Occult Beasts: Leviathan
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the author created characters and concepts. Thanks to Ranger Red 2.3, Mistycharming and SA June for their OC's used in this fic.
"Wow Saya… I didn't know you really felt that way. We've usually been so focused on what problem's been in front of us, I guess I never thought about this kind of thing, or how you might feel." Joe replied to Saya, now that she had summoned up the courage to finally express her feelings with a little push from an old friend and Joe had begun considering just how and why she could have come to feel this way, the two stood in silence for a few moments. "I'm gonna feel bad about saying this after everything you've just said, but I can't answer you."
"Huh?" She asked, stunned by his impartial answer, while she was ready for a no, what he had said caught her off guard.
"Well, I can't answer you right away. You've been thinking long and hard about this right? It's been with you for a while but with everything we deal with on a daily basis, I've never had a chance to think about something like this. Sorry to ask this Saya but can you wait? I'll tell you how I feel one day, okay? But I need time, time to find my feelings for myself, is that alright?"
Saya lowered her head and gave a deep sigh. "It's alright, it was silly of me to ask you out of the blue and put you on the spot like that, thinking maybe somehow everything would go like a dumb rom-com these humans like so much." She paused and nodded, keeping her eyes fixed to the floor. "Okay, I'll wait to hear how you feel and even if you don't feel the same way, I'll try to come to terms with it. I just had to let you know now." She raised her head and met her eyes to his, giving a forced smile. "Don't worry Joe, even if it hurts a little that I still don't get to know, I'm happy to get it off my chest. But please d-don't worry about me..." Her voice became weaker, trailing off as she ran to the door and broke out into a sprint as she passed through it, wanting to get away as quickly as she could, hoping the aching in her chest would subside if she could just get away.
Joe was left alone in the room, surprised by her sudden sprinting maneuver to flee, but he could guess it had to do with his answer, or lack thereof. While he was a little worried, he couldn't exactly take back his words and tell her a lie just to spare her feelings. He did know what he had to do though, find out how he felt and tell her the truth. When he did that, he hoped for better or worse that it wouldn't hurt the friendship they had forged so far.
"Joe, is everything okay? I just saw Saya run out in tears, you two didn't fight over something did you?" A serene and familiar voice asked.
Tears. Joe hadn't seen any running down her face but hearing it from someone else, his indecisive answer had hurt her more than he saw, no doubt she wanted to spare him from the agony she was feeling from loving someone who might not even love her back, it just added to the guilt he was feeling over being the root cause of this ordeal. No, he couldn't allow the guilt he felt to sway his actions. He decided then, in that moment, if his answer really was no, he'd find a way to ease the even greater pain it would no doubt cause her.
Turning around, he found the red headed, young Angel walking into the room. Whether she had waited for Saya's private talk with Joe to end, or she had been passing along when the blue ranger burst out, couldn't be said, yet even though the white and blue rangers were members of opposing species, he could see the genuine concern she had in her eyes as she came closer.
"It's something personal, she said she'll be alright. If you're worried about her, go ask what's wrong." Joe said, respecting the fact Saya may want to keep such an intimate conversation between the two of them, even if the alternative could solve more problems than it could create.
"Understood, Demons don't deserve to hurt any more than Angels, humans or anyone else does. Despite what the High Heavens teaches." She added as her eyes narrowed.
"That's good of you to think, but you've been clashing with everything Michael's been telling you for a while now haven't you? What's up Sera?" He caught onto her change in tone and thought, Sera took a deep breath and relaxed her body.
"That's why I came back here, to see if you were still here. When I was brought back, I don't know how many lies they told me, I don't know how much they told me was true, so I'm trying to decide those things on my own now. Like with Demons, I don't think they're evil, not like the ones we're taught about. Saya, her Sister, even Lelina are all good, even if one does things because she's bored. But Lelina's also why I'm here."
"Huh? What'd she do this time?" Joe asked, worried the young Phoenix Demon's antics had set the white ranger on a wild goose chase.
"Oh, she didn't do a thing. She mentioned to us about the Wellspring nestled between the Celestial realms, remember? I've decided for sure, I want my memories back. I want to go to the Wellspring. But till I find a way there, I'll just have to do research. That's why I wanted to ask you if I could go back to the High Heavens, just for a couple of days. I want to find anything I can on it in the realm's libraries, as long as you don't mind." She asked his permission, this on top of what Saya had confessed only a few minutes ago was a lot to process, leaving Joe's mind more than a little frazzled.
"It's what you want right? Go ahead, we'll take care of things here. Be a lot harder than if you were around but it's something you want right? Can't stop you." Joe blurted out, sounding slightly frustrated with the recent developments, though to Sera, he only seemed mad with her.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, if I'm making it all harder for you by leaving, I should stay. Sorry for bothering you." She apologised, her voice sounding flat and disheartened after Joe's minor outburst.
Joe took a deep breath and shook his head. "I didn't mean it that way, you should go, I'm just under a lot of pressure right now. Sorry for getting snappy with you."
Sera's face lightened a little, relieved it was just a misunderstanding. "Thanks Joe. I'll be back as soon as I can, but saying that, checking out a tome in any of the Celestial libraries is probably going to take the longest time to do out of anything else."
"Huh, why's that?"
"Bureaucracy."
[Occult Circle]
"Here you are Lady Saya, as you requested." The Demon Servant Matsoudoch said as he passed the blue ranger a hot cup of tea as she sat at the table in her home's kitchen and gave a grateful nod.
"Thank you for making it, this blend always makes me feel better when I'm down."
"I live to serve your family." Matt said as he took a seat in an adjacent chair at the table and let out a sigh. "But if that's how you feel about him, I'm afraid all I can do is my job, Lady Saya. I can tell that you really do love the immortal don't you?" Saya gave a nod before drinking from her cup. "Then all I can do is accept that and give you my moral support. As a longtime friend, your sister's Chamberlain and lifelong servant of your family."
"I appreciate it Matsoudoch, it's big of you to let go of your own desires like this, just so I can try and pursue my own happiness, I just hope Joe feels the same in the end." She gave a grateful smile to the manservant.
"My love for the Leviathan Household is great, Lady Saya. Nothing will change that and I express that love through my service to your family. All I live for is to serve, it was silly of me to pursue any other, more primal, callings. This is the only one I need." He gave a nod and stood up, shutting his eyes for a few moments before finally opening them. "Yes. Now if you'll excuse me another load of laundry is ready and I yet have more to get washed and dried. It still amazes me how much new clothing my Lady has bought since coming to the human realm but I suppose she's always been quite the shopper."
Saya gave an amused chuckle before taking another sip from her cup, fondly remembering how her sister would buy eccentric new outfits back when the two resided in the underworld, and how their father would always be shocked whenever she did so. As she recounted the fond and humorous memories of her childhood, a TV in the sitting room played away to itself as a local news station reported in on the interesting and mysterious events of the day. While the station had always reported in on the unusual events around Numin, the current report was of particular interest as Saya's mind caught back up to reality upon hearing some select words from the broadcast and she quickly flicked her eyes over to the direction of the TV.
"Over the past few days, there have been several sightings of a large unidentified object under the water moving down the large river that eventually connects Lake Numin to the Ocean. The few who have reported sightings said the figure was scarily large, fast and swimming in the direction of our City's nearby Lake, while one also reported hearing a strange wailing sound, almost like a whale. Authorities have warned civilians to stay away from the area until the situations has been resolved."
"Wait…" Saya let out before hastily pushing herself up from the table. "Wailing, that's the same as… It couldn't be. I need to get the others. We need to head to Lake Numin quickly, or else we're going to have a big problem heading straight for the City." She concluded as she rushed from the kitchen and out of the house, whatever she had concluded, whatever was bound for the Lake, the situation was more dire than anyone else suspected.
[Occult Circle]
Eventually, the blue ranger had managed to gather all but one of her teammates. While the news that Sera had decided to pursue her own goals for the next few days was quite a blow to their chances of victory if this river monster was what she thought it was, Saya couldn't really do a thing about it. With time being of the essence, it was now or never to stop the monster in the river.
With the sun hanging low in the now orange sky, the five rangers made their way to the edge of Lake Numin, waiting for the creature to inevitably surface if Saya was right about it.
"So you're sure you know what this thing is?" Max asked, stretching his body in several directions, in an effort to prepare for whatever beast they were about to face.
"I am." Saya affirmed, squatting down by the Lake's edge and dipping her hand into the cool water, closing her eyes. "You know the House I belong to, you know it's name. What you probably don't know of is our connection to the Infernal Beast of the same name." She started before standing to properly address her teammates.
"So you're say this thing-" Nyssa concluded, being met with a firm nod from Saya before being cut off by the High Demon.
"Indeed. But first you should know the full truth to this. Back in the early days of humans and even before then, we Demons didn't have a class system, nor did we have Houses to rule. Back then things were very different. Demons lived in fear of the great Infernal Beasts that dominated the land, sea and sky. The Behemoths, The Phoenixes, The Leviathans and what we first called Greater Demons. The Satan beasts. Each were colossal monsters that killed many of our people. Eventually, using some of the first Infernal magic spells, they were tamed."
"Hard to believe you guys were afraid of anything but I see where this' going. Your four main Houses did that right?" Ellie concluded.
"Exactly. It was because of this, we began to explore our own inherent magic and that's when everything changed for us Demons. With relative peace, they eventually became Royal Houses alongside Lucifer's emergence, but that's for another time. The four Infernal Beasts are bound to our Houses now. As is custom in my House, we each are gifted an infant Leviathan to care for when we reach the age of eight."
"Wait you're telling me you're given a pet Leviathan for your birthday!?" Joe asked in a mixture of shock and surprise, certainly Demonic customs were far more extreme than human ones, especially given the capabilities of these creatures if their past was anything to go by.
"Yes… I suppose you could put it that way. Though if you care to compare it to the Hellhound my sister got that year, there's something far more noble and elegant about a Leviathan… but uh- I brought it along with me when my father took me to Earth for a vacation that year and I was playing on a beach with him and when we went into the water, he got swept away by the tides and I lost him. We didn't find him afterwards and I cried till we got home. Fairly, I wasn't allowed to have another one after that ordeal."
As she relayed her somewhat embarrassing childhood moment of losing her pet to the tides, the other rangers stood still, regarding her with awkward stares. "You lost your pet Leviathan in one of Earth's Oceans…" Nyssa said with a heavy sigh.
"Doesn't this sound like one of those things where people buy someone a pet crocodile and then when it gets too big it gets flushed scenarios?" Ellie compared the two situations as the other rangers nodded.
"Wait a minute, wasn't there an incident in Hawaii a ways back? I heard from my parents there was a huge grey Sea Monster that got killed there and it made national news, everyone was talking about it." Max recounted.
"Hmm… Grey? If it was a Leviathan it'd have to have been from before the Houses first tamed them. Someone must've took it from the Infernal realms before then and had it locked away for countless centuries. Since then, we as Demons and the Infernal Beasts have all evolved to what we are today. After all, the only Leviathan's I've seen are blue. But it's size would make sense. As a Leviathan ages, it doesn't wither, it just grows in size and they can't die of old age either so they just keep growing and getting stronger. You should see my father's if you're skeptical."
Joe shook his head firmly. "That won't be necessary." He brushed off the thought, slightly scared of how large and powerful a Leviathan of that age could be. But you're sure this' yours, if you are, how big is this thing gonna be? You sure we can actually beat it?"
"He's about eight now if my math is correct. That should put him anywhere between…" She paused as she counted it out on her fingers. "Anywhere between fifteen and thirty feet from head to tail. They grow fast in their adolescence. An Adult is at least fifty feet total."
"O-Okay… thanks for the heads up on that. So when's this thing supposed to get here?" Joe asked, clearly unnerved by simply knowing about the creatures the Leviathan Household took as pets.
His question was quickly asked however as the lake waters began to stir as a large dark shadow zigzagged through the waters, churning it up before coming near to the water's edge and emerging in a burst of water, which soon came showering down on the mesmerized band of rangers.
The creature in question was nothing like most of them had ever seen before. A long serpentine body, coated in primarily hard deep blue scales. Resplendent and shimmering from both the reflected light of the water and the glare of the low sun. It's body snaked through the water, ending in what looked to be a blade made purely of bleached bone. Along the ridges of it's spine were thin fins, small at the end of its body and steadily increasing in size the closer to the head they were. The flesh it was made from was thin and light appeared to refract through it, creating a stunning mirage of colour. At the lower-mid end of its serpentine body, two small support wing-like fins rested, acting in a similar manner, refracting the light around it. While at the upper-mid end of its body and in the place arms would be if it did have any were two much larger, wing-like fins. These however appeared to have joints as the Leviathan moved them back and forth, creating an almost overwhelming wing beat as the rangers pushed against it.
The head itself was the most terrifying part about this creature. It almost looked like the head of a dragon, though shape-wise, it bore more resemblance to a serpent's head. From the sharp predatory eye that narrowed as a second translucent eyelid flicked back and forth over it for a second, the the numerous rows of sharp needle teeth that rested in it's maw. Two almost horn-like appendages extended out, made of soft blue flesh, resemblant of ears in a way, though the rangers didn't really notice the details as they braced themselves for the worst.
Rearing its head back and aiming high, the Leviathan opened it's maw and unleashed a deafening shriek before ejecting a stream of blue Demonic flames into the sky above and thrashing it's tail violently into the water, turning the once still Lake into a violent and choppy tempest around the Infernal Beast.
"Looks like we don't have a choice but to fight it. Everyone?" Joe prompted as he and the other's brandished their Occult rings. "Occult Bre-" Joe started.
As he did so, the Leviathan twitched it's head in the red rangers direction and moved sleekly to attack before he could. Caught by surprise and with no time to react as he was caught mid-morph, the ranger could only watch as in a split second, the Leviathan's maw opened up and consumed him quickly as the Leviathan proceeded to jerk it's head back up quickly and swallow the red ranger whole.
The other rangers stood stunned, completely caught off guard by the Leviathan's actions. Though there was no doubt Joe would survive, even if he did have to eventually… come out the other end… the rangers didn't want to think about that and knew they'd have to find a more humane way to free their leader. Though with how easy Saya's lost pet had took one of them out of play, they were more wary about trying anything.
Before anyone could act, or the Leviathan could do the same to one of the others, a furious voice pierced the air, catching the Leviathan by surprise. "Bad Boy! Levi you better spit my friend out right now or I'm going to get really angry with you!" Saya voice ringed out as the Leviathan jerked back in fear.
Looking over, they saw Saya flying slowly toward the mighty Beast, her wings extended and her cutlass in hand, ignited in blue flames. The Leviathan growled, snapping its teeth at her and snarling to threaten the High Demon now facing her old pet.
Saya pointed the ignited Leviafang blade at the Infernal Beast, only for it to lower it's head and whimper at the sight. "Yeah, that's right, you remember you got hit with this sword whenever you were bad and tried to eat one of my friends, or Sakura's Hellhound. But that last one was pretty funny." She said with a little laugh before snapping back to reality. "Come one, spit Joe out."
As she asked, the Leviathan hesitantly shook his head, all the while, the remaining three rangers stood shocked and surprised. Just what the hell was going on here, it was like she was disciplining a dog that had done something wrong. The thoughts of the three showed just how astounded they were by her behaviour toward something so potentially destructive, and they were right to be so.
"Spit. Him. Out." She asked again, more venom in her voice as she narrowed her eyes threateningly. The Leviathan whimpered and nodded several times as Saya returned to the ground and folded her Demonic wings in.
The Leviathan lowered it's head toward the ground and forced a gag several times until finally, Joe shot out from the creature's mouth, covered in the Leviathan's saliva and mucus. Not a pretty sight.
"W-What the hell jjust happened?" He stammered, shaking a little.
"You ended up getting eaten by the Leviathan." Ellie bluntly told him.
"A Leviathan's body temperature is quite low too, so you'll be shaking for a while too. I'm sorry he did that Joe. You apologise too Levi." She demanded as the creature gave a bow of it's head and seemed to whine a little to give it's own apology.
"Wait." Nyssa said. "You named your pet Leviathan, Levi? How creative…" Nyssa rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"Of course you'll see it that way. I named him after someone. It just happened to be a coincidence. Now if you'll excuse me. I have something to test out." She vaguely explained before making her way over to where the now docile Leviathan shifted around in the waters.
"Levi, come here, you want me to pet you right?" She offered to the creature as it lowered it's head down to her. The creature breathed heavy as Saya placed the hand where her Occult ring rest to its snout and gently stroked the creature, it's breathing steady as it soon became calm until, finally.
Just as the Infernal Beast calmed, the ring on her finger flared to life with blue light and in the exact fashion her other three comrades had obtained beasts of their own, her ring absorbed her old pet into her ring. Though it's purpose still eluded them all, at least for now they were fairly certain that there was a purpose behind it all.
"It seems that's it then. We should probably head back now, the danger's over." Saya concluded as she headed over to her fellow rangers.
"Yeah, i think someone needs a bath too." Ellie jabbed, holding her nose as she pointed quite obviously to the slime covered red ranger.
"Hey, it's not my fault I got swallowed by a Leviathan!"
"Don't make a habit of it Joe." Nyssa started. "It's quite obvious that her pet's insides smell bad and you aren't lucky enough to avoid the stink sticking to you."
As they left the area, each of them having fun at their red ranger's expense save Saya, the blue ranger gave a sigh of relief. Though things certainly worked out, the events of the past few hours were certainly bizarre if her comrade's reactions were anything to go by. But with how their lives were, bizarre wasn't a far cry from what they would consider normal. Either way, she was just glad she'd succeeded in fixing the accident that had happened when she was a child, before her Leviathan had caused any death or destruction.
[Occult Circle]
Later that night, though. As the waters of Lake Numin began to settle, deep under the surface, the disturbance of the Leviathan had begun to bring forth something else. Sleeping down at the bed of the deep dark lake, was something that could only be described as a creature of legend, it's grey skin hiding it well against the sediment. Up until now, it had been sleeping peacefully, undisturbed for time immemorial. But that was about to chance, at its eye cracked open, revealing nothing but a hollow blackness…
|Occult Circle|
Great Infernal Beast - Leviathan - One species of the Great Beasts now Vassal to Demonic Houses of the same name, the Leviathan is a powerful Sea Serpent feared by all who know of them, but cannot command them. Unable to die a natural death, these creatures can grow to a colossal size and potentially wipe out armies effortlessly. While they are Sea Serpents it is rumored that they are also the distant Cousins of Dragons due to their striking similarities. Though unlike Dragons, they aren't as intelligent nor are they a rare sight. Unlike the ever dwindling and scarce number of their now near extinct potential cousins…
That's a wrap on Chapter 28. I didn't want to have everything be straightforward between Joe and Saya and just have it be a yes or no situation and I think this is the right fit for how Joe might see it, plus it's got a great effect on some other stuff I have planned later in this series. I wanted to add a bit of a fight with the Leviathan but it didn't really work without another villain coming along and things would've just dragged.
Now, that being the case. The big climax to the Beasts/Encounters arcs is finally upon us. What was the creature teased at the end? Just what has all this been leading up to, well, you're going to find out whenever I can write another one. Thanks as always to the readers, you guys showing an interest always pushes me to write more and try to get better with each piece I put out, however long that may take. Until the next chapter then!
Next Chapter: Occult Metalmorphoses
Synopsis: With the Leviathan now also safely inside an Occult ring, the rangers must face an all new kind of foe that threatens to devour their city, can they do it alone, or will they have to rely on allies a lot bigger to combat this foe? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Occult Circle.
