Hey readers. Long time no Read.

I said that I'm revamping some of my fics, and i'm making due with one that's actually pretty requested.

My main issue with why i sort of stagnated with this fic is... well because I kinda fell off from the series- LET ME EXPLAIN!

I LOVE Blazblue, and I even got to the end of CentralFiction as well as look through Guilty Gear (crossover when?), but it's kinda hard to keep playing the games when you have brothers who hogs the game consoles needed to play it. on top of that, I have actual work now, and I run ttrpg games to the side.

But after a while I wanted to brush off the dust and keep this fic going, so I did what I had to do and get myself Back into the Blazblue series. I mainly watched some videos (Shoutout to the youtuber Thorgi's Arcade for his story mode retrospective), and I'm currently playing through the mobile game to re acquaint myself to it and hype me up to get the juices flowing again...

Then I saw the word count... while I'm in the mindset of my Persona/smt fic... So I got a LOT to work to do.

ill be looking for someone or three who can help me out with writing this fic to make it easier for everyone, so here's hoping I can find a few that can join up.

Back to the main point. I noticed that Blazblue hasn't been getting enough love in the fanfic department, so here's why this is happening.

So… do any of you remember Chronophantasma extend, and its abyss mode? Y'know the battle gauntlet that lets you buff up your character to high holy hell, while going down to an endless battle chain? And you get rewarded even if you lose?

Well… what if I told you that it was an actual thing? Interested? Good.

This is what happens when Ragna journeys deeper into the dark abyss, with his trusty new partner… Black beast…..

…..

So here's the story of the Black Beasts!

(I don't own Blazblue)

edit: I've added more stuff to the chapter, tried to fix some spelling mistakes, and introduced something early that i had lined up for a future chapter before it was thrown into the backburner

Ps. since i couldn't really find their actual ages, i decided to wing it.

Ragna: 22 years old (15 years in this chapter)

Jubei: 100+ years old

Black beast: 100+ years old

7 years Ago, before the events that triggered the Infamous infinite time loop, There was a singular event that unknowingly shattered it entirely.. unnoticed by most. A lone male in his mid teens made his way down the familiar trial he set out through, several trees grooves with a few slivers that seemed to have been chopped through by a blade or an axe. stopping his trek through the woods, the teen sighed heavily as he looks up at a steep yet climbable stone marked by a familiar worn warning label. looking up further, he found that the sky was darkening for it's transition, having spent most of his day arriving to this destination to the point where it's almost sunset.

This teen, was Ragna the Bloodedge, newly graduated from his learning experience a full few weeks after Jubei left him on his lonesome, his training now complete and having no need to stick around. with free reign over what he could do know, Ragna set out to complete what he personally infers to as his "Fuckit Bucket list".

Deciding that he should put his long stagnated curiosity to rest, Ragna ventures toward to check off the first of his (read: relatively SHORT) list; locating and exploring a closed off area he managed to find during his training. The first time Ragna found this particular area, he felt something odd about the entrance of this place, a lone Cave down a slope to a lower part of the world. unfortunately, he barely took even a step inside when he was pulled back by Master Jubei, who was... quite insistent on keeping him away from there. unfortunately, said Silly cat-man in question failed to realize that keeping a child, even as a partially matured teenager, away from something only makes them want it more.

When he asked the Beastkin why he should stay away from the cave, to which by now he started hearing someone calling out to him, he was told why... in a rather long and nearly tiring lecture (for the both of them) that it housed immense amounts of concentrated seither, and going in there is essentially a death sentence on account of nobody being able to handle that much seither at once.

After said lecture about seither, that discussion was dropped afterwards and the two began to vacate the area, Jubei sealing the Cave with a massive stone and warnings around said rock for good measure, but Ragna couldn't help but wonder about the forbidden area, his curiosity slowly devouring him whole as time went on. so during his trainings whenever they stopped, Ragna took note to try and explore it when Jubei isn't around, nicking a few trees and stones in a certain way to help him when he inevitably backtracks to the closed off cave,

Ignoring the various keep out signs, and spending much longer than he would've liked to move the damned boulder Just enough to squeeze on through, felt the familiar energy of the toxic magical substance on his skin, the whispers he heard oh so long ago greeted his mind, echoing in his brain as he turns towards the darkness of the cavern within. Without wasting another beat, and making sure he had the boulder wedged just enough for a quick getaway, Ragna promptly placed one foot into the seither enriched area.

Then another...

Then four more steps...

By the time he stopped, he couldn't see the entrance anymore due to a mysterious mist, something he didn't even realize was forming around him as he kept advancing towards the voices direction. Before he could question this, he felt a twinge of pain from his right arm... which began to increase in pain, glowing a bright Crimson as his digits twitched hungrily at the concentrated energy around him.

"W-what the hell?!" he screamed in pain, clutching the erratic pulsing arm as he tries to turn and leave. he stops, however, as he looks down to his legs, seeing them stand defiantly in place instead of running towards the exit like he wants them to. "C'mon, legs, don't do this t me here! I still gotta Still gotta..." He finally manages to take a singular step, his eyes watering lightly as his vision begins to blur.

images flooded his mind, whispers, shouts, voices that he's heard and even many he never even thought of hearing ringing in his head. most of these supposed visions were random, but he could tell that most of them had him, his brother, this weird blond princess girl, and what looked suspiciously like Saya in them, as well as many who he never haven met. a few of said figures were naught but silhouettes, but a few she were visible brought out several emotions to the surface, from rage (A man in green, a pure white swordsman, a puppet master in Maroon) annoyance (a child in blue and white, a woman in black and red, An amorphous... something with a three holed mask) and even happiness or relief (a tall cat in pale yellow, a gruffy man in red and green, a teenage girl with hair and eyes of red)-

The last thing he heard before all went black was a deep feral chuckle, and the words...

"We have much to discuss about...Ragna the Bloodedge."

(? 3rd POV)

Opening his eyes, Ragna could only see pitch black darkness. Feeling nothing underneath him, he sat up to search his surroundings... Or at least tried to. after a few seconds attempting to pull his body off of whatever it is he's laying on, he finally managed to stand up straight.. only to begin tipping to the side, and slowly began to rotate in place.

Finding out that there was nothing for him to sit up or stand on, he looked around and saw what he could find in his surroundings... or lack thereof. everywhere he looked was just a pitch black void with the only inhabitants are him and that humongous red shadow over there...

Wait...

Whipping his head around (and inadvertently began spinning in place as a result), Ragna came face to face with a giant creature as black as the vast space of nothingness around him, The only thing he can make out from the figure was that it had several heads, each taking on a draconic form, and blood red veins lined up along the body, glowing in the same vermillion colors as its eight sets of eyes that seemed to be focused on HIM...

"OH CRAP!" the boy screamed. Trying to look for the previously established escape route, Ragna slowly backed away (or at least his pitiful attempts to do so) from the multi headed dragon in front of him. "Stay back, who-ever you are, I'll fuck you up if you get close!" he roared defiantly, pulling out his signature blade Bloodscythe.

Calm Thy temper, Child. we mean not thou harm Eight separate voices, four male and four female, spoke in perfect sync. and Do not bother thyself with looking for a way out; None shall be found.

Looking around, Ragna slowly looked towards the eight headed serpent.

"d-did you j-just t-talk!?" Ragna stuttered.

Indeed we have spoken, young one. And as we've said, there is much to talk about.

"W-Who are you? What are you!? WHERE AM I!?"

Silence, child, and thine answers will follow.

"..." Ragna stopped yelling and stared intently at the beast, weapon ready and cautiously gazing up at the eight pairs of eyes.

Now then... first, we go by many names... "Black Beast", Kusanagi, Titan of Armageddon, Ragnarok, Apocalypse, World Ender, thy list goes on and on, but the forefront of our names, have been lost to all but one. Our origin stares at the eyes of thineself, and stares back at a fracture mirror... bearing our name that has been erased for the sake of our sacrifice. with a mighty roar, all eight spoke in unison, staring down the boy as they spoke. We are Thou, and thou art us, scattered though happenstance but reunited in the throws of past.

"The Black Beast. is... wait, hang on, why are you speaking in that old cryptic talk anyways?" the living Cauldron blinked at the child in front of them, stopping their speech as the looks of confusion formed on each of the heads.

Does thou wish it for us to speak differently? very well then. With what Ragna assumed to be a few coughs from the octet of heads in unison, they continue to speak, this time in a more casual tone than previously Does this work better? it surprises us that you said that with curiosity, but that isn't why we are here...

"Then why are we here then?" Ragna snarled, getting annoyed slightly at the dodged question.

That question might take a while to answer...

"Well I've got nothing else to do... i just finished learning from Jubei."

Then we are back within that accursed time loop... wonderful. the Black Beast sighed put it simply; you and I are one and the same. two sides of the same damages coin.

"Huh?" Ragna asked, surprised by the answer, panic starting to form on his features as the reality of what they just said started to sink in. "Wait, WHAT!? I-I'm gonna become a Black Beast? I thought I had finally figured out how to control this fucking thing!" he shouts waving his right arm for emphasis.

worry not, child. Your right arm... unlike our constructs, are nothing more than the faulty catalyst. the Animus to our being, missing its Anima counterpart.

"My... right arm?" glancing at his obsidian colored limb, he noticed that it started to glow a deep red aura.

Your goal was to get revenge on the one who made you suffer. Yuki Terumi, Correct? A nod from the child prompted the beast to continue.. but you're too weak to face him in your current state and learning pace... we know exactly where such conditions will lead you. Fortunately, We have found an alternative way for this to be fulfilled, which is why we have a proposition for you.

"Who are you calling weak- wait... proposition?" Ragna half cried in rage, before catching onto the last part. The Black Beast, wanting to help him? this isn't at ALL like what Master Jubei spoke to him about. whenever the beastkin spoke of the Black beast, he spoke in varying amounts of anger and contempt, to the point where Ragna himself got a bit scared himself whenever he goes off on one of his rare tangents about the dark war. (not that he would admit that to anyone, of course), but hearing about that, and seeing this creature now, Ragna can't help but feel... mixed about the revelation, especially if what the creature in front of him said were true.

We shall grant you the power needed to beat Terumi with this alternative method we have formulated. in exchanged, all we want in return is to be released.

"And there it is!"

...what?" how the damn dragon creature managed to pull out both a pout and a look that screamed "what's exactly the problem?" with all 8 of their heads was beyond him, but Ragna shrugged that thought off for now.

If I release you or whatever, then what's to stop you from going on another rampage again?" Ragna asked skeptically.

You, to put it simply. at the child's baffled confusion, the Black beast continued. remember when we said we are you? That is meant in a literal sense as well; we are currently linked by your Azure Grimoire right this very moment, meaning that the only thing stopping us is you yourself. So long as you're in control of your emotions an the Arm, we're in control of our more... destructive tendencies. Besides, It would have been a dire negative, if it wasn't for this device.

That's when Ragna finally noticed it, a faint glowing light that's centered at the very core of the eight headed serpent. That device, the IDEA engine, is bound to us and stabilizes our power, mainly due to our previous faultiness balances out permanently, by it's innate property of countering powerful Ars Magus. specifically, it was designed to counter artefacts known as Nox Nyctores, and with that, it stabilized our Azure grimoire, which had.. problems at the time.

"... Alright, if i'm really the one with the final say so... then I don't want any funny business, like taking me over while I'm asleep or something..." Ragna mumbled out, deep in thought for what appeared to be a few seconds. " Okay, I'm listening... what IS this other method?"

There are closed off areas filled to the brim with concentrated seither. While fatal to everyone else, With the right amount of control, seither, and a bit of memory, we can construct powerful training adversaries to fight you. Should you defeat them, you absorb them and the seither you absorb increases our power in turn.

"Wait. Why make opponents if all we're doing is absorbing seither? Shouldn't I be dead by now from seither exposure?" the 8 heads chuckle at the question, lowering one of the heads to meet eye to eye with the teen.

Do you really think that we, the Black Beast, can't handle the energy we were made from and constantly generate? We were made by Seither, the most dense and purest form of it, mind you, so we know for a fact that it won't do much to us. Besides, you need more battle experience don't you?

"Yeah."

Then that's your answer... now then. The dragon raises their heads, a few of them forming a ball of energy within their maws. we will need some memories for this to work... who do you know that can fight?

"Hmmm..." Ragna tried to think of anyone who he remembers that can fight off the top of his head. "Well, there's Jin, Master Jubei, this blonde princess I see from time to time, she looks powerful... oh and I remember Jubei showing me a picture of him with a pink haired woman... i think that's it though... aside from these weird flashes i got when i first stepped in here..."

that's not a big roster, but we can work with this... we'll add our memories of powerful opponents as well to branch out the possible roster... now then, it's time to train... and one more thing.

"What?" Ragna states, jumping at the sudden movement of one of the heads lightly biting his arm which held his weapon... and pulls Ragna close, stabbing Bloodscythe into the creature as the dragon in question began distorting and warping, funneling into the blade that stabbed it seconds prior, before Ragna could pull the weapon out, the eight voices called out one last time.

Wake up.

Jolting up in a start, Ragna rolled to the side just in time, narrowly avoiding being skewered by a blade made of ice. Looking up to the attacker, he couldn't help but falter when he saw that it was...

"What the hell!? Jin!?" Ragna shouted.

That is not your brother, child. The familiar chorus of voices said. looking around for the voices once more, Ragna bats away several icicles seeking to impale him into a nearby wall. Look down to your blade, Ragna.

"What the? Then who the hell is he? Where are you!? And WHY THE HELL IS MY SWORD TALKING!?"

We're communicating through your weapon. The Black beast explained. When we made you stab us with your weapon, we used what remained of our power to merge our being with it, forming a sort of Nox Nyctores ourselves. This will allow us to work with each other without others questioning your sanity, since it's at least partially known that those relics contain souls within them. taking a closer look at the weapon (after kicking the Jin faker down a hill and taking cover within the forest itself) he notices that Bloodscythe looks different than it was once before. the blade itself now had etchings of black and red lines along the weapon, almost akin to veins of a beast, at the location of the hilt of the blade formed a crystalline blue orb snuggly embedded into the weapon itself, and the end of the sword's handle forming a small head like ornament that looked like one of the Black beasts heads. As for the one attacking you, take a closer look at the man.

Looking back at the "Jin", Ragna found that while he looks eerily a lot like his brother, there wore several noticeable differences from his observations. aside from the fact that this Jin was WAY taller than he should be for what Ragna assumed would be Jin's height, the biggest difference was that his entire color scheme was completely different Instead of the usual colors he saw him in, this "Jin" was mostly black and red, and the only other color was a whitish pale lavender mop of hair and red eyes.

"His entire color scheme is different? Is this one of your "powerful Adversaries" Black Beast?" Ragna questioned.

Yes it is, This is what We meant by our alternative method. more will be revealed after you defeat them. now then... shall we begin your training?

"...y'know what? sure; After what he did to me back at the orphanage, Punching him in the face sound fucking therapeutic right now!" and with that, Ragna rushed towards his opponent, weapon drawn as the sound of swords clashing filled the now blackened night sky.

and that's a wrap.

since these had way less words than my Persona fic, it'll be easy to bump it up to a higher word count, but the only hard part is figuring out how to word it properly to reach that amount.

Also, there will be a few minor "filler arcs" to pan out between the games, which would help not only flesh out the fic more, but play around with the idea that one of Blazblue's biggest things is FUCKING AROUND WITH MULTIVERSE THEORY... so far the current ideas are:

- sentient Nox Nyctores/Nox Nyctores rebellion

- crossover with a few characters from the manga

- time bullshit similar to M&L: partners in time

next chapter will be the present, and right when Calamity trigger starts, also, i'm adding a thing in this from central fiction as well; the concept of equipping Grimoires and skills.

TBC