Greetings all! Yes, after being missing in action for like the whole freggin summer, I've finally got the next chapter up. After this I have NO IDEA how long its gunna take me to get any others up*sigh* I've just been lazy and there's no way to escape it, outside of lots of good reviews^^. Plus with school starting in another week…(sighs again). Well, without too much more delay--the ninth edition of what is my second posted fic. (Yeah I removed one of them) Enjoy!
(I don't own any of the characters in this fic—well, the one's that obviously aren't mine that is)
Chapter 9When Anubis rejoined the other Warlords, he found them, and countless thousands of foot soldiers staring up into the sky. Confused, he followed their gaze. The black clouds of so many atmospheric disturbances had returned with a chilling entrance. The clouds seemed to bubble out of an inverted hole in the sky—purple lighting fizzling about as the inky blackness spread over the firmament. All the natural light was washed away as the darkness spread. After only a few moments, the heavens were covered and slowly a black abyss opened up in the clouds, hovering above the entire Dynasty complex. Flocks of Nether Spirits could be seen flying just below it without form or direction.
"My god what now?" Cale breathed to himself.
"WARRIORS!" Talpa's voice suddenly boomed, breaking the uneasy silence that gripped the masses. All present turned to face him.
"I know not what this monstrosity is, but I've been informed that it is here to destroy us. Whatever happens, you are to fight to the last, no matter the cost!"
"But master Talpa!" Sekhmet's voice rang out after he had finished. "Where is this alleged enemy?"
"I am here!" Thundered an invisible voice from the heavens. All heads shot up to the blackness. Suddenly a great wind blew up from nowhere, causing all but Talpa to shield their face.
"Who are you!" Talpa roared over the windy tempest. "How dare you intrude in my Nether Realm with means to conquer it? Show yourself you coward and face me!"
"You are a fool, Emperor Talpa." The voice that came from everywhere said mockingly. "I shall have this world, and the world you seek as well--you cannot stop me. My power is beyond yours in ways that your pitiful little mind cannot imagine. You have NOT suffered as you should have and you are unworthy. You yourself will call me master—and those who serve you shall reel for all eternity inside the belly of my evil. Do you dare contest me? By all means try—I will take great pleasure in breaking you Talpa—it will be amusing. So let you and your forces prepare—your devastation is near."
With out warning, a gigantic blast of energy exploded from the sky and found home in the thick of the Nether Soldiers, incinerating thousands of them. In the second that followed, the void above the Dynasty belched volley after volley of lightning-like blasts over everything, causing mass destruction everywhere.
"This is madness! How are we supposed to fight what we can't even touch!!" Sekhmet screamed over the chaos.
"Master Talpa what shall we do? Tell us something, anything!" Dais bellowed as loud as he could. But Talpa had no answers; he had no time to think of answers. His complex was being demolished around him as he struggled to maintain his balance on the trembling ground. "NETHER SPIRITS HALT THE LIGHTNING ATTACKS!" He howled. Badamon however, was already in position. He had managed to organize enough Nether Spirits to create shields over important targets on the ground; namely the palace and numerous armories. Once the barriers were in place, Badamon flew down to Talpa's side.
"Master Talpa, we are doing the best that we can. I fear that the opposition is mostly supernatural—only the Nether Spirits will be able to fight."
"Are you saying to me that half of the most powerful army in this dimension is completely useless against this thing!"
"It looks to be that way master; the Nether Spirits are the only ones who can put forth any real effort—and we alone are hopelessly inadequate against this type of bombardment. Too much more of this and we'll be finished in a matter of hours." The chief spirit stated matter-of-factly, his alarm well hidden.
"Shut-up Badamon, I'll hear no talk of failure. I want you to direct all the power you can to those shields you have created—I refuse to be wiped out without a fight!"
"But master--"
"NOW WHAT?"
"All of our strength is in the shields! The last formidable power source for this undertaking is you Emperor!"
Talpa glared at his sorcerer silently, unease creeping over him. Badamon shrugged his shoulders pitifully under the emperor's masked stone gaze.
"…Very well." Talpa whispered with a certain level of resolve. He looked up into the violent sky until his eyes glowed red. Calling on the dark powers within him, he swelled to his colossus state and began to draw on what was left of his Nether Spirits' strength. A sphere of thin mist surrounded Talpa as Nether Spirits took positions of higher altitude about him. The barriers that protected the Dynasty began to glow brighter with the increased flow of power.
Suddenly there came a low reverberating chuckle. "Try as you might emperor, if it will allay the aguish of your futility. Watch as I slowly take your world from you…"
With these words, the darkness of the sky seemed to collapse onto the land like a vile froth, rolling over everything in its path.
"You…will…not…" Talpa growled as he tapped another reservoir of power. The hundreds of Nether Spirits around him pulsed like beacons of light as a swirl of energy pushed out from the emperor and formed a circular wall to dam in the sea of blackness that threatened to drown the Nether Realm.
Not far from this, Kayura stood on her outside balcony, screaming at the top of her lungs for Soja-no. She bellowed till she was nearly hoarse. "Soja-no! Soja-no where are you? Answer me!"
"That is an excellent way to ruin your voice my lady."
Kayura turned around fast to see Soja-no standing with arms folded on the edge of the roof above her.
Kayura took a breath. "Soja--" Her raw voice hitched. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Soja-no, you have to stop this, I know you have the power! What good will the Nether Realm serve if it is destroyed?"
"Lady Kayura, when will you understand that it is not in my hands? It never was. And as for the Nether Realm, we've already discussed this—the Nether Realm will be absorbed into our own, thus allowing for us to invade the Mortal World as we so choose. If the Overlord wants to obliterate your precious civilization in the process, that is purely his prerogative."
"What do you mean it was never in your hands? The day you infected me with that disease it was in your hands, literally! That black ball was the seed you planted in me. Nothing could have stopped you from not going through with that."
"You are very right Kayura, nothing could have, but I had my reasons…after all, he is my master—it was by his order, and I would not dare to disobey that order."
Kayura glared at him. "So you're saying you'll do nothing?"
Soja-no looked at Kayura, then to the shining wall off in the distance. He spoke quietly. "…Your emperor tries so very hard, doesn't he?"
"What was that?" Kayura demanded. Soja-no looked back to her.
" I said your emperor—he tries so very hard, doesn't he?"
"Of course," she spat, "He's trying to save what took so long for him to build. If you were him, would you stand by and let your empire be conquered without a fight?"
"I am not at issue here--"
"YES YOU ARE!" Kayura angrily intruded. "I have been made an instrument of destruction for you! You've forced me against my will to bring the downfall of everything I know! You had the power to prevent this, but you didn't! You much rather prefer I suffer, knowing that I was powerless to do anything about it! But you don't care about that do you? All you want to do is--"
"IS WHAT?" Soja-no snapped. "I was given a mission and I followed through…if your master had given you a task, would you not do everything in your power to fulfill it?"
"This isn't about me, this is about that thing that is going to destroy us!"
"Answer the question."
Kayura gave an indignant snort before complying with the blatant change of subject."…It depends. If I knew I had the opportunity to change the course of my life for the better, I would have gladly taken it. And, Soja-no, if my assumption is correct—was that black seed not the entire embodiment of your Overlord?"
Soja-no was silent, frowning at how quickly she put this back on him. "Yes."
"And if I am reading into this correctly, how things work in your world could not possibly be that much different than in my own. You have an absolute ruler whose power goes unchallenged, and then by luck, a day comes when that ruler trusts you with their complete and utter vulnerability. You cannot say that you could have not been tempted by such a call to power."
He looked at her long and hard, then smiled. "Bravo Kayura, you've finally managed to call my bluff. You see milady, of course I considered these things…do you take me for some kind of dolt? I new exactly what I was doing when I planted the seed of the Overlord within you. Yes, I admit that I had a great advantage over my master then, but I by no means was stronger…he would have easily killed me, or worse let me live, if you get my meaning. The way I see it, our lands are bountiful enough, and the need for the Mortal World is unnecessary. If it were up to me milady, I would have never come here. But now it is high time that I put my plan into effect."
"…What plan is that?"
"You said you wanted this to be over correct? Well…let me tell you. First of all, I want you to know that I had long since planned to take the seat of power in my dimension. I, as well a certain others, had figured that our current Overlord was no longer fit to rule. Keeping his greed in mind…I carefully thought of how I could use that weakness of his in my favor, but more of that later. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the Dynasty or the Mortal World; furthermore…if the Overlord is killed, we can never, as a collective power, enter either plain again."
Kayura arch an unconvinced eyebrow. "Never again? Pretty words Soja-no, but its obvious though that you don't have that type of power, what good will that do us?"
"Like I said, it is a simple matter of exterminating the Overlord. With him out of the way, I can take his place and let you be."
"Extermination? Well what are you waiting for, tell me! I've got to know so we can stop this thing before its too late!"
With this, Soja-no's eyes seemed to darken, but not ominously. "Kayura, the creature spawned from you is directly connected with your life. The only way that it can die from this juncture is if you were to die yourself."
The color drained from Kayura's face.
"But, I must say it's not as simple as a knife to your throat. It is a complicated matter that involves the construction of a special altar…"
Hot tears glazed Kayura's eyes as she stared at him. "How, how can you look at me and say these things so calmly? Surely there must be another way!"
"There is none."
"No…NO! No! You lie and I won't hear it!" She refuted.
"Milady, I have no more cause for false pretenses. What I speak is the truth. An altar must be constructed for a special sacrificial ritual. The wisest and most powerful conjurors in our dimension convened for many nights on how this could be realistically executed."
"And killing the 'host' was the best you could come up with?"
"I'm sorry lady Kayura, but it really is the only way."
"Shut your mouth! I will not stand here and be condemned in this way…come down here now and face me Soja-no! That is the least you can do!" Kayura croaked, trying to maintain some degree of composure. Soja-no leapt down from his perch as requested. He stood in front of Kayura, whom had to look up to meet his eye. He could see the tears fall clearly now, he swallowed inwardly. "Kayura, no matter how hurt you look, it won't change what will happen if you choose to do this."
She was taken back by this statement.
"Choose to do what?" Kayura narrowed her eyes as she backed away from him, shaking her head slowly. "My god you are evil…you knew this would happen, and I would want to stop the Overlord from taking over. I can't believe I'm being manipulated like this. Why are you doing this to me?" Kayura questioned lowly, a shocked and dead anger settling in the bottom of her.
"Yes Kayura, I knew this moment would come…but I didn't expect this."
"What?" The word barely falling from her lips.
"…This feeling I get inside of myself…I don't like it, and I know what it is."
"Humph, I hope it's the guilt twisting inside of you." Kayura suddenly seethed, her tears becoming angry.
"I won't say it's twisting, but it is there, like a cold ball of steel. Yes I used you Kayura. I used your body, and your loyalty as a catalyst to fuel our change. I admit that I wouldn't have cared if I did not have to watch your grim, predetermined fate unfurl before my very eyes. But Kayura, if you do this, you will be saving not just the Dynasty, but the Earth as well."
Kayura averted her eyes. "I know…but Soja-no…you forced this on me."
"I'm sorry." She ignored his apology with an angry frown before wiping her face with the sleeve of her kimono.
"You say an altar must be built. Will you help me, or must I do that myself as well?" She muttered dryly.
"I will assist you Kayura."