Well here's chapter two. This chapter was a little tougher to write than I thought it would be. But after this I think my next chapter shouldn't be as hard. well hope this one came out okay.
As usual I don't own Ranma ½.
Feet moving swiftly over blackened ground Ranma dodged another of the demons, letting loose a punch that floored the creature and made way for three amazons to retreat to the front lines. The demons renewed their assault only to fall to blades and fists as the amazons began to push forward driving the demons back towards the hole they had emerged from.
Yellow eyes sparked and Ranma stumbled to a stop staring with glazed eyes at the hole for a second before leaping back. "GET BACK!" Her shout almost came too late as the feeling of approaching darkness reached its maximum and a large demon burst free of the hole. He looked exactly like the others expect that he was over ten foot tall and wore crimson steel plate armor that covered all but his head. The being drew a sword of black fire and cut into the forward lines of defense sending charred corpses flying and flattening nearby buildings.
"Bastard!" Ranma dropped down from her jump and kicked the demon in the head as hard as she could. The demons head twitched to the left and its hand lashed up catching the redhead's ankle and brought her down hard slamming her into the ground. The black fire sword rose only to be jerked back as a thick fingered hand closed on the demons wrist followed by the creature being lifted into the air and lobbed twenty feet away by an enraged werewolf.
"If anyone is gonna kill Saotome it's gonna be me!" The werewolf grabbed one of the giant challenge logs from the tournament and threw it at the creature only to have the massive trunk shatter against the things armor. The demon let loose a mirthful grunting laugh then leapt forward with a speed even Ranma could barely see and grabbed Ryoga's head, crushing his skull as he slammed him into the ground.
To Ranma the fight seemed to vanish as she stared at her friends crushed skull watching as the blood began to pool around him. She simply stood and stared as small black lightning's began to course through the air near her causing her to twitch slightly. The large demon gave another grunting laugh then leapt towards the young demoness. Cologne looked to the left after dispatching another group of the enemy only to notice the downed werecreature and the now glowing girl. She could have shouted that the boy would be fine as he was a werecreature but she didn't have time before another group engaged her and the other elders.
The demon, a larger and much more powerful breed than its other mirror based cousins brought forth a punch it knew had never been stopped before by any of its fellow class only to have the redhead raise a single hand and stop the punch using only one finger. "You have killed my friend." The head raised and the demon saw midnight black eyes staring out at him "die." The massive blast of dark violet energy tore through the demons cursed armor and vaporized his body as well as several large groups of other demons before the beam flickered out.
Ranma slumped as energy left her and left her staring in surprise at a swath of destruction in front of her that started as a small point right in front of her and stretched twenty feet wide at its largest point. She didn't get the chance to wonder what the hell had happened before Ryoga's body was lifted by a man in dark brown robes and she felt herself jerked away by the girl she had met on the challenge log. Seconds later the old woman she had seen earlier was pogoing next to her shouting at others who were grabbing weapons and artifacts and rushing from the village.
"What's goin on?" Ranma tried to focus on the retreat and not on her friends death but she kept stealing glances his way and feeling guiltily that she should have done something.
"We're retreating to Phoenix mountain." The elder noticed where the girl was looking and decided that it would do the girl good to know the truth, no reason to have her flying off the handle like that again, especially if she was going to throw blasts like that around when mad. "Don't worry about your friend; he's a were-creature he'll be healed from that in a couple hours." The old woman looked back and gave a curse as she saw an amazon warrior pulled down by some of the enemy that had begun to chase them.
Ten minutes of running later and Ranma heard one of the old women with the staffs yell something to several women who broke away and disappeared into the trees heading in different directions. Moments afterwards Ranma heard a scream from behind and looked back to see a woman being drug down by several demons but before she could leap back to help she was grabbed by the violet haired girl and pulled back. She managed to see one of the demons take the woman head off before the body was obscured by a pile of demons feasting on the dead woman's flesh.
"I could have helped her!" The memory of Ryoga's temporary demise still bright in her mind she would have shouted more but a staff cracked against her head and she found herself staring at the old woman again. "Don't be a fool! She would have been dead before you could have gotten halfway to her." Ranma was going to shout something back when she saw the look in the old woman's eyes. To someone who had been taught to read opponents since age five Cologne's feelings where plain as day, sadness, pain, depression, and underneath it all a burning rage directed at the murderous beasts that had harmed her people so plainly showing that Ranma knew not to challenge the elder.
The redhead heard a cry to the left and noticed a woman drop her seven year old to free up her arms to jab a spear into the head of a demon that died tearing her chest open. A second demon broke from the trees and pounced on the child who hacked at the creatures arms with a dagger.
Ranma was a martial artist, since as far back as she could remember her father had drilled into her the understanding that it was a martial artists duty to protect the innocent and the weak and help those in need. Even when her father stole or had had her steal he would talk about the duty of a martial artist as if saying it had absolved him of the crime. Ranma had never killed anyone or anything except animals for food and she had never felt the desire to go out of her way to hurt people, heck she didn't even cripple people that were bad people like that group of muggers she had ambushed in Paris. 'They're demons. Not like my cursed form, they only want to feed and slaughter' The thoughts flickered through her brain in a second and as the demon raised its hand to strike a finishing blow on the injured girl Ranma leapt across the distance grabbing the demons arm and then swinging it around in a circle before letting go sending it slamming through several trees and into a boulder.
Snatching up the injured girl the redhead almost lost her own head to another demon only to have the creature plucked up off the ground by a large woman and slammed into a tree as the villagers rushed passed it. Ranma noticed a black and white blur to the right of the crowed that punched several demons out and moved on to protect a group of amazons carrying some children. She glanced at the woman rushing along next to her and noticed it was the same one she had seen fighting with the violet haired girl earlier.
Ranma could feel the blood from the girl's torn side soaking through her silk shirt and wetting down her side as she continued to run. The amazons had managed to start a moving defense at the rear and sides of the group allowing the weaker members to stay in the interior of a circle of warriors capable of holding their own against the continual assaults.
The redhead noticed as they ran that the assaults grew less and less till finally stopping altogether allowing the villagers to run along at a steady pace with no hindrance. "What stopped them?" Her question to the old woman went unanswered for a short time as old woman pogoed along before she leapt to the redheads shoulder and rode along. "The farther we get from the hole they used to enter this dimension the weaker they get, though that will not last long." Cologne looked over her shoulder back the way they came and then turned to examine the path ahead again. "The longer the breach is open the farther the demons will be able to move outwards and they will begin to attack again, though we will reach phoenix mountain long before then."
TWELVE HOURS LATER
Ranma stumbled as she continued walking while carrying the girl, now bandaged, that she had rescued earlier. She glanced to the right for the hundredth time to make sure Ryoga, now living again, wasn't getting lost; the lost boy had been somewhat more subdued after his death and return to life but had still insulted Ranma a few times so she knew he was okay. If she had been rested she probably would have felt the watchful eyes that had been keeping watch for the last three hours.
The refugees from the amazon village came to a stop as they rounded a curve in the path on the mountain summit and came face to face with at least a hundred winged warriors being led by a dark haired lady with white wings. "Lord Saffron has been excepting you for some time now, elders follow me to meet with Lord Saffron, everyone else follow Masara to the healers."
Ranma was to tired to protest someone telling her what to do and followed the group inside the mountainside and through several corridors into a massive open space that extended upwards for the entire length of the mountain peak. There were balconies set at ten foot intervals but no visible way to get to them making it obvious that they had been designed for those who could fly. Several cables were strung from balcony to balcony and Ranma saw several small winged children riding devices across the cables as well as hundreds of people flying to and from different balconies.
"This way." The winged man pushed on a section of rock making it turn out of the way and open up to a staircase.
ONE HOUR LATER
Ranma sat silently by the bed of the girl holding the now cold hand and trying unsuccessfully not to cry as she saw again and again the amazons who had fallen in the village and on the run from their homes. The cries of the wounded filled the healers hall and she could tell that several people wanted her to move so they could remove the dead girls body to make way for more wounded.
Ryoga watched in surprise as Ranma started glowing a dark black and the tears running down the cursed martial artists face steamed away as she clenched her teeth and stared at the body in front of her. "I swear, I…I will get vengeance for this. On my honor as a martial artist I swear."
Ryoga finished drying hot water from his hair and carried the pail to Ranma dumping the water onto the demoness and leaving the black haired boy he remembered from before in her place. Ranma brushed hot water from his hair and placed the girls hand onto her chest before standing up and turning to Ryoga. "C'mon we're gonna train."
Binding Room.
Cologne and the two remaining elders entered the room that the woman Kiima had led them to and could only stare in awe at the setting. The rooms left wall was covered with a map of china done in exquisite detail with thousands of small glowing ruby's set all across the map. The two elders noticed that the Bayankala mountains and their surrounding areas, which included Jusenkyo, had almost eight stones in certain areas and the one placed in the center of the amazon village was no longer glowing. The center of the room was dominated by a massive table that had a detailed map of the mountains and surrounding area for at least a hundred miles.
The candles on the room's chandelier flickered slightly as the doors opened and allowed several people entry. "Ah I see you have interest in the wall of bindings, each of those stones represents a chained darkness that should never become free."
The three elders turned to see who had entered only to see a young man who was radiating unnatural warmth and the same woman from earlier. The two elders immediately bowed to the god-king of Jusenkyo only to have him gesture for them to approach the table. "We have no time for pleasantries. You were attacked by forces that should never have broken free of their prison, as well as brought a royal wolf demon into my mountain, I would know the reason for the demons presence."
"The demon is a cursed individual from Jusenkyo my lord, she bears no ill will towards anyone." Cologne spoke swiftly and looked closely at the map before looking at the phoenix narrowly "We would like to know our enemy, and how you knew of its existence."
"The forces you fought are merely mirrored forms; your enemy is a being you have heard of before, the demon king himself." The disgust in the man's voice and the way he shifted his gold feathered wings told the elders of his dislike for the being in question.
"Impossible, you yourself were part of the trinity of deities who destroyed the creature." Cologne had heard the legend many times and it always ended with Saffron and two others killing the demon king.
"If it had been that easy the others would still be here. We imprisoned him in an astral plane and sealed it believing he couldn't escape no matter how powerful he was." Saffron looked closely at the map frowning "I felt the breach made even here but I could not leave this place as I was needed to maintain the binding on several other beings. As it is I can not engage his entire army by myself or even with all of my forces and hope to succeed." He placed a crystal on the map to mark the amazon village and the breach into the astral plane.
"And the worst part is." The god-king turned to look at the wall "The energy wash is powerful enough to break the binding on at least two others that are near enough to be hit by it." The two elders turned to look at the wall and noticed that two of the stones were flickering wildly as if they were losing power. "Athena protect us all." Cologne said softly.
Descriptions
Shadow Ranma: Shown to exist only by the easily visible obsidian black eyes and a slight darkening of her skin this darker version of Ranma will only show herself when Ranma is in female form. She appears to be massively powerful and has an acute understanding of Ranma's demoness abilities. Unlike Ranma she is completely uncaring of the risks to herself by attacking large forces that she couldn't possibly defeat and will attack any enemy until either she is victorious or dead. She does not understand the idea of retreat and will actively pursue any enemy that tries to run from battle even if it means entering a trap to kill them.
Like Ranma she has a highly developed sense of honor and will protect her friends to the death. Her only problem is that her violent nature makes her fire off her most powerful attacks immediately into a fight which exhausts her staying power making her vanish into Ranma's mind once more allowing Ranma to retake control. Ranma remembers nothing of what Shadow Ranma does while she is awake and she will not show herself unless Ranma enters a state where his mind reaches an inability to cope with a current situation. Her existence is actually new, appearing only after Ranma gained his curse and is most probably caused by a minor remnant of the royal wolfs mind.
Shadow Buster Shot: Shadow Ranma's version of a shi shi Hokodan. While Ranma and Ryoga have no knowledge of how to fire ki blasts yet, shadow Ranma shows her remnant demon mind with the ability to fire a demon aura powered blast of dark energy capable of destroying, at full power, a full twelve city blocks.