Four regal lions rushed through the holy, burning world. Mfalme and Heshima led the way, stringing through the valley that led to Mufasa and Askari. The distant ethereal roars bellowed across the land, sending a reverberating shockwave towards the four lions. The quickly leapt up as the ground cracked and shattered, leaping back to the ground before landing on all fours, perfectly.
They slowed as they reached the canyon's end. It opened to a once lush grassland, now burned and cracked by the corruption that had consumed this land. Mfalme looked around, scanning the horizon. Not a single sight of Mufasa or Askari. A bright, illuminating pulse caught his eye ahead, sending out shallow, nearly unnoticeable reverberations.
"We're not far from the gateway!" He roared back to Kopa and Karimu, who softly trotted side by side, nuzzling each other gently as they hummed. Karimu's eyes flickered as they met her father's focussed stare. He rolled his eyes as the two loving leaders looked up at him. "Is it possible for us to concentrate on the task at hand?"
Kopa smirked over at his father-in-law. "I suppose so, given the circumstances." Mfalme rolled his eyes once more, continuing to walk forward. Heshima strolled past her daughter and son-in-law, sling softly. As she moved past, Kopa's smirk vanished as his eyes looked towards Karimu.
"Come on tough guy." The Uasian queen smirked, giggling softly as she nuzzled past Kopa's body. He shuddered softly, humming as he felt the warm, comforting lioness brush past him. Her tail swayed side to side as he followed her parents. Kopa's eyes followed it as he started to smirk.
Shaking his head, he regained focus. He started to sprint forward, catching up with the others as slight embarrassment burned through his soul. The four lions continued to stroll through the war-torn land, focusing on the glowing spot just ahead.
They reached a small patch of unaffected land, just a minute's sprint away from the gateway. A single tree, covering a few small, lush bushes stood alone, surrounded by death and corruption. Mfalme sighed softly, looking out to the land beyond as he sat. "This is where we must leave you, Karimu." His ears folded down as he spoke, refusing to face his daughter.
"But why?" Karimu mirrored her father, her voice soft and shaken as her ears fell. Even her mother sat, flickering her eyesight between the two. Her posture shrunken, worry flickered over her fur as she glanced over at Karimu.
The old Uasian king turned. Karimu's emotionally charged face forced him to shudder. "This is your destiny, not ours." His eyes flashed to Kopa as he spoke, who just stood, focussed, gently wiping his left eye. The scar across it glistening softly before disappearing.
"Besides, we need to find Mufasa and Askari, re-join the fight." He turned to his mate, who simply nodded, before arising to her paws. The previous Uasian queen approached her daughter, nuzzling her gently as she tried to calm her down.
"We'll be fine." Heshima claimed, nuzzling her daughter before leaving a loving, heartfelt lick across her cheek. She looked up to Kopa, a pleading if happy look adorning her muzzle. "Please, take care of each other."
"I'll protect her with my life." Kopa pledged, placing a paw slightly forward onto the ground. "Always have, always will." Wiping her tears, Karimu nuzzled up to Kopa, looking back up to her parents as she brushed past him.
"And I'll keep him safe." She smiled softly, humming softly as Kopa nuzzled her side. Mfalme closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly as if accepting both their pledges. Heshima strolled beside him, nuzzling up to her mate as she looked back at her daughter and son-in-law.
The skies gloomed, bolts of lightning crackled to the ground, amassing howls of demonic laughter and blood-gurgling screams from just beyond the horizon. Mfalme and Heshima turned. Their eyes locked. They knew what they had to do.
"They're coming!" Heshima growled, lowering into an almost attack position. Her tail hung outwards, counterbalancing her body as her claws jettisoned from her paws. Mfalme joined her, but not before turning to Kopa and Karimu.
"GO! We'll hold them back." A cloud of dust grew on the horizon, the sounds of laughter and crackling growls growing ever louder. Cracks and ruptures, gleaming with a greenish, soulless hue spread across the land, rushing towards the four lions. Mfalme and Heshima unleashed their roars, blasting the galloping cracks head-on, shattering the land as their roar pushed the corruption back.
Kopa joined them, adding his roar to the chorus. Ther combined uproar rushed across the land, pulsing the approaching darkness back a fair distance, back beneath the horizon. As he halted, Mfalme nudged his front leg. "Get going! We've got this!"
"Kopa!" Karimu stood firm, the side of her body facing her mate as she stared towards him, a flush of heartfelt worry splashed across her face. "Come on!" She continued to run, followed closely by her king. As the regal pair retreated, the sound of the soulful roars behind them intensified. The screams of demonic pain and torment bellowed before quieting, becoming nothing but a whisper as Heshima and Mfalme's roars withered, shrinking from the air as the darkness departed.
Kopa and Karimu continued to run. The gateway was in sight, just beyond a dry, barren opening. Both lion and lioness, king and queen, sprinted at top speed. The end of their journey through this sacred, contested land was almost over, within a sprinting distance. Their eyes widened. They could do this, they will do this.
A sudden shadow loomed over the land once more. A chill brushed past Kopa and Karimu's shoulder as they looked up, muzzles agape. Above them, a cloud of corruption started its descent, approaching rapidly, dive-bombing them rapidly. As the cloud of soulless matter approached, it transformed, contorting itself into a kettle of vultures. Their beaks salivating with a darkness-dewed tip.
"Get down!" Kopa roared just as the vultures striked. Karimu fell to the ground, bombarded by the onslaught of void-lathered claws and beaks, clawing and scratching away at her fur. Her painful cries, growls and snarls only synchronised with Kopa's. as the vulture's passed, they crashed into the ground. The earth in which they collided cracked and seeped, spewing a voidish green hue upon the land, consuming and corrupting wherever it reached. Only a few boulders remained, floating in the ether.
Kopa and Karimu tasted the dirt, flopping down to the ground as the corruptive swarm flew past them. They arose slowly, looking over at each other as they struggled to their paws. Their bodies were fine, not even a scratch. Yet, both felt cold, as if something had been consumed within. They eventually arose, looking out at the floating gateway, a mere hundred feet away from them.
"What do we do now?" Karimu growled, turning to Kopa. She stood firm in the face of adversity, her eyes quickly turning to the deathly abyss before her. Kopa joined her, scanning the void before him. He noticed the space between the floating boulders. An idea formed in his mind.
"Remember when we were cubs?" Kopa smiled over at Karimu, his eyes gleaming with enlightened bliss. "Back when we used to hop across the lake?" He looked back at the gateway, humming softly amid nothingness. Karimu started to smile, her tail swaying side to side as she pieced Kopa's plan together.
"Of course!" she quickly rushed to his side, nuzzling him gently. As she looked again at the void before them though, something hit her." But wait! The gap between them is too much." She turned her attention back to Kopa, who slowly turned to her. His eyes locked on hers, seeping with a mixture of concern and knowable fear.
"We can do this!" he raised his paw to her shoulder, looking lovingly into her eyes. "You have to trust me..." Karimu's confused, uncertain muzzle quickly dissipated, brushing away in a soft breeze of confidence and hope. She stared Kopa in the eyes as her heart pulsed, stronger than ever before.
"I believe in you." She raised a paw to his cheek, stroking his face as she looked lovingly at him. With her approval, he returned his focus back to the task at hand. The two stood, firmly planted at the edge of the abyss as the air around them cooled. Bolts of lightning crackled to the ground as the skies darkened.
"We have to use our roars to get across!" Kopa prepared his body, tensing his leg muscles as he looked down into the void. Karimu immediately tensed, fear clawing away at her mind. Sure Kopa could get over this. But her? Her roar wasn't that powerful, was it?
"But... I..." She stuttered. Her ears folded down as her breathing intensified. "I can't do it!"
"I know you can." Relaxing softly, Kopa nuzzled up to his mate softly. "You can do anything you put your mind to Karimu!" he licked her cheek, flickering his eyes up to hers. "Think of it as those lakes, the stones we used to hop over."
Taking Kopa's advice. The Uasian Queen closed her eyes. The memories flashed past her mind as if they were yesterday. The skies were as blue as the lake beneath her paws, air as pure as her cubbish mind. She felt the warm, sun-warmed boulders beneath her paws. The sound of rushing water washing past her ears. His laughter. There were no worries.
Those were the days.
She opened her eyes once more, tensing her muscles as she started to focus. She thought of those days, along with Kopa. Her body began to tingle, ethereal energy flowing through her fur, seeping into her throat. With a mighty inhale of breath, she produced an almighty, earth-shuddering roar. She squinted her eyes, focusing her outburst into bursts.
As the bursts hit the void, they crystallised, pulsating as it formed a series of crystallised platforms. Karimu opened her eyes, slightly drained of energy.
"That's it!" Kopa's grin could not be wider as he watched Karimu perfect her roar. The Uasian queen looked out at the pathway she had created. With little to no delay, the Uasian queen leapt forward, landing on the first crystallised boulder with ease. Kopa watched on, a sense of immense pride burning in his chest.
As Karimu continued to leap from boulder to boulder, Kopa leapt on the first one. The pair continued to leap from boulder to boulder, quickly approaching the gateway in the centre. As he approached the middle, Kopa stumbled slightly, forcing his gaze downward. He saw the small, grasping claws, oozing from the realm beyond. His scar hummed, throbbing with quickly spreading unimaginable pain.
"Did you really think you could escape me?!" The familiar, demonic, booming voice etched across his mind, slithering deep not his soul, like a slippery snake sliding through his cerebral veins. Flashes of strange, confusing visions rushed his mind. A dead, corrupted land, very like the pool of nothingness beneath him.
"I will consume everything!" Scar's growling voice gravelled through Kopa's mind as the vision of destruction and chaos continued. A vision of the Uasilands burning. Its inhabitants nothing but lifeless husks, consumed by the demonic entity that even now clawed at his mind.
As the pain intensified, Kopa's paw slipped on a crystallised boulder, he felt his body fall, crashing to the crystallised ground before rolling off, into the void below. Just as he slipped off, he grasped the edge with his claws, barely holding on for dear life as the void beneath him, slithery inward. Hungry... Always hungry.
"KOPA!" Karimu, noticing her lover's situation, quickly leapt to his aid. She landed on the crystallised boulder he hung from, reaching out over the edge to the Uasian king. Kopa's paws slowly started to slip, the smooth, pure surface causing his claws to screech. Karimu stretched out even further, desperately trying to grab her mate's scruff.
Digging her claws into the crystallised ground, Karimu gave one last reach out with her muzzle, grasping Kopa's fur with her predator's teeth. She bit softly, just enough to give her leverage over his magnificent if bulky body. With Karimu's leverage, Kopa slowly clambered back up, recovering his balance on the crystallised rock. He flopped to the ground, panting softly as he regained his breath.
"Come on!" Karimu nudged her mate's side, forcing him to arise once more. "We've got to get out of here!" Just as she finished speaking, the corruption seeped up onto the top of the boulder they stood on, slowly chewing away at the crystal. Both feline's eyes focussed on the gateway. The humming, reality-reverberating crystal that formed it, still pumping out its immense power.
Tensing their hind leg muscles, the pair pounced just as the corruption engulfed the platform. They flew through the gateway like a pair of elegant, coupled doves. Their fur fluttered in the drafts, swayed by the physics-bending gateway. As the two lions seeped across the event horizon, the portal destabilised, just as Scar's corruption consumed the rest of the boulders. With just a small, unstable spec of energy, the gateway imploded, consuming the corruption in an almighty explosion.
The explosion's residue spread across the air, ripping all the corruption, including the many legions of Gizas out of the holy plane. Mfalme and Heshima watched as the blast spread across the land, standing down from being surrounded by the offending forces. Not even mere seconds after, Mufasa and Askari approached, looking down at where the gateway once stood.
As the two lion gods sat, another joined them. He was different. A certain illuminating hue gleaned from his fur, warming the hearts of everyone as they all looked out. He sat, a soft smirk across his muzzle as the ground softly hummed, syncing with his heartbeat. His warm, loving brown eyes stared at the sight of the explosion, mind focussed, as if remembering, reflecting.
"Good luck you two..."