silver sword and then giving it a toss toward her. She caught the hilt of it, gave it a quick flourish, him a small nod of thanks, and then turned back to her fight. She'd not used a sword in nearly a hundred years, she hoped she wasn't too rusty. She'd had a good look at Cold's sword back on Earth, at least. He'd had it specially forged from the strongest metal they had access to so it was highly resilient, even against an opponent significantly stronger than its wielder. Beyond that it had very small pathways snaking all through it, and millions of tiny openings along its surface, through which ki could be channeled.
Typically anyone using a melee weapon had to sheath it in a fine layer of ki in order to fortify it against damage. The metal of a sword would shatter against anyone capable of breaking that metal unless the wielder protected and enhanced the blade with their energy. But with the ki channels and pores in Cold's sword the wielder could flow their ki directly into the weapon strengthening it further than a normal blade, not just against damage but for making damage as well. It took Inferna a few seconds to get the feel of it and properly channel her ki through the pathways, she'd never used such a weapon before and it took a level of skill to do it as well as Cold did, a level of skill she didn't have. Still, she figured it would be more than sufficient.
Just as she finished channeling her ki into the sword Jikoku made another slash at her with his golden sword and she quickly brought hers up to block and deflect the swing. There was a loud clang of metal on metal but Cold's sword held, didn't even chip, and Jikoku's was redirected away from her head. Inferna stepped in then, thrust out her left fist, and smashed it into his face. As he stumbled back she spun around and lashed out with a kick to the side of his head that dropped him onto his stomach. Quickly she jumped forward and thrust her sword down in an attempt to impale him but Jikoku rolled out of the way at the last second and the sword stabbed only the ground. He then swept his leg out taking Inferna's out from under her.
Inferna thrust an arm down as she fell and pushed off as soon as it hit, thrusting her legs out as she went and slamming a kick into the armored man's midsection. He stumbled back a step which gave her enough time to get to her feet and pull the sword back out of the ground. She took a swing at him with it but he blocked it with his gold sword and then thrust the black one at her. She moved to the side quickly, but not quick enough, and it sliced a gash into her upper right arm. Blood flowed from the cut as she recoiled back from the blade.
"That thing can absorb energy from me just as easily as it can absorb my attacks." she realized. She'd felt some of her ki being sucked out of her when the blade had sliced in. "And I'm guessing if that sword has special properties then so does the gold one. I'd rather not find out what it can do." She spun around quickly, getting out of the reach of Jikoku's black sword as he slashed it through the air again, and using hers to block the golden one as she went by. She slashed out with her sword at his back but he suddenly vanished. "After image or teleportation?" she wondered, spinning around and looking for some sign of him.
She'd stopped actively tracking his power level shortly after his transformation. Ever since then it kept shifting in odd ways that made her head hurt. The level never changed, but the pattern of the energy didn't seem to be stable. It made her dizzy and nauseous to try and focus on it for more than a few seconds. She locked on to his power again easily enough, beyond being the only power of its level its odd nature made it stand out. "What's he doing?" she wondered, looking up into the sky where he floated nearly a hundred feet up.
He had his swords raised above his head, a ball of yellow energy charging between them. It was the first sign of a ki attack he'd done yet and she'd been wondering if he could. He suddenly brought his arms and swords down firing the attack at her at high speed. She barely had time to drop her sword and thrust her arms up to catch and deflect it before it reached her. As soon as it touched her hands her eyes widened. "He charged something this strong that fast?" she thought in shock. Her eyes widened further, this time in pain, as a foot slammed into the small of her back, the impact hurting even through her natural body armor.
The impact made her stumble forward and lose her hold on the energy in her hands causing it to explode and blast her backward where Jikoku was thrusting his black sword toward her. There was a loud clang a second later as the point of the black blade hit her armor and bounced off to the side. The impact made her stumble forward again, trip, and fall. As she went down she thrust her arms out, pushed off against the ground, and flipped back up onto her feet, turning to face Jikoku again, scowling. She was just glad that her armor was enough to stop his sword or he'd have her impaled through the abdomen, back to front, right now.
She lunged in toward him again, picking Cold's sword up again as she did, and took another slash at him. He deflected it with his gold sword and countered with a slash from the black. Inferna brought her arm up and blocked with one of her armor blades again. Then she opened her mouth and fired off a blast of red energy only two feet from Jikoku's helmeted head. The blast started to hook away but it had been launched too close and still slammed into the man's shoulder. As he stumbled under the impact she thrust her sword free hand out, smashed her open palm into his chest, and nailed him with a point blank energy blast that sent him sailing back two hundred yards before he pulled himself to a stop.
"Holy Blade!" called Jikoku. Inferna took a step back and readied herself as his swords suddenly began to glow white, and then energy engulfed them doubling their lengths. And then he charged her again. Inferna scowled and then charged in at him as well, channeling more energy into the sword in her right hand. As she neared Jikoku's newly increased striking distance the man gave a hard swing with his black sword and Inferna brought up hers quickly. There was a flash of red as sword met energy blade and then the energy blade was deflected to the side.
Jikoku was already swinging with the gold sword, however, and Inferna brought up an arm to deflect the energy blade that extended from it with an armor blade. She heard the grinding sound first, then felt the tug on her arm and knew what it was without looking. The energy blade was slicing through her armor. She veered off to the side, pushing the energy blade from the black sword out of the way, and then pulled back. Once out of the reach of his swords again she brought her arm up and looked at the damage done.
The top eight inches of the blade spike had been cut clean off and she scowled. The damage would be gone as soon as she reverted, the next time she transformed the blade would be back in perfect condition, but the fact he could now slice through her armor that easily was not appealing in the least. One false move and his blades could cut her clean in half. With the new reach of his swords she wouldn't even be able to get within striking distance, now. Not without transforming again, at least. But that would make things far too easy.
"I'll see what I can do like this." she thought. "If I have to then I'll transform again, but not unless it's my only option. Still, this calls for a new plan of action... I just wish I had one." She scowled as Jikoku charged at her again. She took off backwards to prolong the amount of time she had to think before he was in striking distance again. He was still a good distance away when she smirked, tightened her grip on her sword, and focused her energy into the blade again. She wasn't entirely sure if could do it or not but there was only one way to find out. He was almost on her now, pulling back his black blade to take a swing at her, and then the white energy blade was cutting through the air toward her head.
With a yell she brought her sword up, red energy flaring up around it, and pointed it at Jikoku. There was a loud crack and a bright flash as energy surged out along the sword quickly doubling the length of the blade, then another flash of red as energy blade met energy blade and Jikoku's was deflected to the side. The armored man came to a stop then as Inferna brought her arm down, red energy coursing down from her elbow, over the sword, and then going beyond its tip another five feet. He had two eight foot long blades, she had one, but hers was ten foot.
"Not bad." she thought, bringing the blade up in front of her for a better look. "No way I could have done this with just any sword, though. Channeling my energy through this blade... its like the sword is an extension of me, now." She turned her gaze back up from the blade and looked at Jikoku again. There were a few things she had been wanting to ask for a while now and this short lull seemed a good enough time as any to do so. "So, you said you were the first of the Shitennou, right?" she asked. "I take it that means there are more of you around?" Jikoku remained silent. "Alright, that's fine, but what are you, exactly? Certainly not any race I've seen before... You one of the ones that built this palace?"
"Palace?" Jikoku asked. "It is not a palace. It is a shrine. A shrine to the goddess Souzousha and the two greatest heroes of Nigiro."
"Well, now we're getting somewhere." she thought. "That still doesn't answer my question."
"As I said, I am the first of the Shitennou."
"So, not one of the race that built this 'shrine' then?" Silence again, so Inferna decided to press on the subject that he seemed willing to discuss. "Ok, what about this Souzousha?" she asked. "We've seen the statue but I've never heard of her before coming here."
"Few in the Four Galaxies remember her now." Jikoku said. "Time erodes memory, old things are forgotten, new things take their place. But though few still remember her she is eternal and will, one day, return."
"And she created the universe?"
"Yes. This one and many others before it."
Inferna blinked. "Others?" she wondered. She lowered her arm a little further, the energy blade fading slightly as she lessened the power she was sending to it for now. "What do you mean, others before it?"
Jikoku laughed. "Do you really believe you are the first?" he asked. "That no others could have come and gone before you?"
"But... entire universes don't just vanish."
"Of course not. They did not vanish, they were destroyed. Wiped out of existence by the antithesis of Souzousha, the Destroyer, the God of Destruction." Jikoku shifted positions a little then and brought one of his swords up to point at Inferna. "You may take solace in the fact that you will die here before he comes again." And, with that, he lunged at her once more.
Inferna scowled, she'd not finished with her questions yet. She still wanted to ask if Nigiro was the name of the world they were on and about the heroes that Jikoku had mentioned. The man, however, didn't appear to be in the mood to continue the conversation. She quickly brought her energy blade back to full power and then thrust her free hand out firing off a blast of energy. She didn't expect it to be of any actual use in doing damage, it was only to be a distraction, so it came as a surprise to her when Jikoku dodged around it and it kept going straight, not turning toward his sword.
"With the energy blade covering his black sword it can't absorb my attacks now, it seems." she thought, smiling. This opened up a whole new slew of options to her. She took to the air then, her sword was now far too long to wield effectively on the ground, she'd barely been able to handle it before she'd made it longer. Jikoku arced up to follow her but she cut a slash through the air sending a blade of energy surging down toward him and he veered away from it, confirming what she'd thought. She smiled more, pulled back her free hand, and began gathering a ball of red energy as she watched him charge her way again.
She raised her arm above her head and suddenly the baseball sized orb flared up to the size of a beach ball. "Flare Burst!" she yelled, bringing her arm down and firing the four foot wide ball of energy. Jikoku pulled back the arm holding the black sword and she smiled more as he swung at the energy blast to knock it aside. Energy blade met energy ball and the swirling ball of red ki erupted into an explosion nearly fifty feet in diameter. A second later there was a loud thud as Jikoku slammed into the ground. Her smile became a smirk as she saw what was left of the black sword. The explosion had shattered it clear down to hilt.
Diving toward the prone man Inferna pulled her sword arm back and then thrust it down. There was a loud screeching sound as the blade pierced the armor of his abdomen and he cried out in pain as she drove it down to the hilt before pulling it back out. The energy blade faded from his golden sword as a stream of yellow energy surged out of the newly created hole in his armor. As the light faded his cry of pain died off and he began to climb back to his feet.
"It has... been a long time..." he panted, holding a hand over the injury. "A very long time... since anyone... has done me injury... with such ease." He raised his golden sword and pointed it toward Inferna. "It would seem the... Four Galaxies have... once again... exceeded the First Stage."
"Once again exceeded the First Stage?" Inferna asked, floating twenty feet above him and keeping her own energy blade charged and at the ready. "What do you mean?"
Jikoku laughed. "It has happened before... in this universe." he said. "The ebb and flow of life... powers rise and fall... a never ending cycle... until the balance is disrupted." The man stumbled back a step and lowered his sword, leaning against the blade to support himself. "The stages... are the markers... on the road to... Armageddon." Jikoku took a deep breath then and straightened up some, pulling his sword back out of the ground, but still holding his injury. His breathing seemed back to normal and when he spoke it was with a stable voice again. "This universe has cycled as far as the Eighth Stage once, but always it has come back down. Eventually, it will not. It will exceed the stages."
"And then end as predicted on the walls inside?" asked Inferna.
Jikoku nodded as he moved his hand away from his injury. The hole remained in his armor but there was no trace of blood, and now the yellow energy coursing through the armor flowed over the hole as well. Inferna realized, then, that he had been stalling for time. Time to mend the damage to his body she had done. She wasn't overly concerned, though. She'd done it once, she could do it again.
"And the other Shitennou?" she asked. "They, too, can only be harmed if the universe has exceeded a certain stage?" She knew it was a foregone conclusion that there were others, or there would have been no need to claim himself the first of them.
"Harmed with ease." he corrected, tossing aside the broken remains of his black sword. She was glad for that, it meant it truly was gone, though she was still concerned about what ability the golden one could have. "We are only from the first four stages, I the Second Stage, and our leader the Fourth Stage. I do not know what stage the universe is at now, it is something we check only after a battle has ended here. We come out only to battle, and do not concern ourselves with the Four Galaxies except after a fight has ended, to check on their progress."
"Interesting." she thought, watching warily for any sign of him moving to resume their battle. "Once this battle is over I'm going to have to explore this shrine in more depth, see if I can find out where and how they determine these 'stages' of the universe. The powers I encountered within the Empire... if this guy and I are only Second Stage..." Then she had a thought. Why wait to check herself, why not ask? "Where do each of these new 'stages' begin?" she asked. "How is it determined?"
"By power of the strongest." said Jikoku. "When an individual from the Four Galaxies exceeds a certain strength the next stage is entered. The strength for each stage is set by the Natural Order, by the damage that individual does to the universe merely by wielding their power."
"And you and I, we're Second Stage? Of how many?"
"Second of Thirteen." he replied. "The Fourteenth Stage is Armageddon."
"Well, at least it's a big scale." she thought. Before she could ask anything else, however, he spoke up again.
"You are wondering what stage the universe is in now, I can tell." he said. "Which tells me you are not the strongest currently living in the Four Galaxies at the moment. But I cannot answer your question, and we have talked long enough. There is still a battle to finish." Inferna brought her sword back up as he charged up at her. His own energy blade did not reform, however, and she relaxed, allowing her own blade to fade. Keeping it up was starting to wear on her and she was grateful to let it go.
The two of them crossed swords again a second later, a shower of sparks raining out from the impact. The two arced through the air, swinging, slashing, and slicing as flashes of metal, sparks of energy, and ringing clangs filled the sky, their speed steadily increasing as they went. "He's faster now that he's lost the other sword." she realized. "Of course, I felt how heavy that thing was so it's no wonder it slowed him down." She ducked under another swipe from his sword and came up with her own again but his arm came up and he knocked it aside with a clang.
"This is pointless." she thought, pulling away from him again. "Neither of us can get through the other's armor with swords alone." She was tempted to drop Cold's, so that she could use both hands, but while his sword couldn't cut her armor it could still slice through her exposed areas of flesh. Having the blade in hand to parry his slashes brought her some degree of comfort. Besides, it could still be useful for attacking. Even if the blade alone wasn't enough to cut through his armor she could still charge it with ki again. But only for short periods. Maintaining the blade as she had before was a tiring endeavor.
"I need to end this soon, though. I'm starting to tire but his energy hasn't dropped a bit. I felt it decline for a moment when I impaled him but it's back to full again. Whatever he is he seems to have an unlimited amount of energy." She brought her left arm up then and pointed her palm in his direction, turning sideways a little and bracing herself as the red energy gathered. "Flare Burst!" she cried, firing the attack. This time Jikoku didn't try and block or deflect it and instead darted out around it. As he came along beside it another blast of energy slammed into his chest driving him back and Inferna smirked. She'd fired a few smaller blasts right after the larger one, each one arcing out around it in a different direction to catch him when he dodged.
As he recoiled from the blast she closed her left hand and pulled her arm back toward her. Her Flare Burst slowed and then reversed in direction slamming into his back and exploding violently, propelling him forward. Then she launched in at him, drawing back her sword arm and channeling ki into and through the blade again. With a cry she brought her arm on an arcing downward swing and there was a piercing sound of metal tearing as the energy enhanced blade bit into Jikoku's armored shoulder.
Inferna gasped out in pain a second later, eyes going wide, as she felt his golden sword plunge into her abdomen. She pulled back away quickly, sliding back off of his sword. Reaching down she held a hand over the area of the injury but felt no gash in her armor. "What?" she wondered, confused. "How was he able to stab me through my armor without cutting it?" She blinked a few times to clear the tears that had formed from the pain. There was no denying she had been stabbed, at least two inches deep. But how? He'd not fed any energy into the sword this time, as she had done.
Without a gash in the armor to feed her ki through she couldn't cauterize the injury from the outside, so she started focusing on feeding energy through her body to the injury. Nothing overly vital had been hit but he'd sliced into some of her internal organs. Without some intervention she'd bleed to death. It was now time for her to stall for time. "How...?"
"My obsidian sword wasn't the only one with unique properties." he said simply.
"So, that's it." she thought. "Come to think of it, I've never blocked that blade with anything but my own sword, save the one time it sliced through my armor blade, and that was the energy blade portion. So, that's the ability of that sword. Damn, and here I'd thought the black one was annoying. I can't block that sword with anything but my own or it'll slice right through me." She straightened up a little then as she felt the light burning sensation in her abdomen. She'd managed to gather enough ki around the area to begin cauterizing the damage.
That's when she noticed the arcing energy flowing through the gash she'd made in his shoulder armor. It looked like the energy that crackled around him at times, though smaller and more persistent. And as it flowed a glow began to cover the injury. "Sealing it off, like he did with the one I put through his abdomen." she thought. "It's like that armor is a part of him..." She blinked a few times then as a thought came to her. "Who says it's not? My armor is a part of me. Granted, it's not so encompassing or fancy, but it's still armor. Same as Cold's and his sons. It would also explain why it changed when he transformed. So, we're both stalling to heal, then."
She felt the burning subside and vanish about the same time she saw the arcing energy in his shoulder stop. Her knew realization had given her a few ideas but no real edge that she could see. Certainly nothing that helped to counter that golden sword of his. Though, perhaps... She smiled as she readied for the battle to resume. Jikoku waited for a moment until deciding she wasn't going to charge at him and then he surged in at her, golden blade arcing for her head. Inferna deflected it with her sword, kicked him in the chest, and then took a swipe at his head with her blade.
Jikoku ducked under it and then thrust his sword up at her legs but she twisted to the side so that it passed between her ankles. Grinning she slammed her feet together, trapping the blade between the armor around her shins, and then gave a hard twist and jerk to the side wrenching the sword from his grip. It was even lighter than Cold's, much lighter than the black one, and she gave it a hard swing. The blade had just started passing through his armor when he suddenly disappeared. It only took a second for her to lock onto his power behind her. "So, it was teleportation before." she thought, turning to face him again.
In a burst of red she charged at him again. She had the advantage now and wasn't about to let up. Reaching him in just a few seconds she took a slash with Cold's sword first and he deflected it with an arm, then swerved around the swing she made with the golden sword. "Not teleporting again?" she wondered as she made another swing with the gold sword that he just barely dodged. "Cold, catch!" she cried, tossing the Changeling's sword back his way. She didn't bother to wait and see if he did catch it, just switched the gold sword to her right arm where she could control it better, and then lunged in at Jikoku again.
As she neared she thrust out her left hand and fired off a series of energy blasts to distract him with. He dodged three, deflected two, and then vanished. She whirled quickly, she'd kept her focus on his energy this time, despite the way it made her feel, and had felt him appear just behind her. Her left arm came up and blocked his punch at the last second and then with a cry and a thrust she plunged the golden sword into his chest where, she assumed, his heart was. He left out a cry of pain, golden light shooting out from the entry point of the sword, a sudden shockwave blowing Inferna back thirty feet.
"And... so I fall..." Jikoku gasped, holding a hand over the injury to his chest as he floated down to the ground. "Be proud for... you are... only the sixth to... ever defeat me."
Inferna raised an eyebrow at that. "You've been killed before?"
Jikoku laughed again as his feet touched the ground and he collapsed to his knees. "And still... you refuse to accept... that others could have... come before you." he said. "I am a... servant of... Souzousha. Eternal. Everlasting. I do not go now... to death... but to slumber once more... until another comes... whom I must fight." The yellow sparks of energy around him had grown in number, frequency, and intensity as he spoke. Then yellow light began to flow from the openings in his helmet. There was a sudden flash of light and then a thundering explosion. When the glare and dust faded all that remained were a few shards of clear yellow crystal, a scorch mark on the ground where he'd knelt, and a floating ball of yellow light.
The light pulsed and then suddenly surged off toward the shrine. Up the stairs, through the door, and out of sight in less than second. Inferna looked down at her hand and saw that the golden sword had vanished as well. A glance around the battle field showed that the remains of the black sword, too, had gone. Letting out a long sigh she relaxed and began to shrink and change as she reverted to her first form again. "An interesting battle, to say the least." she said, massaging a cramp out of her neck and shoulder.
"Indeed." Cold said, walking over to her. "Though your conversations with him have opened up new questions."
She nodded. "I still want to know if this world is Nigiro, not to mention find out about those heroes he referenced, and that sleeping 'it' too. Though these 'Stages of Armageddon' are what really have me interested."
"Me as well." he said. "Based on the writing on the walls I had already assumed that the end the natives had foreseen would be occurring within the next few centuries or so, if not a few decades. If we can figure out where the universe is at in these stages..."
"Well, we wont find anything out here." she said. "I say it's time to leave your Guard in charge of the main group and take a few with us to explore deeper into this shrine."
"Yes. It would seem we have some time until the next of these Shitennou appears to trouble us. And it is likely we'll get the same kind of warning that he's coming as we did with this one."
"The light." Inferna said, nodding, as she started toward the shrine again. "We watch for that and we can have everyone out of the way before the trouble starts."
XXX
Yellow light surged down through the opening in the ceiling and then arced toward the large clear crystal in the center of the chamber. It hit a second later and flowed easily inside. The light faded some, then, but left a faint glow filling the room. For a time only the faint yellow light could be seen but, slowly, the crystal in the south wall began to glow adding its own blue light to the room.
XXX
"So, I did a little reading up on Xentron." Videl said, entering the dinning room. "The computers on this ship have a lot of data on the Empire and the fringe and free worlds that exist. We're going to have to be really careful when we get there."
"How come?" Bra asked from where she stood at the stove making pancakes. Pan was already at the table eating her way through a stack of thirty.
"It's very anti-Empire." Videl answered as she took a seat at the table and Bra brought her over a small plate of food. Unlike 17 and 18 she still needed to breathe, eat, and drink. Just not as much as a normal person. "There are several cases of Imperial soldiers being mobbed and killed just for showing up on the planet."
"And no one's been sent to deal with it?" Bra asked, surprised.
"They don't bother the Empire." said Videl. "The Empire doesn't care about them very much, especially since they don't have anything of any value, so it's rare that any soldiers go there. Apparently it was a barren wasteland until groups began gathering there to get away from the Empire and it has grown now into a rather busy and populated free world with a lot of black market activity. It's a known haven for pirates and such as well, but no Resistance factions. Xentron tolerates them almost as little as it tolerates Imperial soldiers. Lack of resources and lack of active interference in the Empire are how it stays independent. I doubt there's anyone there who could actually hurt any of us but... I'd rather not press our luck. Besides, things will go a lot smoother for us if they think we're just another random group of visitors."
Bra shrugged. "Maybe. But we're not with the Empire anymore. I don't think we'd have much to worry about anyway."
"You know, I'd thought I'd recognized the name." Pan said as she finished off her stack of pancakes. "17 told me about it. He'd been tracking a defector with important knowledge and followed them to Xentron, probably how he knows enough about the planet to decide to go there. Anyway, he never managed to recapture the person."
"Escaped?" asked Bra.
"No, beaten to death by the natives." said Pan, frowning. "Apparently they found out he used to be with the Empire and had left, so they attacked him."
"What? But... that doesn't make any sense..." Bra said, joining the two of them at the table with her own plate of pancakes. "Why would they attack someone who's not with the Empire anymore?"
"For the same basic reason they attack those who are." 17 said, entering the room. "Imperial soldiers aren't welcome because they all have ill feelings toward the Empire. Former Imperial soldiers aren't welcome because they could bring the Empire to Xentron, searching for them. Just like it brought me there for the defector Pan mentioned." 17 shrugged. "They'll tolerate visits from Resistance members more than vists from Imperials or former Imperials. Though Resistance members can overstay their welcome pretty easily, too. They want to avoid any and all association with anything that could make the Empire take an interest in them."
"Is it really ok for us to go there, then?" Pan asked.
"Shouldn't be an issue." said 17. "We'll just have to disguise ourselves so we're not recognized. Chances are good Vegeta and the others wont send anyone out here to look for us because of the volatile nature of the planet's population. It's why I picked Xentron. If they do want to check the planet for us one of them would have to come out and do it personally. Oh, and you two will have to be extra careful." he said, turning his gaze to look at both Pan and Bra.
"Us?" asked Bra. "Why?"
"When I was here four years ago looking for that defector I never landed on the planet. I spoke via transmission to one of the world leaders, if you can really call them that. I figured I'd get more cooperation if I extended them the courtesy of being diplomatic and showed I had no interest in them. I was right, they sent me the guy's body without even the slightest fuss, and apologized that he was already dead, even. Anyway, while I never went to the surface I was close enough to the planet to get some power readings. There were at least a dozen powers over the ten million mark."
"What!" Pan asked, shocked. There were a few non Masters in the Empire who broke the million mark, but not many, and the only non Master that Pan had ever heard of that broke the ten million mark was Slug.
17 nodded. "I never reported it because..." he shrugged. "I doubt Vegeta would have really cared, anyway, but no reason to run the risk when there was no credible threat from the powers. Anyway, I don't know who they were or why they were on the planet so it's possible they could still be down there. Which is why I want you two to be careful. Oh, and also, keep yourselves suppressed while we're there. Somewhere in ten thousand range would be best, I think. High powers are fairly common there, but not from people so young. Don't want to draw attention to ourselves."