Chapter 5: Test of Wills
V dreamed, and knew he dreamed.
In his dream he walked through a dark forest, covered with a willowy mist that danced around his face and obscured his vision. Even so, he knew two things.
The trees were gone, blasted by incredibly powerful fires, dark ruined husks, pointless destruction that seemed to indicate a message of some kind.
And that he was not in control of his path. He was being pushed towards something, and he knew he could not turn away.
But that did not cause his step to hesitate. He walked on, calm in step and gesture. He would face whatever he was supposed to without shrinking.
One moment he was in the misty forest.
And the next he was in a temple, a sparsely lit structure made of reddish stone. V looked around, trying to identify the design. He didn't get a chance.
With a roar, the temple exploded around him. The sounds of collapsing stone filled V's ears, but his stature stayed unafraid, even as the shrine fell apart around him.
Even though the roar he had heard was not the sound of the temple collapsing.
It was the sound of a great beast.
Darkness swirled around and above him, and V looked up into it. There. He could not make out anything except a gigantic shape and a terrible aura of ferocity and rage.
A voice spoke in his ear, in some ancient, long-forgotten, long-dead language V did not speak. Yet somehow he understood.
"Foolish man…""I think not." V said quietly. The roar increased in timbre, a blast of rage that shook the remains of the temple.
"YOU DARE SHOW SUCH IMPUDENCE!?! ON TOP OF YOUR FOLLY? Be thankful I do not destroy you where you stand!"
"Folly, you say? Of what stupidity have I fallen prey too?" V said. Lightning crackled in the darkness around V, and he could feel a dreadful heat begin to burn above him, a swirling inferno of power.
"YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHAT DEED I SPEAK OF!""Enlighten me."
"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME? You have no idea what your unique condition has granted you! But it is not a power you are worthy to tap! Your blood is wrong, and even if it was not, I barely stood for being called by a true card! I WILL NOT LET MYSELF BE SUMMONED BY THAT FRAUDULENT PIECE OF CARDBOARD YOU POSSESS!"
"My, aren't you arrogant?"
"DOES YOUR TEMERITY KNOW ANY BOUNDS!?! AND YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF SUPERCILIOUSNESS! Heed my words now, mortal! You will awake, and you will immediately destroy that card, or I will bring my wrath down upon you, and your being will cease to exist, as if you never were!"
V stood quietly, arms crossed, looking up into the blistering darkness above him and the massive form that hovered within it.
"ANSWER! NOW!""I will not." V said.
"……..YOU IMPUDENT INSECT! I SHALL ANNIHILATE YOU WHERE YOU…!"
And then V threw back his head and screamed.
A shard of rock exploded underneath him, propelling him skyward on it's point as the darkness parted before him and then swirled around him, as he was cast upward into the plane of light and fire that the creature made it's home in, hiding it's guise away from the supposed unworthy being that it had decided to confront.
But it was V who decided the worthy, as he rose in front of the beast, the darkness swirling around him and erupting from his being. Dark lightning crackled across his eyes as knives of dark flame exploded from his arms and chest and flew around him, scything the brightness and sending it fleeing in it's wake. Dark energy exploded from around V's back and flowed up and around him. It almost looked like wings.
While the creature showed no fear, it was clearly hesitating, knowing that it had made an error, as it stared at the swirling mass of darkness that erupted from V's being and flowed around him like liquid.
Power. Great power.
"You ask if this is a game? All things are games in the end, dragon." V said, looking at the creature that had confronted him.
"What are you…""You erred. You called me a mortal man. Perhaps I am in some ways. But others…" V said, as swooping blades of darkness snapped out and around him, as if daring the creature to commence it's promised attack.
It did not. Instead it continued its stare down with V. V knew why. The monster had erred, but it was not sure how much so. It wanted to destroy him for his defiance, but it was no longer positive if it had the power to do so. It could risk attacking and find it's efforts successful…or for all it knew, its power may be repelled and it destroyed by a far more dominant being.
V decided to end it. He did want to get into a fight. For one, the same thing that gripped the dragon held true of him: he may not have enough to win. Also, fighting the creature would be pointless: it would force him to start his whole strategy over, and V hated doing that.
"Look monster…"
"I AM NO MERE MONSTER! I AM…!""Yes, yes. I know. Look, you don't like this situation as it hasn't turned out how you thought it would, and I can see nothing good happening in the direction it's going. So, I would like to propose an agreement."
"What kind of agreement?""I am only using this place, and the card that goes with it, as a base. I have a plan, and the skills and ambition to carry it out. I ask that I be allowed to summon you only for the battles I will need to carry these tasks out. Once that is done, I will destroy the card. I am sure no one else will ever win one. In return, you let me call upon your might to smite my foes into nothingness."
"Your blood is not right…""Some things are far greater then blood." V replied.
The two stared at each other.
"………….Very well. I will strike this temporary bargain. And temporary it is! Once you have accomplished your tasks, you WILL relinquish hold of me, and destroy the fraudulent artifact that great fortune has awarded you, or else I will bring my fire down upon you and make you regret your very birth!"
"Very well then. We have an agreement. Now, why don't you kindly get out of my head." V said.
"BE SILENT!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU ADDRESS A GOD LIKE THAT!!!!!!"V's next words were filled with a confidence so great that it even surprised the creature. He spoke in a tone that said he believed in what it said, totally and utterly, and reality may very well be as his opinion.
"All gods must come from somewhere…"
And with that V awoke. It was not because the creature had jarred him out of sleep though. No. While V's mind and being had locked horns with great power in the land of dreams, the tenuous links back to his body had carried to him a message from reality that jarred him from sleep and instantly put all his senses on full alert.
Someone was screaming.