Cosmos
Claws wreathed in strands of golden hair streaked with dirt, Chaos loomed over Cosmos; she gasped for breath but no fear flickered on her face. His arm stumps swung around, dried blood caking the edges and his tail beat the earth like a club. The goddess did not squirm and struggle in his vise grip; she merely stared at him, bare arms shining with a lattice of drying ichor. She hung limply and against the voice screaming in his mind, Chaos retracted.
A shooting star streaked across the sky, glowing brighter and hotter than the belt of blood orange stars studding the heavens. The sphere swerved, careering downwards towards Cosmos, her golden ornaments glowed in the light cast by the falling star and Chaos stepped back, pupils narrowing at Cierr Harmonia hurtling for his neck.
"We shall meet again Chaos," the goddess stated softly, a smattering of silver across her lips. "The next time we meet-" air whistled around his ears, the beating of webbed wings, "-I shall take you to the different worlds, we can have ice-cream..." her words died in his ears and a dozen teeth pierced his neck. "We shall..."
Cosmos stopped speaking when Chaos imploded into nothing. His skin swelled, popping and before blood and bits of organ sprayed on her halter dress, the droplets evaporated in the thin air. Cierr Harmonia vibrated angrily in Shinryu's curled tail, the tip of the godly scythe strained to rip the scales off the armored dragon's back.
Time stopped.
The goddess lunged and the scythe whipped back to her, she swiped the blade, aiming to catch Shinryu's head along with it, the frozen dragon retreated.
Time flowed.
He jerked back, wings blasting air in Cosmos' face, her hair flipped back wildly and she jumped when the ground erupted beneath her. Hands reached from below, catching the tails of her dress and a curve of light blue energy scarred the ground. The hands wailed and retreated.
A magic circle inked itself across the earth, growing, expanding to all corners of the barren plain. Keeping the flitting goddess at bay with his thick tail, Shinryu whirled around, struggling to lift off the ground.
A shapeless mist rose from the glittering circle and condensed to form an individual cloaked in silks of grey. Thick chains, the color of slate, wrapped the individual's billowing cloak to its body and Death raised its head, hefting two long barreled guns.
Death did not often smile, when it was a wee brat, awkwardly manipulating a grey scythe twice its size, it kept its hood over a masked face and its head remained bowed at all times.
Now, the same entity grinned wide, shapeless eyes crinkling behind its death mask and hefted the impossibly long guns at Shinryu.
"Death...I implore you to reap," Cosmos ordered whilst hovering above him, her palms pressed together.
Grinning inching to a respectable, unnerving smile, Death launched and shot with careless abandon.
Bullets spat, gouging earth, ripping scales and the guns sounded like ominous thunder. Shinryu tore from the gravitational pull anchoring him to the floor and took the skies, glaring atDeath. The individual simply smiled and jumped, slamming the butt end of his gun against the dragon's snout. A dark bruise flowered and faded immediately. Whipping the gun, Death wrapped Shinryu with a long chain and stared at dismay when the chain eroded into bits of dust.
The entity stopped for a split second, examining his broken chain and a tail thwacked him backwards into Cosmos. Before colliding, Death sent another chain and Shinryu growled.
Since when did the offshoot of a brat grow so strong?!
Irises of burnished gold flickered towards Cosmos, her eyes following Death's minute movements. The individual leveled the guns and bullets ripped.
They slammed in Shinryu with the force of a cannon ball and he roared, reducing the remaining hail of bullets into dust. The planesgorger roared again, this time taking Death's long guns and eating part of his hands.
Again, Death stared at its hands quizzically and shook them. To Shinryu's boiling wrath, Cosmos wrapped Death's hands in hers and the appendages grew back, the individual grinned again, rotated his arms and clapped his hands, parting them slowly to reveal a silvery grey scythe.
The curved blade scythed through Shinryu's forelimb, stopped by his hardened skeleton. Not missing a beat, Death grinded the blade against the bone and grabbed the awkwardly hanging talon. With a grunt, he sent Shinryu flying for the nearest cliff.
Flapping his wings to regain control, the dragon hissed when Cierr Harmonia whizzed out of thin air and dug in his eye. Gold ichor trickled down the side of his face. The scythe lifted and suddenly Death grinned again, spinning the godly scythe in its hands.
The weapon flashed, hooking on Shinryu's scales and ripping them from his leathery hide. He roared in pain.
Pain...when last did he feel such agony?
The scales rose in the air and fluttered to the ground like bronze, oversized confetti.
Behind the furiously working Death, Cosmos looked down on Shinryu.
He lunged forward, earning a deep, irreparable cut to his side. Death jerked back, not quick enough and stared at the hole in his chest. The individual brought Cierr Harmonia up to block a devastating talon strike and sprang backwards. Shinryu almost smiled when with a flap of his wings, Death melted and along with it, Cosmos lowered to the floor.
Her dress lost its pure white luster, instead ash, dirt and her draining strength colored the dress into grey. Grey and soulless like the environment surrounding them.
"You superimposed yourself on Death," Shinryu triumphantly gloated as Cosmos leaned on her scythe. "Did you think you would be able to get rid of me that easily? I am wounded by your lack of faith in me." The dragon hissed as one wing snapped at the base and tumbled to the earth, smoke rose from his flank, his tail lay like an extra, useless organ and growling under his breath, he tore his broken forelimb. "Stand still and bear witness as I devour this world!"
He opened his mouth wide, bronze gullet glittering in the dark surrounds. Shinryu took a deep breath, his ribcage rattling and prepared to roar, to blast the backdoor to the Void into nothing.
A light sword flew like a comet and impaled his exposed gullet. Another rained from the sky, spearing his working wing. And yet another dozen hammered on his tail, his back legs and Shinryu screamed gutturally, trying to tear free from the needles of light.
"I'm not dead after all." The Warrior of Light examined himself, flexing his fingers and Cosmos spun around, knees weak in relief. His expression hardened at the sight of Shinryu gurgling angrily. Kneeling to the ground, the Warrior of Light paid due respect to Cosmos and straightened up. "I do not have much time, I must return," he factually stated before turning around and vanishing as abruptly as he came.
Cosmos blinked at his brusque entrance and exit. A figment of her imagination?
But the unearthly roars of pain emanating from Shinryu and the curses he hurled towards the peeling sky told another tale.
Breathing deeply, she clasped her scythe firmly and walked, coming to a pause in front of the thrashing dragon.
"You brought this upon yourself, Shinryu," Cosmos commented, her voice barely above a whisper. "Why?" she asked, mournful at what has become of her once beloved mentor. "Why do this for power? You are the most powerful being in the multi-universe and I fail to grasp your intentions."
Body heaving and steam curling from his leathery, wrinkled hide, Shinryu shuffled, angling his face so the goddess saw the hate simmering in his eyes. What would she know? How could she understand? The pull of power was absolute. "Do you not hunger for power?" he rasped, long strings of saliva dripping off his jaws. "Of course you do," he replied to his question, "you would not be seeking the Crystals if you did not want power." The dragon reared to his benumbed hind legs."Let me tell you Cosmos: it is in everything's nature to want power, to grow stronger each minute, each second, to evolve into the ultimate being and reach a state where nothing can surpass, I am for such a cosmos, a place of constant strife where only the truly powerful will ascend the next plane of existence. What do you see now?" He attempted a feeble lunge and Cosmos smacked his snapping jaws away from her. "A mismatch of worlds, each planet governed by their own rules, the races, the mortals fighting madly and only the victor has their voices heard."
"As it should be," Cosmos raised her scythe high, Shinryu was beyond saving, black veins spread across his skin and the remaining scales chafed off. "The world spins in the direction of what is right, not in the direction of the strong."
"Should be?!" the dragon roared and the veins receded, the plains beyond Cosmos reduced to nothing, a storm of dust swirling in the Void. "You do not hunger for power any longer?" he sneered, "you do, I see it in your eyes, you want to be the supreme ruler of this universe, you are a hypocrite, Cosmos!"
Struggling valiantly against the light swords pinning him to a floor darker than black, Shinryu growled defiantly as the scythe swung at him. For a split second, Cosmos' face melted away, replaced by the grinning mask of Death, a silver grey hood shaded her head and Cierr Harmonia descended like a pendulum.
Shinryu grinned; his head flew in an arc, trailing bronze ichor.
"I do not seek power," the goddess' voice echoed everywhere. "I am the ultimate form, a goddess; I am free of such desires." She picked up the dragon's head; bronze fluid seeped into her palms. "You blood shall cleanse this land Shinryu, and the wars will start anew. Fear not," a ghost of a smile crept across her face, "I shall uphold what you failed to do."
An explosion of emerald spread outwards from her heels. Greenery carpeted the barren landscape, forcing the rivers of lava to flow in reverse. Trees sprouted, grew and bloomed into pastel shades of pink, mauve, orange and yellow gold. As the universe orbited and expanded around her, Cosmos stood in the center, cradling Shinryu's head. Gold stained her dress.
And tear tracks drew wet lines on her cheeks.
A/N: Death was inspired by Persona 3's death. I remember when I first ran into that thing in Tartarus…my god I was out of that dungeon very fast. There is an epilogue after this for those who are interested. Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome.
At Nonny: Half-truths are a good form of manipulation. You don't get the whole story and its difficult to refute it because it is 'true.' Whoa, I didn't think about WoL like that, related to Chaos huh? Well, Chaos is resting in peace, the poor demon deserves it. And yeah, the chapter is heavy, so I wanted to lighten it up a bit.