Chapter 45 – Final face-offs
Zeo limped his way through the vast plain of sand holding his wound as blood dripped onto the floor and made it to the area with the pyramid in.
"I'm not dead yet Carmesi, I'll show you how useless I am," he though desperately. He spotted the big hole in the skies. "I'm coming for you, just you wait." As he slowly made his way to the black hole he saw another figure who also seemed in pain and was slowly trudging up the stairs. "Looks like someone else if gonna join in the fun as well." He carried on towards the black hole.
Meanwhile Ketu, Ratiasu and Haruka jumped out of the hole and into the new dimension. They looked around them, everything was red, the entire dimension was red. They were in a square room with medieval castle walls surrounding all four side that were red.
"I can see this guy likes red as much as you do Terri," said Ketu taking in the area around him and examining the walls.
"I like vermillion, there's a difference," snapped Ratiasu.
"Here we go again," sighed Haruka.
"Vermillion, red, what's the difference," Ketu snapped back.
"There's a whole lot of difference."
"What difference? There is none, vermilion is just a different shade of red, so it's red," said Ketu firmly.
"Look here," said Ratiasu and took off her scarp and compared it to the wall, "It's a different colour."
"Well obviously it's different because it's another shade. It's like saying that viridian isn't green which is obviously not true."
"They aren't the same so it's a different colour!"
Usaitar's laugh came from all sides of the walls and halted their argument. "As much as I like seeing my enemies argue in confusion, this argument is getting extremely tedious and annoying so I'm just going to shut you both up now."
"I hate to say I agree, but that was pointless," sighed Haruka.
"She started it," said Ketu.
Again came Usaitar's laugh, "I can't believe my greatest enemies are acting like children. Or I suppose you could call this a lover's quarrel. But whatever I don't have all the time in the world so why don't we speed this up a bit." He emerged slowly from the ground along with the two arrancars. To his left was Carmesi Vampiro, and to his right now that they can see the arrancar close up noticed it was female. She had long black hair which evil looking red eyes and no visible arrancar mask on her face.
"Alright so we're here what now?" asked Haruka with her sword in front of her.
"Well firstly I'd like to say congratulations on getting this far. And of course welcome, welcome to my dimension. This is the true power of my sword, Jigen Shukun. It is able to create a dimension of its own at free will and warp it to however I please. Quite handy when I want to make a quick getaway, and also quite handy when fighting because now you're fighting by my rules."
"Yeah yeah yeah, how long are you going to drag this speech on for?" said a bored Ketu.
"Young people these days really have no patience at all. You do know it's rude to interrupt when an elderly is speaking don't you?" said Usaitar.
"I didn't come here for pleasantries. I came to fight and kill you, got it! So quite with the weird things bastard."
"How dare you speak like that to master Usaitar with such ill words," said a scary voice from the female arrancar as she appeared right next to Ketu with her sword across his neck.
"Hey back off," warned Ratiasu suddenly appearing by the arrancar with her fan next to the arrancar's neck.
"Now now people, let's just calm down. We don't want to rush everything," said Usaitar calmly.
The arrancar jumped back, "Sorry Master."
"It's fine it's fine," said Usaitar. "Now then why don't we start with some introductions first." He signalled to Carmesi, "Well I'm sure you all know him by now. He is ranked two and his name is Carmesi Vampiro." He now signalled to the female arrancar. "I think this is perhaps the first time you've met this arrancar. She is ranked one, my most loyal follower and has been a great help to me which I truly appreciate. Her name is Emperatriz Endriago. Now you may wonder why I'm going to the trouble of introducing you to them. Well as they say, it's common courtesy to let you know the name of the person who's going to kill you," he said mockingly.
"Don't screw with us, we know perfectly well that you don't stand a chance," said Ketu back.
Usaitar laughed, "Whatever you say Ketu. I guess we should just get on with it and let our swords do the talking. But before you all die I'd just like to say it was fun playing with you guys. I thoroughly enjoyed my journey for power and I actually enjoyed you three trying to stop me. After all there's no fun if there's no competition. And one last thing," he looked straight at Ratiasu.
"Ratiasu, or Terri as your friends now call you. I guess I should apologise, for everything I've done. Though I'll be honest with you now, I never liked you. You were always so popular, you made friends easily. Even though you were just the same as me having incredible abilities you still managed to get through. And for that I hated you. Have you wondered why I changed my title to 'the white soul reaper'? One, obviously because I'm completely white. But the other reason, was to separate any relationship I had with you. In the end I guess that didn't work out well, you can never change your name so I was stuck with Usaitar. But I should thank you as well, after all if it wasn't for your information I would never have achieved my ultimate goal. So I guess you can say we're even. And now that we are, there's no reason for any of us to hold back. Bit of a shame I never really learnt bankai, but nonetheless, I'll still crush you. I don't need bankai to beat up worms like you."
"Alright, enough with the small talk why don't we finish this here and now!" shouted Ketu.
"Why the rush? Wouldn't you want to enjoy the last bit of your life a little longer?" taunted Usaitar.
"I'll enjoy my life after you dead," said Ketu getting impatient and flash stepped in front of Usaitar and aimed a kido beam at him at close range. But the attack didn't connect, instead another black hold appeared in front of Usaitar and the kido was sucked in.
"No need to rush. After all you are in my world and you must follow my rules." said Usaitar firmly. Ketu quickly flash stepped back to where he was in case they attacked back. "Let me ask you, have you ever wondered why Ratiasu is around your age yet she is around five hundred years older than you?"
"Actually, I've never noticed that. But now that I think about it, if she's your twin she should be much older than me," said Ketu thinking about it.
"Well, it's because of her speed. Her movement is so fast that something else had to be given up, and that was her aging speed. Her aging speed was slowed down dramatically, so as long as she stays as a soul reaper she'll probably live for another tens of thousands of years, so here's my advice, don't get too close otherwise it may be painful in later years."
"When I want your advice I'll ask for it, so shut up and don't interrupt in my affairs," said Ketu shooting out some sharp kido attacks out him.
"Attacking recklessly has never been your style has it? So why change now? Or perhaps is it because you are afraid?" sneered Usaitar as he easily absorbed those attacks into somewhere else of the dimension. "Afraid that you'll let your friends down and cause them to suffer? Afraid you're not strong enough perhaps?"
Ketu clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, breathing hard but didn't say anything back.
Usaitar laughed mockingly, "I'm right aren't I? Look at you, you're a mess. You're weak and most of all Terri doesn't need you, you're just a hindrance to her."
"Shut up," shouted Ketu unable to contain his anger.
Ratiasu then put her tender hand on Ketu's shoulder. "Don't worry, just calm down. Remember, keep a clear head," she said with a soothing voice. Ketu's hands relaxed and he started breathing normally again.
"That's right, don't let your temper get the better of you. I may be your enemy but I won't be satisfied with an easy win. I want to crush you at your best so then you have nothing to say afterwards."
He stopped talking and an eerie silence hung over the room. A thick blanket of tension covered the area and no one moved even an inch.
"Lord Usaitar what are we waiting for exactly? Let's just finish this now," suggested Carmesi.
"Alright, fine. I just wanted a little chat before the final fight you see, to clear up some things. Nothing wrong with that is there?"
"Not at all my lord," said Carmesi.
"Let's get things started then shall we?" Usaitar raised his sword. Haruka, Ratiasu and Ketu stood ready for any attack. "Well, they're all yours." Carmesi and Emperatriz moved quickly and attacked in an instant.
They both aimed their attacks at Ketu. Ratiasu and Haruka flash stepped onto either side of him and blocked their attacks. Carmesi and Emperatriz flipped back on either side of Usaitar.
"Hmmm… Don't you agree it's a little cramped in here? Especially for a three on three fight. I know, why don't we separate to give us some more leg space? Divide and conquer you know." Just as Usaitar raised his blade, Carmesi moved in to attack Ratiasu and Emperatriz moved in to attack Ketu. As each of the attacks was blocked they vanished.
"What did you do?" demanded Haruka.
"Don't you worry about a thing. All I did was send them to another part of my dimension so they have more room to move around and fight. And what's more is that they'll fight on fair ground because I won't be controlling the dimensions over there. I think that's fair. I may be an evil villain but I am still honourable."
"Just bring them back now."
"No can't do. They won't come back until either they win or I lose. Basically you need to kill me before they can make it back because I seriously doubt, even fighting on fair grounds that they stand a chance against my top two arrancar."
"You're underestimating my friends," said Haruka.
"Perhaps. But what I wanted was to offer you a proposal."
"Whatever you offer will get a no from me."
"Aizen tried and failed to stand at the top. But now, I will succeed and stand at the top, I will fill the empty seat. Haruka, will you not join me? With you, we'll have no problems ruling this world. Won't you consider joining us? This world needs a good leader, the world needs someone like me. Help me rule Haruka, together we will be unstoppable."
"Over my dead body," spat Haruka.
Usaitar sighed. "Well, I tried, but I had a feeling your mind was made up. So, let me tell you something Haruka. There are only two types of people in this world. Those who kneel before me and obey, and those who will die. You, Haruka, are the latter and, will die."