Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.
Temple of the spirit dragon ch 2
Lan looked at the small floating sphere for a moment, confused, and then a look of understanding came over his face.
"Ah, a spiritual guide! I guess you just manifested from my need to know how to get around in here. Said Lan "In that case! Guide away little friend!"
"We are not a guide stupid child!" said the spirit as lurched forwards at Lan. "We are lord protector of this realm, and you shall treat us with the respect we deserve!"
"Nyagh, okay, you don't have to be so mean about it." Said Lan, who backed up a bit, but then he paused and thought "Wait, then who are you and how the heck did you get inside my soul?… and why are you saying we when you are the only one here?"
"We will not answer the 2nd question since the lack of knowledge is from your own choice to not read anything on royal decorum. As for who we are, we are the king, protector of this realm since time immemorial. And as ruler of this realm, we demand that you surrender your physical form as recompense for the damages thou hast done to this realm and our royal wellbeing!"
Lan took a moment to process and understand the sprits speech pattern and then said. "Ok, if I'm understanding you right, you want me to give you my body because I'm danger to the world and cause I hurt you."
"Verily" said the spirit.
"And what danger and damages are those?" asked Lan, who folded his arms.
"We have no inclination to answer thee" said the spirit, giving off annoyed and angry waves "Just hand over thine body, and let this be done with."
"Why should I even consider that if you won't even give me a reason why?" said Lan "You tell me to give up my body, which I think is pretty much the same as giving up everything I have, and you want me to just do it on a leap of faith? That my friend, is pretty stupid."
The spirit gave of visible waves of anger and irritation, but it knew that currently Lan was currently the stronger soul between the two, and the only way that he would have a form back was to have the boy's cooperation.
"Very well" it said begrudgingly, "But tis a long story to explain things properly."
"I got time" said Lan, who sat down. A large bucket of popcorn then materialized out of the air in front of him. "Oooh, spirit popcorn." He then shoved some in his mouth and looked up at the spirit."
It sighed and then began to speak.
"You humans and faunus were not the first sentient to beings to walk this earth." Said the spirit. "Long, long ago our people, the illustratem, were the ones who controlled this world. We were created by the gods, who at that time still walked this world."
As it spoke, light flitted between it and Lan, which showed Lan brief visions of the story the spirit was telling.
"The gods loved us greatly and bestowed us with many gifts. These gifts allowed us to create a grand civilization, beyond anything that your race has come even close to achieving. With them, we could raise mountains, empty seas, and molded the world as we saw fit…but only within the confines of what the gods would allow."
Lan sensed anger in the spirit's voice as it continued.
"Over time, our race grew more and more intelligent, and we began to see that the gods saw us as little more than toys and blocked us every time we attempted to attempted to push the boundaries of our capabilities." Said the spirit "Seeing that we no longer had a choice, we rebelled." The spirit's voice began to grow in fervor. "It was a terrible battle that lasted for hundreds of years, but in that time, we developed the knowledge the gods had forbidden and used it to banish the gods from the realm by using a mystical formation with Remnant's 2nd moon as a medium."
"Wait, wait, wait." Said Lan, "Remnant only has one moon. That shattered broken one…wait does the moon being shattered have something to do with the rest of your story.
"No" said the spirit "We honestly have no idea why the 1st moon is like that. The 2nd moon was on the other side of the planet anyway, so even if something happened to it it's unlikely it would have affected the 1st moon. Anyways, back to the story, our people thrived after the gods were banished from the world and developed a great a great civilization that spanned the cosmos, as we colonized world after world."
"But how did you guys leave the planet?" said Lan, through a mouth full of spirit popcorn "Dust loses its effectiveness as it begins to leave the atmosphere.
"'sigh' We did not have Dust back when our civilization was being built. We used a combination of the gifts the gods had left behind and alternative fuel sources such as fossil fuels to power our interstellar empire."
"Oh yeah," said Lan, rubbing his chin "I remember reading about research into that, but it was ultimately scrapped since it proved to be a less efficient energy source than Dust."
"…moving on. Our civilization reached heights that your primitive human race, stuck within its small kingdoms would never be able to achieve. However, tragedy struck towards the end." Lan could sense that the spirit sighed. "5 demons, more powerful than we could have imagined attacked us. We were powerful, yes, but that proved to be our undoing. Each demon had powers that turned every advantage we had upon ourselves. We had superior numbers, but one of them had the power to corrupt us and turn as many of us into monsters as it wished."
Lan remembered the monster who had attacked his village and had turned his old caretaker Ansel into something just like it.
"We had superior technology, but the second had the ability to devour our creations and use them to augment its physical form and increase its power."
Lan remembered the creature that he had fought alongside the beast pirates.
"We were wise and intelligent, but the third could invade our minds and tricked us into killing each other like madmen. The fourth could invade our dreams as we slept and make us suffer before killing us in our sleep. And the last, oh the last, it was as if it were a sentient cloud of death. It seemed to be the leader of the demons, and everywhere it swept through everything died. Those who caught its attention weren't even able to put up a fight, they simply…ceased."
Lan sensed a pause in the spirit's voice, and a deep sad sigh.
"Eventually, after but a few decades they had near destroyed our entire empire and had traced the last of us back to this world. At that time, we were the king and lord protector of our empire. We devoted our life to studying what information we had in hopes of defeating them, and leading our men on the front lines against them. And eventually we succeeded in sealing them away. In order to contain those creatures, we created a device built from our best technology…and the gifts that the gods had left behind…but the price was far too great."
Lan sensed great sorrow in the spirit's voice
"To use the machine, the last of our kind had to gather inside its core and channel all of our spiritual energy into. Our people had hoped that there would be enough of us left after using it to rebuild…but no, activating the device consumed every last one of our people and burned up every one of the gifts. We had succeeded…but we were no more."
There was a solemn silence between the two for a moment, but then Lan chimed in:
"But wait, how are you still here?"
"While we were channeling our spiritual energies into the machine, we were wearing a gift known as the anchor of souls." said the spirit "Before it burned up it anchored our spirit to this plane, and when we awoke we were a half-physical, half-spiritual being. We explored our dead world after that, and found that the demons had been sealed within abandoned temples to the gods by the device. Afterwards, we left the world to scour the remnants of our destroyed empire. We lost track of time as we did this, traveling from galaxy to galaxy, seeing planet after barren planet. It was during a time that we had traveled through a wormhole to a place far far away where we were watching strange imbeciles in red and blue armor bickering with each other, that we felt a beacon. It was a beacon that we had installed at the cores of the temples to alert us should the demons ever be freed. We rode the beacon back to our world, but traveling such a great distance in such a short span of time greatly destabilized our spirit. When we awoke, we had taken up residence in your small frame."
Lan put down his empty popcorn bucket and stared intently at the spirit.
"The demons were nowhere in sight, and the world had changed so much in the time we had been gone. So much life had returned, so much beauty, even if your race was so much more stupid and weak than our own. It truly was a miracle. We decided to stay with you for a time, and protected you. Strange things those Grimm were, we had nothing like them when our kind last ruled this world."
"Nobody knows where they really came from" said Lan "I think they were probably around before mankind was."
"Anyways" continued the spirit "It found us eventually, most likely due to the fact that when you were born you had merged with the energies we had used to fashion the seal. It likely wanted to remove any threats that could have threatened it before going on to kill the rest of your world. From what I could tell, it was the creature which could turn others into monsters. Luckily the countless years of imprisonment had weakened it to the extent that it could barely turn 1 human, but unluckily the creatures of Grimm proved to be more compatible vessels for its power and as a result it was able to turn a vast army of them to its own purposes."
Lan remembered the night his village was attacked, and shuddered as he remembered walking through and seeing the corpses of his friends and family.
"After you were defeated, we merged with the energies of the seal to regain our strength and emerged to do battle with the creature…but it was too powerful. In the battle we were nearly destroyed and only survived thanks to us leaving the small spiritual fragment you are looking at within you. Luckily, your grandfather arrived, and he was more powerful than we or the demon expected. He destroyed it once and for all, and after that I was content to stay within you and watch your travels…But then" the spirit bristled with anger "you unsealed another one of the creatures, the devourer of technology."
"Hey, I didn't even know!" said Lan.
"That's even worse!" said the spirit angrily "you and us have been merged for so long that the seals now see the two of us as the same person, as a result you could accidently unseal the other demons by accident! Which could lead to you accidently destroying all life in your world!"
The spirits voice then calmed "Now do you understand why you must give me your body? It is too dangerous to leave that power with one who does not understand it."
"But isn't it better if we take care of those demons?" said Lan "I mean we already destroyed two of them, why can't we do the same for the other two?"
"The last two times you were lucky" said the spirit "the first time, you had your extraordinary grandfather there to defeat it, and the 2nd time not only did you have the assistance of a fleet of heavily armed ships, the creature had barely been released and hadn't accumulated enough techno-matter to reach greater levels of power. If it had been released in the middle of a city…"
Lan felt the spirit shudder.
"It would have been far worse. Please, if you unlock another seal by accident there's no guarantee you'll be lucky enough to have the conditions necessary to destroy the demon before it grows too powerful to contend with. So you must give me control of the body."
"But, I'm getting stronger every day!" said Lan "I could get strong enough to handle one of those things by myself, I mean I've got 2 semblances, that's pretty darn—"
"Those are not your semblances!" shouted the spirit, Lan stared at the spirit as it continued "The abilities you exhibited belong to us! During our reign, we were known as the king with 4 souls due to possessing 4 unique abilities: energy crystal creation, generation of concussive force, mental shielding, and precognition. Your true, what is the word you people use for it, Semblance! Yes, your true semblance is the ability to harmonize with the spiritual energies of others, this allows you to use their spiritual abilities to an extent. The energies you had absorbed from the first two seals had allowed me to regain my first two abilities, and your semblance had allowed you to copy them from me…Your physical ability is due to that semblance as well" said the Spirit, as Lan looked at it confused "Your grandfather's semblance is Accelerated Adaptation, being in such close proximity to him allowed you to copy it to some extent and as a result you were able to make it through his training."
Lan stared at the ground for a moment, speechless.
"Now do you understand why you must give your body to us?" said the spirit "You are a smart child, you must understand that this is the best option for the world. We can mimic you well enough that those around would be none the wiser, they would not be saddened with by your departure, and during that time we would ensure the remaining demons are never released."
"…But can't you just warn me if I get near one?" said Lan.
"No, we cannot" said the spirit, with exasperation "The world has changed so much since our departure that we have no idea of their current locations. We would be able to sense them if we were to get close enough, but you are naturally drawn to its power. If you got too close, you would be unable to resist pulling the energies into yourself and releasing the demon. We wouldn't even be able to warn you, since you were unable to hear us back in the pirate cove when were screaming at you to stop!"
"But the seals might get released anyway." Said Lan who got up "Someone might find them eventually and find a way to release them"
"You do not know that!" said the spirit "And even if that is the case, it is all the more reason for you to give us your body so we may see to it that doesn't happen! So, stop being stubborn and give us your body!"
"No!" said Lan, "I admit that this is a problem, and I thank you for brining it to my attention, but I don't see how I can't train myself to handle those problems. Sure, my real semblance isn't what I thought it was, but that just means I need to train myself to use it properly, and maybe I will get strong enough to handle those demons. Besides" Lan folded his arms "I've made and am going to make tons of friends and allies all over Remnant, if one of those demons does get loose I'm sure if all of us fight together we'll find a way to beat them."
"Those things destroyed our entire civilization!" shouted the spirit angrily "Are you really so arrogant to believe that forces you gather would be able to even come close to matching that?! If even one them grew to their full strength, this world will die. Have you ever had to face down an amalgamation of every ship, space station, and colony in a sector?"
"No, and I may not be able to beat them" said Lan "But you haven't been completely honest with me during this conversation, have you?"
The spirit recoiled, startled.
"You obviously have not been awake the whole time I've been traveling" said Lan "Grandpa's brought me to all kinds of places and made sure I could tell when people are lying or are only telling half-truths. I may not be a pro at it, but I can definitely tell you're hiding something. In fact, I can feel the emotional waves coming off of you! I know you've been keeping something from me. If you want this negotiation to go any further, then you better spill it, Well?"
The spirit floated in the air, silent and giving off waves of anger.
"…I see" said Lan, the boy turned his back on the spirit and began heading towards the center of the platform "I'm going to find a way leave the depths of my soul now. I'll come check on you later, and if you want to talk, then I'll be all ears."
Lan turned and began walking towards the center of the platform, but he hadn't gone 5 steps when he heard a roar of rage behind him, and he turned just in time to see the spirit slam into him. He felt the world spin around him in a similar fashion to when he first entered the spiritscape. Before he could find his bearings, he crashed onto hard stone again. He quickly got to his feet and looked around, he was standing on another, larger platform, and in front of him was a giant house made of stone, and in front of that was a giant stone statue of Byakko which was flexing and kept repeating "Train every day, Train every day". Before he could make sense of what exactly this place was, the spirit appeared through a small portal, slamming into him and sending him flying to another destination. He appeared in another place that seemed like a collection of interconnected isles floating in the air. He managed to stay on his feet that time, and stayed still with his senses opened. He felt something tingle behind and him, and he turned to see the spirit emerge from a rupture in space. He threw a quick jab and sent the spirit flying, it disappeared with a flash at the edge of the platform, and before Lan could react it reappeared behind the boy and tackled him in the back.
This exchange continued for a good length of time, with the two of them phasing from one area of Lan's soul to another, but slowly and surely Lan began to adjust himself to the spirit's timing and began to get a feel for how the spiritual transfer between zones worked. Lan was also the stronger of the two souls, and as a result was burning through his spiritual energy far slower than the spirit was from their confrontation, until finally:
'Wham' Lan slammed his palm into the spirit the spirit as it emerged from a spiritual rupture, grabbed it, and repeatedly slammed it into the ground until it could no longer fight back.
"Now" said Lan, taking a deep breath "I'm angry that you attacked me, but I don't think I would have gotten a handle on how to transport myself in this spiritscape as fast as I did if you hadn't, so we can call it even."
"G-Give us c-control!" said the spirit as it weakly blinked on the ground.
"No" said Lan, "I'll leave you here a while to cool off, and maybe we can talk later. I'm leaving"
Lan closed his eyes started to use the spiritual transfer in a way that he believed would send him back out to the physical world, but just as he executed the transfer, he heard another scream of rage. Using the last of its strength, the spirit rose up and slammed into Lan once more. His and its spiritual energies merged together as the technique completed, and the two of them were rocketed off into the large spiritual pathway Lan took when first coming here.
"No, no no no" said the spirit as it realized where they were heading and attempted in vain to go back.
"Oh what now?" asked Lan as he began to get used to the strange sensation.
"You have not given us control of the body!" said the Spirit "We have no physical form, if we head to the physical plane as we are now we will dissipate!"
"Oh, oh no!" said Lan. Though they had just fought, Lan didn't hold any ill will towards the spirit. In fact, since 40% of the friends Byakko introduce the boy to ended up fighting him, the boy saw a fight as a sort of a greeting.
Lan tried in vain to swim towards the spirit so that he could help it, but was unable to fight against the spiritual torrent. Before he knew it, he was back in his body, lying on the cold stone floor. Sitting at his side was Meng Zhang, who had a hand resting on the boy's forehead.
"That was fast, good work." Said Meng.
"Uncle Meng!" said Lan "A spirit—"
"Say no more" said Meng, who reached out a hand, and deftly caught something that blasted out of Lan's face.
"There it is" said Meng, He then placed his other hand on top of it and there was a brief flash of light. He then opened his palm, and out floated a small glowing sphere.
"There you go" said Meng "You have your own pseudo-physical form now so you won't need Lan's body. However, you two are still spiritually tethered together so you'll need to stay near each other."
These last words passed over the spirit and Lan's heads as they stared in shock and awe at Meng. The spirit finally spoke after a long pause.
"W-What are you?"
Meng Zhang smiled and said "You've been away from the world for a long time, there are so many things that you have yet to see."
I finish this chapter sadly, as it is that day that another legend, Stan "The Man" Lee, has passed. I hoped and prayed for that he would at least break 100, but it was not to be. Hopefully he'll make friends with Monty, wherever the two may be.
