Chapter VI: Path To Mergence
Son of death comes! Warriors clash!!
Piccolo had found them.
That lingering, suffocating feeling had grown considerably stronger. It was dense, the power he had felt earlier, yet now it was dim as a winter storm at dusk. Now, Piccolo had seemingly traced its source to two floating figures, high above the tallest skyscrapers. Naturally, the namek had hidden his ki, almost completely and froze, behind an aged, dilapidated cathedral.
Piccolo felt EXTREMELY reluctant to face the two otherworldly beings, flying into battle blindly, or asking away for their intentions, if they had any. Waiting to see what would happen next would seem to be the next, wisest choice for now. Beads of sweat appeared almost indefinitely as the rolled down into his cape, draped shoulder.
Strange beyond comprehension, everything was at an immovable pause. From birds in mid-flight to water from the nearby fire hydrant, surrounded by playing children had been frozen, almost embedded in time.
Piccolo seemed almost frightened. Reality itself, at least in this city, had stopped. What happened here…? He thought.
All this seemed so distant, so surreal from atop of the urban canopy that was South City. Terminus was growing with hunger. He could almost savor the taste of her power.
It was then Terminus took things into his own hands by trying to stop little Jinta's transformation. By sheer mental ability, the shifter extended his hand and closed it slowly, causing the enigmatic Jinta to scream the loudest of cries.
Terminus didn't seem all too affected by the piercing shriek, but certain others with uncanny hearing abilities had been forced to cover their ears. Next, all the namek could hear was the crashing and battering of a skyscraper, when the shifting being had been thrown down clear into one and landed onto the pavement below, thus forming a good sized crater.
The blue, featureless being laid there, haplessly, frantically searching for a way to finally put an end to its frantic fleeing.
Piccolo could see it only a few blocks away, right into the middle of frozen traffic. The green demon saw the other; more built character land straight on top of the blue, liquid like figure and did his best to conceal himself into the dark silhouette of the alley.
"/Not retaliating, I see? Tell me, where is Jinta…?"/
"My other part of…my being…is in Konatsu."
"Very wise decision to tell me. Konatsu? What is she doing there? Interesting…You're struggling will only…" Without warning the blue figure's whole body managed to escape Terminus booted grip and decided to slice its pursuer's arm off, as well as, parts of his torso. Apparently, Kanjieka-jins are entirety devoid of blood as none gushed anxiously out nor pain, as Terminus smiled and watched the blue figure frantically escape.
After a few seconds, the missing appendage had formed, regenerated into anew. Over the years, Piccolo grew tired of masses of enemies, all possessing the ability to generate, most of the time from a single cell, as if they were mocking his own regenerative abilities.
Terminus always had a knack for stopping things in mid motion as the blue figure had been fully paralyzed by his time freezing technique. Like cracking thick ice with a hammer, Terminus did what Piccolo thought was strange. A pulsating charge erupted inside the shifter's palm and soon blasted out, into the sky above. It looked just as similar to Gokuu's Denki Dama, and soon expanded into a blanket of sonic ki and was descending slowly towards the ground.
It was then Piccolo decided to avoid whatever was falling without making himself obvious as he flew in between buildings, far away from the descending blanket of ki.
Instantly, it plummeted quickly into the still city and shattered everything it enveloped. Buildings, trees, cars, people, streets, all shattered into pieces as if they were mere glass. Piccolo had barely managed to escape the hovering cover of death and flew towards a nearby cliff.
For a split second, South City had turned white. Like an atomic explosion, causing destruction in everything in its path, the city was laid to waste. Piccolo did his best to block the gale force winds and sheer light from destroying his vision.
The blue figure shattered into pieces in the wake of the city's inevitable destruction. What was once a prosperous city was now mere ruble with smoke billowing into the horizon. Terminus moved about the rumble and husks of partially destroyed buildings and saw the shattered remains of his prey. He knelt slowly down to pick up one of the pieces and studied it. /No matter what I do, Jinta always comes back. / The soldier of death thought to himself.
Piccolo frowned and cringed with anger. He didn't know whether to face this warrior alone and find out what he wants or go and warn the others.
The shattered segments quickly became anamorphous, mercury like liquid, and started take on substance and body, totally condensed of ki. Terminus smiled and chuckled for a few, brief moments, which soon turned to a deep, piercing frown.
/What is this…this isn't Jinta completely. She must have separated into more than a few beings. This one is weak…She must be hiding on Konatsu…Oh well, this shall do for now…/ Terminus thought.
The intense glow became warmer as the being was levitating by Terminus's psychic techniques no doubt, as his chest opened to reveal concentrated radiance, blinding all that would lay their eyes upon him. The being entered and merged as his chest quickly swirled in motion to close.
The dark shifter spoke aloud, "Hello there, Namek. You can come and stop hiding now." Piccolo gasped and frowned.
Terminus smiled again, and shifted his head to the inclosing Piccolo. He landed with gently on top of giant piece of concrete, several hundred feet away from Terminus and swiftly narrowed his eyes.
"I knew there was a disturbance. Tell me…who are you …how did you sense my presence?" Piccolo paused and asked forcefully without hesitance, "You've chosen to come to this planet and destroy it?"
Terminus paused for a moment and responded, "Destroy? What will I gain in that? In truth, my concern does not at all dwell on this small, spinning husk of rock."
"Then what do you want?" Piccolo asked sharply.
"None of your concern, my Namekian friend." Terminus replied coolly. Piccolo growled under his breath and looked into the shifter's fire-piercing eyes and asked, "Tell me, who are you?"
"The real question is whether you live long enough to hear it. I'm not sure you understand the situation here. The only thing you comprehend is that you're afraid that I might harm and even destroy your precious world, when in actuality it is the opposite."
"So you're here to preserve this planet? I somehow doubt that, the way you destroyed this city only proves you seek to reek havoc."
"Hrmph. Enough banter." Terminus unexpectedly blasted off into straight up into the air and spoke, "Your welcome to come along if you'd like." He quipped.
"You're not going anywhere." Piccolo muttered and blasted off, after the shifter. Terminus speed up with absolute speed, where Piccolo had found it difficult to keep up him. It was then Terminus felt another presence, coming from the north.
"And so another party wants to join the fun." Terminus smirked devilishly. It was clear that the shifter's intent was to fly off into deep space, trying to get his pursuer off from his trail.
Vejiita was closer to whatever was causing this pain, swelling inside him. He sensed he was reaching ever closer, until he spotted them.
"Piccolo? Where is he going? The fool…" Vejiita muttered.
Piccolo was now far above the cloudy atmosphere of the earth, chasing after Terminus. It was then Terminus stopped in midair, and faced the Namekian. Piccolo raised his ki, anticipating some type of attack he would pull off. "You know very well, once you leave entirely the planet's surface, you cannot breathe in space."
"I can manage."
"On second thought, I could destroy the earth. How about that?" Terminus spoke nonchalantly.
"What??" Piccolo blinked, "I don't think so. Sudden change of heart I see. Now, you're going to eat those words!" Piccolo let out a menacing roar and charged toward Terminus, ki charging within his grasp, with a glint of fury in his eyes.
Terminus extended his hand again towards the charging green demon, and the demon king froze in his tracks.
"Now we'll see who will eat their bluffed, over drought speeches," He mused. Like a symphony conductor, he waved his hand about; moving Piccolo closer to his side and spat, "Tell me, have you ever seen such a beauty? Ever seen a planet blow up into mere dust, right before your last breath?"
Piccolo struggled to even breathe. "I take that as a 'no'." Terminus smiled.
Immediately, he raised his hand, as a black charge of ki charged and soon began to form a ball of black, swelling ki. It began to grow bigger and bigger, until it was the size of the moon itself.
"Goodbye, earth."
Vejiita saw the grandiose size ball, on its way towards impact. Seeing this gigantic ball only brought memories when Kakarotto powered his Denki Dama to once in for all, destroy Majin Buu.
"KUSO!!" He yelled as he placed his palms together, over each other, energy engorging inside.
Within minutes he yelled, "FINAL FLASH!!!"
Instantly, a huge beam of bright ki shot its way towards the ever-descending apocalypse of ki. "YAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" He screamed on the top of his lungs.
No…Piccolo thought, If only Gokuu were here…
"He's not here." Terminus replied.
Piccolo could barely eye at him, with hate. As soon as, the beam of ki, made contact with the dark ball of energy, the ball itself, engulfed and absorbed it, adding more power to its already destructive nature.
Vejiita cursed more than a drunken sailor and shot, arms blazing with all the ki he had left to merely delay their inevitable destruction.
On the surface, the earth itself was coil and buckling, fissures rose, thus splitting the once closed crust of the earth, debris rose with ease. Of the few major metropolitan cities, all of them had become hell unleashed.
Civilization on earth locked in fear for a few brief moments. From windows of houses and apartment complexes to people walking out from their automobiles, they all in unison stared directly that their impending fate. Millions upon millions of people began panicking in an almost insane manner; in a last ditch effort to escape from whatever was causing these maelstroms of massive quakes that began to erupt. Buildings, statues, monuments, anything in its way began to collapse into the opening chasm, as bubbling lava flowed from within.
Armageddon had begun.
*
Bulma held the crying Bra in her warm embrace, wondering what in the hell was going on. "Everything is going to be alright, baby. Just be calm…" Bulma herself could barely hang on to her sanity as she saw high above, the small, yet growing sphere of ki, on top of that, worried herself near to tears, over her absent husband.
"Vejiita…" She muttered.
*
Tenshinhan had halted his sparring session with Chaouzu and saw the massive ball of destruction, in the distance, beyond the artic mountainous glaciers.
"What is that?" Chaouzu asked. "I don't know…but its coming this way…I sense two, no three ki's up there. I think one of them is Vejiita. My Kami…there's an ungodly power up there…I bet it's coming from that ball of energy."
"We have to do something, Ten!" Chaouzu declared a heroic tone of voice.
"You're right! Come on, let's help Vejiita…only this once." Tenshinhan stripped off his cloak and charged towards the massive ball.
"Ready Chaouzu?"
"Yes!"
***
"No! No! NO!! This shouldn't be happening!!" Kaiou Sama yelled, antenna's quivering, visibly shaken. The Z-Senshi would never abandon their duty, when the earth had been threatened, whether it be by aliens, androids, demons, natural disasters, they were able to handle it. Yet now, most of them were by now gone, to Konatsu.
Perfecting timing.
"They're gone! Gokuu is gone! They're all gone! I only see Vejiita and Picc…oh dear…what are they going to do? This is terrible!" The northern Kaiou gasped with his antennae still twitching about. Bubbles began to jump up, with various flowers in his hand, desperately trying to catch his master's detoured attention.
"NOT NOW BUBBLES!!" He screamed. Bubbles stopped jumping with a long face with his flowers wilted.
"What is it, Kaiou Sama?" Gregory asked, confused.
"The end, Gregory, the end of the earth." Kaiou Sama's voice went from fretting to absolute despair.
Gregory gasped and let out a, "Oh, no…"
***
Terminus thrusted one of his hands outwards, still supporting the dark sphere as it pressed downwards even further.
"You know, Namek, I almost feel bad doing this. It isn't everyday, I get to blow up a planet into oblivion," Terminus chuckled, "Now then…what's this? Vejiita? Here on this planet? He's protecting it. Surely by now he would have sold this rock, or at least destroyed it. Strange."
Vejiita shot a whole array of ki blasts, like a madman, into the falling sphere. To the saiya-jin's dismay, none of his attacks seemed to work at all. It seemed now all was lost.
Vejiita was close enough to the sphere that he wrapped himself around it, clenching on it, so that maybe his self-destruction could at least stop the sphere from impact. It was beyond scorching hot, when Vejiita's flesh touched the sphere. He screamed in both pain from the heat and agony of never seeing his mate in this mortal plane, again.
With Vejiita hanging on, the huge sphere was only a few feet away from the ground itself, when Vejiita suddenly erupted, literally. He screamed on the top of his lungs, when he suddenly was driven into the earth's crust, the very thing he once tried to destroy. His last thoughts were Bulma…
One could almost say it was beautiful, the way the sphere merged with the earth. It was vaporizing everything in its way, even the very explosion Vejiita had caused. Finally it impacted and drilled itself towards the inner core. The landscape ripped open, as if hell itself was escaping. The earth shook, moments before it would explode with the attack.
Before Piccolo could breathe his last breath, the planet known as earth had turned white, and light broke through the darkness.
"Goodbye." Terminus muttered.
*
Amidst what was left of the ruined planet, Terminus surveyed the deep, empty space and spoke, "You see, Namek, there are some things in life that must be taken care of before you move on. I knew from the very beginning, you and your friends would be a nuisance. It simply had to be done."
"Bastard…" Piccolo muttered right before his world had became white.
Terminus eyes glowed a haunting black, leaving little contrast to the infinite space.
*
Piccolo opened his eyes. His vision was out of focus and fuzzy as he struggled to maintain his balance. Soon, he realized he did not need his balance as he was floating aimlessly in space.
There, in front of him was Terminus and the earth. The shifter had his arms crossed, expecting the Namek to be dazed and confused.
"What?? How the hell…" Piccolo's face was more than puzzled and shocked, in unison.
"What would you said If I could see everything. Did you know reality itself could, in fact, be manipulated by the sheer force of your being?" Terminus smirked.
"The earth…its…"
"…Back. No it was always there…Humorous how one moment you see the earth dissipate into one climatic explosion and next, it had been there all along."
An illusion…? Piccolo thought.
"The time for utterance has come to an end. The moment has come for me to leave." Terminus was gone, in a blink of an eye.
Piccolo frowned and stared down at the earth. What was once erased from existence, was now back in its entirety.
"Impossible…" Piccolo grunted.
***
"Perhaps I spoke too soon." Jinta reckoned. She stared into the commemorating golden statue of Gokuu and chuckled informally at the saiyan. The shifter stood outside of the sanctuary, hearing the echoes of divergence of senators, arguing amongst each other and laughed again. Several gaurds surrounded her, persuading the populace that the shifter was under control. She decided to go along with the Queen's plans-for now.
Lady Rezaa sat on her senate throne, amongst the council with a stern grimace. The very utterance of her name, Jinta, the forbidden one, sent shockwaves amongst the psychically linked council. Although emotions ran thin, as long ago, apathy had been set in place as a prime rule among the council senate, one would think they seemed all more than a little perturbed.
Two volatile substances had been combined when the forbidden one had shone itself onto the world: emotion and magic. The influence of such power was like the flame burning with an over-abundance of fuel, such a mixture of the two lead to maddening power, which, in turn, lead the past Konatsu monarchy to its ashes.
"My eminence, I do not wish to question your judgment, but I must not concur. You cannot be serious by allowing her to roam around our cities; the very livelihood of our people is in dire jeopardy by her very presence. From the scrolls of Odarin, it states 'The woman known as Jinta shall be forever known as The Forbidden One, shall herby declared to be eternally exiled from Konatsu, for the unspeakable crimes stanch by the unforgivable mass murders of her children, the devastation of the ancient sacrosanct realms that served as thy home for thy hallowed ancients.' These are troubled times, you know that. It is not uncommon to see a dead body of a child festering in the streets, sadly." One of the councilmen put down the scrolls and raised his head and argued, "We have all witnessed what she is capable of, but we are not for certain what she is fully capable of."
A few grunts of agreements echoed throughout the room and about the sanctuary. Tapion sat along side of Lady Rezaa and pondered what to counter argue their defense.
"There is no other alternative. I do fully realize of the forbidden one's past crimes of Konatsu. The very effort to wage war against her with our forces was near suicide, taking each and every one of us to the brink of sanity, reaching the very limits of our existence. If we do not comply with her requests, may we all suffer…I will not sit and watch my people die, thus the council would not agree to her menial demands."
"It sounds almost as if you are supporting her instead of your own people." Argued another.
"I wish not another catastrophe on our kingdom, which had ended to all to recently. Have you forgotten already of the rampage of Hildegarn that had ravaged our world? You have Son Gokuu to thank for vanquishing the demon. If we comply, as Jinta stays for the time being, we have a lesser chance of having the pit of fire, reaching our world ever again."
"I do not question Son Gokuu's ability as a fighter, but I do question your ability as a Queen," Declared a small, old figure, which sat at the highest level of the senate.
Datcyde stood at the far corner, against a large column with his arms crossed and face lowered. He had about enough of the councilmen's disagreements of his Queen.
"Ogmios, do you not have any reverence for the hallowed Queen, sitting across from you? Dried corpses can no longer function and handle the concerns of Konatsu. Treason is just one of many crimes you can be tried, my half dead friend." Datcyde smirked.
"In what position do you have an argument in this senate…you dare to question our clout, slave? I am surprised the Queen hasn't be rid of the likes of you. You are the serpent that will soon be beheaded and thrown to the vultures." The rather short, almost dwarf like council member, spat.
"I'm surprised you're still breathing, after all these centuries. When a serpent strikes, its venom kills it prey slowly and painfully." Datcyde murmured, while a razor thin smile, curled at the corner of his lips.
"Hrmph. Pathetic analogy for an ignorant vermin."
"Tell me, when was the last time someone actually recognized you; then by sheer amusement?"
"Enough!" The Queen declared and continued, "The time has ended for tedious arguments. We have no choice but to allow for Jinta to stay."
"Lady Rezaa, you cannot…"
"She just did…" The shifter interrupted. An unconscious soldier, upon Jinta's shoulder, had been thrown on the floor of the senate.
"I'm afraid Lady Rezaa is correct. You wouldn't want your precious senate to crumble and fall to the tomb now would you?"
"Is he dead?" Another council member asked.
"No, just a little drained." Jinta mused.
"Guards!"
"Don't bother…they're drained as well."
Domu chuckled to himself at the cowardice displayed by the council members and walked towards Jinta. "I speak for the people of Konatsu, I won't hide the fact that for several hundred years, your name was considered a curse amongst our people, hence, the Konatsu senate would take great steps to see you exiled and even destroyed, but the great Njanai teaches us compassion. My Queen will no doubt allow you to stay."
"Thank you." Jinta replied and looked towards the councilmen and laughed again.
"How dare you…" The high councilman muttered as his pale eyes narrowed.
"Come now, she can be quite helpful to our kingdom, if we can forge an alliance with her. If she possesses that much power, than maybe, we can come to some mutual indenture."
"Domu, you are insane. You have just returned from your forsaken raids on the badlands, yet you support this…monster?? And you…Jinta, you near destroy our nation and you dare make a mockery of this court?"
"…Of course not. I'm only amused that most of you don't even realize your own scriptures. Domu supports me because he is wise to the fact that I do not mean harm."
"And what does that mean, exactly?" The high council figure looked; indeed, annoyed by everyone who stood over the senate floor and secretly wished they would all fall to their deaths.
"Have you forgotten that the scriptures read as 'the one coruscated with thy goddess essence shall return to the sands of thy mother and shed thy light upon the land into a golden age of splendor…' I think that's about correct."
"…I'm afraid she's correct. Word for word…" Another, lower councilmen inferred.
"Then she can stay…" Domu insisted.
Ogmios struggled with words until he spoke, "The divine words of the scriptures have always been the prime source of our very lives, but allowing Jinta to stay, merely for the reason that the scriptures preordain a new golden epoch by the 'One', does not in any shape, deem the forbidden one to be. You are forbidden to even walk the sands of Konatsu, let alone stay. I see no logic in you staying here, even as the scriptures state thus…I suspect this matter will take more than a few days of deliberation. "
"Thank you. I promise I won't bite." Jinta simply stated and in a blink of an eye disappeared.
"No, wait! Where do you think you're going?" Ogmios paused and muttered under his breath. "…May Njanai protect us all…"
Lady Rezaa exhaled with force and couldn't help to think the worst for her people and the future of her world.
***
Unreality.
Its emptiness had seemingly intertwined with the very fabric of existence itself, without itself being erased, inside the nexus. Yet, the sanctuary forged itself from anonymousness, whence the light emanated from the erroneous bolt of ether, brightening its dark, ominous silhouette.
That could not be said the same for the halls of black magicians. The only source of light was the twisted radiance coming from the unnatural fires of the room.
The central black magician walked as he hovered from the highest pedestal at the head of the crescent seating, allowing the shroud being worn to cascade to its' fullest length. Gliding out across the floor, and stopping only once the pentangle had been reached, the head black magician began an ancient incantation in a forgotten language. As the foreign tongue obliterated the silence, the mystical symbol, emblazoned onto the very fabric of reality began to glow--the symbol of the black angel-the angel of death.
A bolt of crimson light traveled into the nexus, allowing it to continue funneling the desolate structure's life force into the foul, celestial structure that was the portal. The portal absently began to fill the timeless room with candescent light. It spilled into even the darkest shadow and yet, something still remained unseen; hidden within both the shadow and light; the center of the large gateway glimmered with ominous intent.
"/My master, our master. After countless hours of meditation, we have sensed a flaw in our plan. /" The black magician spoke.
"/Flaw? /" The disturbing voice came from the whirl maelstrom of hell's fires, an indent in the nexus dimension, "/There is no flaw. /"
"/When the Makai had been birthed, they seemed fragile and impotent, /" The black magician responded, grimly. Quiet, unholy chants reverberated along the warped, opaque walls of the room as the haunting voice spoke.
"/For those who oppose them, they will falter and their senses will betray them. They will seek the hand of retribution. Underestimation will consume them all. /"
"/Yes, Desumasuku. None shall escape fate's grasp. Entropy and death shall wash over existence like the wave of white. From depths of the lowest abysmal hell to the celestial planes of heaven, all shall wither and fade into the wind."
"Those are merely an utterance of fate's dusk. The time shall come and pass, furthermore my design of fate shall fall into place as the wheel of time shall rust and cease to exist .../"
It is said that whomever the voice of the reversed of all creation had laden its echoes upon one's ears, madness and chaos would soon follow. The sound of the void penetrated throughout the multiverse, the continuum and beyond.
Minoshia gasped with absolute fear. Cold sweat ran down from his pores and stained his shrouds and sighed with despair. He knew somehow, dreams contained some undeniable truth to them, after all.
***