Please don't make this a VS Debate…
Who seeks the Empty Throne?
The rain was constant as the sound of thunder clashing against arcs of lightning littered the sky.
Though many had run and taken shelter, none were prepared by the horrible consequence of the arrival of one of the three. The city would be besieged by waves upon waves of water from the raging sea as if Poseidon himself had cursed them as he did Athens after they chose Athena over him.
Structures would fall. Homes would be washed against the apocalyptic storm…
And amidst the defenders helplessly doing their best to belay the inevitable, was a further realization that humanity proved to be weak against the oncoming trials. For even the strongest amongst them could not prove to be enough to stave away the bringers of the end.
Humanity was simply inefficient.
Weak.
And they were all slowly placed down a path of misery that would inevitably dwindle the hope from their spirits and souls. Many would simply mark this as an acceptance of their fate. Some would try their hardest to delay and fight that of which is not beatable only to fumble at the very end. It was a fool's hope. One that would force even the mightiest to question their worth.
One that would force the spirit of mankind to ask whether there was any point in continuing.
Alas, that sentiment would carry on as the vibrant and busy sounds of the defenders trying their best against the one who sinks cities persisted without fail. The destruction only grew rampant even as the mightiest amongst them grappled, fought, and blasted the beast from afar with their varied and powerful abilities.
Most of them fought with a valiant nature deep in their hearts, believing purely in the cause with their inane optimism and naivety. Some merely fought under the orders of those higher than them and the rest, if not all, were simply there to enact the most simple instinct that any species on Earth had managed to learn at the very cusp of their creation…
Self-preservation.
Not for themselves, but for what they cared for.
What they built for.
No longer was it a fight for ideologies or ethics, but a fight purely for survival in a city that a good deal of people had an attachment to.
Whether the day ends in death or destruction, the one thing they all had in their minds was to drive the beast off and get it to capitulate on making the city a target.
If only it were easy.
The devastation grew larger as the fierceness of the defenders rose and across this deluge of horrible violence and desperation, a lonely child deprived of her mother runs the wet streets in search of safety. Tears were staining her eyes and cheeks as she held her stuffed bear in her arms.
An explosion is heard nearby as the frenetic battle hearkens closer. Small details of shouting as water violently crashes into the battlefield alongside echoes that were as destructive as they were sudden. Even the rain worsens from the deluge as the child cries while running away.
The defenders, some of them that flew, led by a woman in a cape slammed into the beast with great force that the shockwave parted the water droplets of the rain forward like a bubble that was subtly seen by the keenest of eyes. She was thrown violently away by the beast as her form crashed into a thundering wreck across buildings and homes.
The girl continued to run even as her speed was meager and insignificant.
Shouting would once again be heard as beams of light hit the beast on all sides as it defended itself with the water amassed by the nearby bay. The girl looked back seeing the horrifying sight tried to run faster until another one of the defenders spotted the girl even as the buildings around him started to collapse into a mass fiery deathtrap before being smothered by the tides.
A barrier of blue emanated into a significant diameter around the beast as a green-hooded man who levitated focused all of his efforts and focus on trying to contain it, the man who spotted the girl sprinted ahead, ignoring the laws of nature as he slowed down and grabbed her into his arms.
He ran significantly slower than before, but he managed to hold and secure the child into his arms as he sprinted away just enough that he would not phase. The barrier of the green-hooded man collapsed as the enraged beast blasted the water coming from the sewers within the street on all sides at full tilt.
Pavement and cement had collapsed and pulverized as the force of the water current and the speed to which they were unleashed hit all of the defenders around the Beast. Some even got killed from the sudden escalation as more and more casualties started to rise from the pile.
The Beast was escalating considerably even as the defenders barked on trying to regroup.
The blast of the water earlier had hit the man and the little girl even as they were two blocks away as they crashed into a pile of rubble. It knocked out the man as the child cried while trying to wake him up. The angry beast known for sinking cities then attacked the direction of a giantess that threw a piece of a building at it as a burst of water erupted from its 'head' and the giantess was slain as if a sword had pieced her chest.
Her enormous body crashed as the child trying to wake up the man beside her screamed. A loud rumble of debris and smoke puffed into the air as it was dissipated quickly by the rain. The rain to which its intensity was increasing.
The child, now in the open with the man beside her desperately cried in futility as the Beast came closer due to all of the action around it…
But before the Beast could deliver the final, crippling blow that would break the city entirely, it suddenly stopped and froze… as its head looked up to the sky.
The rains weakened for a moment, bordering on ceasing entirely as chatter and murmurs from the defenders started to fill the silence that was left out of the beast's momentary pause.
It was only then did the child's cries lessened until she looked towards the heavens.
To where the Beast was staring at.
And along with all the defenders, a degree of silence was made as a bright, fiery glow parted the clouds. In speeds that would construe that of re-entry, a rather large fireball had crashed into the very earth in such power and force that the resulting shockwave broke apart a few more buildings and toppled everyone that was standing, except for the beast.
BOOOMM!
It even knocked out some of the fliers amongst the defenders as the child, reeling from the pain of the sudden knockback made her gasp and spit out the remains of her stomach. Injured, but alive, the girl and as well as everybody's eyes opened in shock and fear as they watched the tall smoke dissipate and reveal… what was underneath it all.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHH!"
The shriek was loud and despite the size, power, and force behind it, sounded horribly near human but on a scale that would eclipse even that of the beast.
What fires remained on its hide, what dirt and debris covered its visage, was swept away bit by bit as its ugly head reared its presence into the world. Eyes wild like a predator and ripe with insanity, the entire world simply balked in its presence.
Both in fear of the implications of the sudden intruder…
And fear of the city now being truly, and inexplicably lost.
Yet… the insane depravity of a creature took notice of the sinker of cities as it stared almost in reflex and in confusion as to what it was witnessing.
The intruder, a rather large and horribly looking monstrosity of a bat stared right back into the beast as its monstrous teeth, claws, and wings opened up into the world into something like an intimidation tactic that snakes would often employ…
Rising in height that made it larger by a few meters than the beast as the shadow grew around the city. The shrieks of bats and multiple creatures surrounded them all as the damp, gloomy grey-like atmosphere of the storm was replaced with darkness.
The eyes of the intruder, wild with insanity made its maw open as tendrils of tentacle-like fibers emerged from the back of its head as it suddenly spoke.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGHHHHH! INTERLOPER FROM THE STARS! You… Y-YOU BEAR THE SCENT OF MY ENEMY! Y-You… AUUUGHHH… I WILL NOT LET YOU PROSPER INTO OUR LANDS ONCE MORE!"
The proclamation, sudden and human-like as it was with how booming and powerful the voice scattered itself across nearly a mile, proved to be a distraction as within very few little seconds and without nearly any warning…
The intruder rammed itself into the beast in full stride.
The thunderous attack parted the concentration against the weather and water that the Beast held as the intruder attacked with such ferocity and power that it shocked the entire population of defenders as the sky darkened around them.
The intruder roared as its tendrils coiled and pierced itself through the beast's flesh almost without resistance as the loud cry of the fallen king grew into the silence.
"FALSE CREATURE! Y-YOUR UNNATURAL SKIN AND BONE DO NOT FOOL ME! FOR YOUR ENERGY IS MINE! MINE I SAY! AND I WILL-
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The Beast retaliated with a sudden attack that made the intruder fly away to its intensity as it crashed under an evacuation shelter, killing nearly all of the people inside. The Beast, now much more antagonized and panicked due to how easily the tendrils had pierced through its hide began to summon all of its energy to counterattack with such power that this city and nearly the entire coastline of this state would be leveled under its wrath.
Swept away as if it never existed.
Chatter and screams happened against the defenders as they scrambled on what best to do, but they all scattered like headless chickens not knowing what to focus on.
Yet as the darkness of the skies dissipated, and rain started to petter the two combatants…
The beast did not expect the intruder to rise up faster than it could perceive as its gigantic, monumental wings that forced shockwaves down on the ground flew towards it and grabbed its entire being within the powerful claws of the bat's feet.
Its control and desperation slipped as its plan to sink the entire shoreline was stopped when the intruder rammed the beast against the bay, against multiple ships before crashing it into the ground. The sea parted as the Hebrew God did for the Israelites as the power of the attack made the waves reach into the air with such ferocity it would be seen for miles. The raging storm increased as the beast became desperate for its survival as the intruder bit it down, slashed at it, and attacked it on all sides without fail and with little resistance before they were both washed away by the oceans.
Yet, even with the advantage in its hands, the Beast did not expect the intruder to have enough strength and power to bite through its neck and force itself out of the water as its jaws threw it deeper into the seas and away from civilization entirely.
The intruder burst from the water as it flew once more and roared in fury at its enemy.
Nearly a mile back towards the coast, each defender watched in bated breath as the seas and the oceans before them looked as if a battle between gods had erupted as the chaos on a scale not foreseen nor even expected was playing before their eyes.
The beast practiced its powerful control over the waters but the relentless nature of its enemy did not cease, even as wounds started to happen around its body, a product of the claws, the waters, and the powers that the beast conjured continued to pelt the intruder over and over again…
Yet it was still coming… and it was as inexhaustible as its brethren would seem to the natives.
The clash of epic proportions continued on for minutes, yet no eye or sensory field could perceive the speed, ferocity, and force behind the duel to the death…
Until the Beast finally realized that the battle was futile, the intruder with its powerful and angered state pierced its entire arm into the Beast's hide, and out of it came its core.
It's heart.
Shock would be the proper emotion that would display on the bringer of death's face as the waters around them began to calm as this anomaly, this intruder had done the impossible.
"WEAK! YOUR BRETHREN ARE WEAK TO THE SPIRIT OF MAN! TO THE SPIRIT OF MY PEOPLE! PERISH LIKE THE REST OF YOUR LOT!" it proclaimed as its claws crushed the core entirely a powerful shockwave was cast around them before everything turned silent.
Like a ritual of the most violent of sacrifices, the Beast's body was thrown into the seas like the filth it was. Inevitably, the clouds started to normalize, and the environment was no longer chaotic.
Yet even the victorious, poor king who sacrificed everything for his people started to dwindle with his strength as his body started to sink into the oceans once more to rest.
He still had a role to play…
And with the new world that he was banished to, perhaps a new symbol to relay.
For his end was yet to be written.
THE END.
AN: This is after Camazotz rips out ORT's heart. So, he still carries the memories of the ORT battle after being reduced to a single arm holding a spear.
Anyway backstory, this isn't a snippet unfortunately. This was pre-written, stuck in my laptop prologue chapter that I wished to use as my story to post online. Yet due to the failure of Shepherd's Boy (my other story) getting an audience I just shelved this and thought this was pretty cliché (because it is, a new crossover character beating Leviathan was pretty common and even I thought this was meh). It was only through inspiration and love for Oberon and Lb6 that I started to take a gamble on thinking how it would make Narcissus' Folly work and voila, here we have it now…
And this? Yes I am a very large fan of Bat-God himself, but I don't know. He was probably the best character of Lb7 (spoilers of course) but I feel like that story is best reserved for another day.
No, this is not on my wishlist so this could just be a oneshot.
I do hope you guys enjoyed this little relic of the past as I slug through the newest chapter of the main fic (worse, I got sick so it's gonna be even more delayed ugh…). I do hope sharing this was at least cool.
But anyway, please stay safe and be amazing as always guys.