"More than that. I want oblivion. I want my life to end. I want it all to stop. No nothing! No memories, no Tartarus, nothing! And I know, I know she can do it." - Callisto - Xena Warrior Princess
BoS
Monkey was leaning against his staff, watching Font who sat a little ways from them.
"You should take a break." He muttered as he could see sweat breaking on the demon's forehead.
"I will find her." Font stated, his eyes closed as he did his best to maintain his concentration, however distracting Monkey was.
"I'll take my cloud to look around and when I get back, you can try some more." Monkey said, but the demon didn't heed him.
"He's right Font, you should take a break or you'll tire yourself out too much. What if they come back? You know we have to keep with the plan." Sandy said as she took a few steps to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. The demon held back a sigh as he slowly opened his eyes to glare at the god. Sandy gave him a frown and pulled her hand away.
"I'm sorry." She muttered, she hadn't meant to make him feel uneasy, but he shook his head.
"I don't understand how our connection is severed." He admitted, running a hand through his hair, exasperated.
"You don't think..." Pigsy's tone turned grim and it made all of them look to him.
"No... She's not dead." Monkey refused to believe that. He did his best to stay cheerful with a clear head. As long as Tripitaka was out there then he had to hope he cold save her. If he let his mind even go there, he was afraid he would be crushed by his own defeat. No… Surely they would find her and she would be fine and they wold get on with their quest. That's what he needed to believe.
"Monkey, what if Pigsy is right?" Sandy bit her lip and grabbed at her overcoat, tightening her grip as her eyes stared into space.
"No, he's right. If they wanted her dead they would have killed her then." Font stated. You don't just take people to kill them, usually, if you wanted them dead, you would just kill them on the spot." Font explained as looked between the two.
"I think it's some sort of magic that's blocking my connection to her." He added, closing his eyes tightly for a second as he concentrated. He could feel it between them, like a big heavy cloud of chaotic darkness, severing the link he had to his master.
"Well, I'll be back, I'll find the next village too, we'll ask around." Monkey stated.
"Get us before you go in, promise me Monkey." Sandy turned her eyes to him and wore a serious face, her tone of voice matching. She wanted to be there, sometimes Monkey didn't catch onto things. Normally she loved that about him, but when it came to Tripitaka's life, she would take no chances.
"Yeah, Monkey, don't forget," Pigsy added. Monkey nodded at them, he understood their worry. In honest, he was terrified too. If something happened to Tripitaka... He had already promised himself that he wouldn't let anyone take her again and now he had already failed.
"I'll be back." Was all he said as he whistled and tsked, hoping his cloud would deem this a good cause. Luckily, he sensed it nearing and as soon as he felt it's presence, he leapt up, onto it. Two gods and a demon watched him zoom off into the distance, soon fading from their sight.
"I hope he finds her," Sandy said as she sat down, her hands still clenching her overcoat. Pigsy made his way over and took a seat beside her.
"It'll be okay, Monkey will get her back and we'll be safe and continue our quest." He told her, but what he said seemed to make it worse. Her voice cracked as she stuffed her face into his shoulder. She didn't cry, but small whimpers left her lips every now and again as she tried to hold back tears.
"Shhh, it'll be okay," Pigsy said as he brought a hand to her head and smoothed back her hair. Font finally went towards them and crouched down in front of the two.
"We will get her back and make who did this pay." The demon muttered his promise of revenge.
"And the one-eyed demon will suffer too, I will make sure of it." He added. As soon as the demons had retreated and they had tended to Pigsy's wounds, the chef for a god had whispered in the demon's ear exactly what had happened.
He had asked him to take it easy on Sandy, that she seemed in no mood for banter since she had been rendered powerless. It only fueled the demon's anger more. Sure, he had many times decided he hated the water god, but when it came down to it... He had decided that anyone who hurt his new companions would have to forfeit their life.
As much as he hated to admit, and he never would out loud, he had grown fond of bickering back and forth with Sandy. He enjoyed helping Pigsy with preparing food and serving it and of course eating it especially. Even Monkey, they had their moments when they got along, mostly when it came to Tripitaka, but the demon had also grown accustomed to his outbursts of stupidity. It did make for a pleasant smirk, at the very least.
Then there was Tripitaka. If not for her, who knew where he would be? Whose control he would be under? She treated him with a kind regard and... She tried her best with him. She tried to treat him right, to not order him around. She made promises to him that meant more than anything. She was an honorable master and if he were to willingly lay down his life for a cause, he had decided it would be for her. He already had permission to help her in whatever way he could, so finding her first was of the utmost importance.
Worst of all though was the sinking feeling he felt in his chest when he thought of her now. He felt downright sick when he theorized what the women had wanted with her. The armor looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place it. Flashes of obscure inky letters, rotting flesh, and blood filled his head when he thought of them.
—"Naturally, we would have come to collect what is owed to us. Many resources went into this, yet we haven't seen a cut." The voice was fuzzy for a moment, but slowly, everything came into focus. He stood there, still and straight, back to the wall, completely unmoving.
"I will make a copy of the spells and give that to you," a girl with long blonde hair said. The Shaman took a step towards her.
"And how long would that take?" He asked. The girl hid her lips with her sleeve.
"As long as it takes, that is how long." She answered. The Shaman gazed at her long and hard.
"Davari has decided that he would like me to run a series of tests on one." He tilted his head slightly with a look of certainty. He had something planned.
"I mean, I suppose," She began, but he held a hand up to stop her.
"Of our choosing or we pull our backing and you lose everything." The Shaman explained. The girl widened her eyes at him.
"You can't be serious, this is my life's work, this is," she was cut off by him.
"You cannot even truly read the god language, that was Davari's use for you!" The Shaman finally let out, he grew tired of her antics.
"If you cannot even give him proof that you have been useful, he has commanded that in return for our services, without any sort of cut now, you will have to forfeit your life," The Shaman explained. Her eyes narrowed on him.
"Which one?" She asked.
"You know which one." The Shaman answered.—
Font stumbled backward and Sandy and Pigsy gave him a look. He put his hand to his head, trying to erase the images from his mind. He decided not to say anything, he was sure it would only worry them more. He couldn't even make sense of what it meant, how would he even explain it to them?
"They will pay." Pigsy's voice broke the demon from his thoughts. Font looked to Pigsy who had a look of furious motivation.
"Yes," Sandy muttered as she pulled away from Pigsy's shoulder and sucked in a long deep breath.
"We will see to that." She added as her eyes seemed to darken.
"I will kill the one-eyed demon." She bit out. Pigsy's eyes softened at her as his face twisted somewhat. He looked worriedly at the water god.
"We'll kill him together," Pigsy added as he placed a comforting arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. Sandy pulled away sharply and got up onto her feet.
"Let's practice the plan again." Her voice became cold and Pigsy's brows only furrowed more with concern.
"Sandy, we went over it several times already." Pigsy tried to reason. Ever since earlier, she had barely spoken and barely opened up. Pigsy knew that the whole thing was just too much for her. Being literally powerless and watching Tripitaka be taken away, along with what the one-eyed demon had done, it really scared her.
"Exactly, only a few times isn't enough for it to be perfect." She said as she looked at the demon.
"You coming or not?" She questioned. Font frowned at her.
"I need to preserve my power to search for a connection with Tripitaka." He admitted. He had already spent too much of himself. Even he had limits. What with all the sparring earlier and trying to get past the wall of darkness that severed his connection to Tripitaka, he was mentally exhausted. Monkey had been right, he just hated to admit it.
Sandy frowned at him before rolling her eyes just slightly and turning away. She melted into water, only to reappear a few feet away. She misted herself over and over as she worked to use it to her advantage, throwing kicks and punches and jabbing her weapon forward every time she teleported. Pigsy huffed out a sigh as he began to stand up. He would once again spar with Sandy as she misted from spot to spot, he wouldn't leave her to just go it on her own. He had the feeling that in reality she really needed someone right now. His eyes turned to the demon.
"You look exhausted. Why don't you take a nap while you can?" Pigsy questioned. Font's face grew annoyed but quickly softened. He knew the god was only looking out for him.
"I'll make sure to wake you for dinner," Pigsy added.
"Wake me up if Monkey gets here before then." Font requested and Pigsy nodded. He looked tired himself.
BoS
Hours had gone by, maybe days? No, it couldn't have been days by now because Tripitaka knew if it had been, she'd be hungry by now. She was a little hungry, but she was only starting to just become so. She had taken to sitting criss-cross on her bed as she decided to go over things in her head.
What she did know was that someone had her kidnapped and had removed her clothes and locked her in this room. She knew that someone had somehow done something to make her friend's abilities not work. She suspected it was something to do with the papers that had the strange writing on them. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it.
Font's face had similar writing. It looked similar to the God language, but foreign at the same time. She couldn't help wondering if the symbols on his face had any connection to the ones from the slips of paper.
Then she went over what she didn't know. She didn't know who had done all of this or who was responsible for staging it. She didn't know if her friends were okay. She didn't know where she was and she didn't know what was going to happen to her.
"Okay Tripitaka, come up with a plan, you can do this." She muttered to herself.
"The door is locked, there are no windows, no one is here to rescue you, you gotta do this for yourself for once!" Her voice was still low, but she exclaimed the last sentence quietly to herself. She finally slipped off the bed and stood there, staring at the door as she put her hand to her chin.
"Okay, okay, what would Monkey do?" She asked herself. She bit her lip and sighed.
"Okay, gonna just kick the door down, this will be easy peasy, no problem." She said to herself as she bent her knees and brought her arms into position to get the right balance as she widened her footing. She narrowed her eyes at the door and breathed inwards deeply. On her exhale she threw her foot as hard as could against the handle, exerting all the force she could muster.
"Ahh!" She grabbed her foot in pain and bounced clumsily on the other as she lost her footing. She landed half on the bed and floor as she still clenched her foot and she bit her lip.
"Okay, that didn't work." Her voice slipped out in a half hiss. She grabbed her foot and pulled it closer to her face so that she could get a better look at it. She supposed maybe this would have been better to do in shoes, but desperate times did call for desperate measures.
"Okay, so not the Monkey way, that's not the way for me." She muttered as she now wondered what Sandy would do.
"No... She'd just mist herself out." She shook her head. She didn't have such an ability. Her mind turned to Pigsy.
"I mean, he would probably confide with the rest of us on what to do." She decided.
"Monkey, what do you think we should do?" She mimicked Pigsy's voice.
"Obviously, we just kick this door down!" She now mimicked Monkey.
"Yes, but your powers don't work on the door." She replied for imaginary Pigsy.
"Oh, well I can mist us out then!" She said attempting Sandy's voice.
"Oh, well, really, none of your powers work in here. Tripitaka, what do you think?" She said for Pigsy. She then huffed a sigh and crossed her arms.
"I don't know, I don't know what to do without you guys, I just need you guys, please... That's why I was asking you, stupid made-up Pigsy that isn't really here..." She bit her lip, holding in a sob. It wasn't long ago that she had been taken by Davari and now she was taken again. How useless was she? She felt totally hopeless and like she was just wasting their time at this point. She was always slowing them down.
Her thoughts turned to Font. Even he was a better asset to the team than her.
"And you Font, what would you do?" She asked herself. She turned her eyes to the door and glared at it.
"Maybe it'll just burst into flames from my fiery glare?" Her voice broke and she dropped to the floor, pulling her legs to her chest and burying her face against her knees. She refused to cry, not now, not here. She was going to be strong. She would find a way out. She had to.
Skreeeeek!
The noise caught Tripitaka off guard as she jumped slightly and looked upwards. Towering above her was a woman in the now open doorway. She wore elegant robes that were different from the ones Tripitaka had been provided and her black hair was pulled up into a no-nonsense sort of bun.
"Come child, the order awaits." She said as she turned around and stepped into the hallway. Tripitaka stared at the open door. The outside showed a dungeon-like stone wall that was only lit by fire-burning torches here and there. She swallowed deeply before heaving in a breath and slowly getting to her feet. Anxiety coursed through her veins and she took one step out to look at the woman. She was already well down the hall, her back to Tripitaka.
"What did you do to my friends? Why am I here!? Who are you?" Tripitaka shouted out, but the woman said nothing, instead, she continued on. Tripitaka took another nervous breath and tried to calm her nerves. She took small steps at first but slowly gained her composure as she followed the mysterious woman.
Once they were at the end of the hall, the woman pushed open a door that was lit with an ominous green light. Tripitaka followed her in to see at least ten or eleven other girls standing in the center, all in the same attire Tripitaka had also been given. The woman gestured with her hand for Tripitaka to join them.
"What is this place?" Tripitaka's voice was quieter than she had meant for it to come out. Her heart was beating so hard that it hurt and she felt it was hard to breathe.
"Join your sisters child, and you shall find out soon enough." The woman said, trotting to a podium at one end of the room.
On either side of the wall stood women in armor, hoods, and cheerful masks hiding their faces. Next to them, several more woman who wore robes that were different from her own but not as extravagant as the one's the woman who brought her here had worn. Tripitaka slowly stepped towards the other girls who gave her nervous glances.
"Ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you all. I am sure you are curious where you are and who I am and what your fate shall be." The woman stated, looking them over.
"This is my home, the temple of the shadow goddess. She loves us all very much and she has given us your names, and we heeded her call." The woman stated.
"You may call me Daiyu and I have the honor of telling you all that you are special, each and every one of you." She added. Tripitaka and the other girls traded looks, but no one said a word.
"For years the gods have forsaken us and the demons run rabid through the lands." She went on.
"Yet, the goddess has whispered to me. She has told me her divine plans and shown me what we must do to achieve cultivation and we will become the new gods of this world." The woman said.
"We shall destroy the demons, she has given each of us the power to do so already." The woman, Daiyu seemed satisfied with herself as she looked at the new initiate's faces. They looked shocked and afraid and Tripitaka was not exempt.
"How can any of us destroy demons?" One girl asked, sounding unsure. Tripitaka turned her eyes to her. Daiyu gave her an emptily warm smile.
"Simple, she has gifted us with spells and the ability to use them." The woman said as she held a hand up and made a gesture to one of the women at her side. The other robed lady came forward, her face under the shadow of her hood.
She held up a jeweled container, looking like a gaudy vase to Tripitaka. Daiyu stuck her hand in it and held up a handful of something. When she opened her clenched hand, Tripitaka narrowed her eyes at the shimmery purple dust she held. Daiyu gently blew on it and as if by magic, it soared out, directly to the girls in the center, hovering around their faces as they breathed it in unexpectedly. It tickled
Tripitaka's nose making her sneeze before coughing. She couldn't stop coughing and she could hear the other girls coughing too. Then laughter broke out. Tripitaka's eyes widened as fear settled under her skin. Panic pumped her blood like an ocean of stormy water and brought to the forefront of her mind that she may die. She had to escape. She had to find a way out. She had to...
Her pupils dilated as her gaze caught her foot. Her lips quirked upwards as she saw that the colors were different, more vibrant. Her lungs cleared and her cough calmed and she slowly straightened up. She took a breath from her nose and swore she could smell the sweet perfume of flowers.
A laugh left her lips. Everything just felt kind of hazy and well... Hilarious. Like the other girls, she began to laugh, unable to hold back her joy. It was strange because she knew she should be worried but her problems seemed miles away now.
"Does anyone know what this is?" The woman, Tripitaka forgot her name, questioned as she held up a big piece of parchment with a character on it. Tripitaka gazed at it with the other girls. The others seemed lost, not at all knowing.
"It looks like some weird word from another language." One girl said. The woman frowned, she had obviously hoped at least one of them would already know. Tripitaka laughed, and hard at that, a snort escaping out once or twice. She eventually calmed down and straightened up once again.
"It means shield in the God language," Tripitaka stated. The woman gazed at her as if for the first time.
"And this one?" She asked, holding another paper up. Tripitaka gave her a look as if it was really obvious.
"Protect," Tripitaka answered. The woman now beamed at Tripitaka.
"And this?" She held up one more. Tripitaka's frown faded as she stared at the word.
"Energy." She said. Something felt weird about this. Something wasn't right.
"Very good. Now, can you tell me what would happen if we lay the letters over each other?" She asked.
Tripitaka narrowed her eyes. This was important, for something else. Something that she couldn't remember. She tried to think, she put all her will into trying to remember. Gray eyes and blonde hair flashed through her mind, but it wasn't enough for her to focus in on. Fear shook through her once more. Why didn't she know why this was important? Who was the person with gray eyes and blonde hair? Why was her memory failing her? How did she even get here?
"It makes a spell." The woman informed them.
"And the more times you do a spell, the stronger your spiritual energy will become, until one day, we all reach a Demon Lord Deity level of immortality."
"Demon Lord Deity level?" A girl next to Tripitaka whispered it with confusion. It didn't make much sense to Tripitaka either. Levels of immortality? There were gods and there were demons, nothing else… Right?
BoS
A/N: I am so excited to share this chapter! I have just been waiting! Some changes have been made to the story and I've been planning and planning(inspiration about cultivation and thoughts on why some gods are born gods and some humans become gods in this universe. How do demons come about? What circumstances break the rules to either of these methods? Like, there is the scroll of immortality and that can technically make someone into a god. So in a way, its like a cheat code, but are there cheat codes into making demons too?) etc, so it has taken a moment.
Also, if you've noticed the new quote, it simply means it's a new arc. The last arc was the Font Origin Part One arc, don't worry, I am going to go back to it later, directly after this small, six chapter arc...
This arc is as the chapter title implies, The Order of Chaos arc. Ah! I'm so excited! Let me get a hat so I can hold onto it. Yeah yeah, being cheesy, I know.
So, they won't see each other for a moment, but when they do, what will happen? Also, will Tripitaka even be able to manage to get out of the strange trance from the purple dusting? Only time will tell. *Evil laugh!* Slowly we are making progress to all the plots and subplots, and soon enough we will get a move on to resolutions and my master plan of two villians(I so wanna talk about them already but cannot) I have long dreamed of will come into play. I cannot, cannot, cannot wait!
Also, Idk if anyone checks out the songs, but I find this track particularly awesome, I imagined Tripitaka's whole scene to it here and have just been itching to get here and fix it up for posting(I write about five chaps ahead.) More to come, some bad omens indeed, as well as a rescue plan, but who knows if that'll work out?
Song inspiration: Hypnosis theme - Wax Taylor