24: FALL OF FALL IN FALL - [B07a] or [What Can You See In Their Eyes]
Cinder Fall clawed at the space behind her with her left, black-gloved arm.
It tore, her nails raking through the fabric of reality itself to establish an ethereal gateway into the swirling hyperspace beyond.
Ichigo froze at the otherworldly sight. A garganta? She can open those, too?
In one motion, before anything else could happen, Cinder wrenched her fist free from the jagged right-angled portal and tossed something right at Ichigo. He caught it reflexively, his right palm defending his face, and he turned it over in his hand to inspect what he'd caught for a split-second.
A small, banana-shaped... thing, that had a red, glowing core to it. It felt almost organic, in his hand. A dust-bomb? But he couldn't sense it...
Either way, he moved to throw it right back, but then Ichigo just... stopped. Not only did his movements halt, but everything else about him did, too. His eyes were blank, the pupils completely gone, and he was dead silent on his feet.
Mercury slowly, slowly turned to look at Cinder, still tensed for action. "...What did you do?"
She stepped away from the swirling, ethereal crack in space behind her. "That was a Nightmare seed. A particularly devious species of grimm that serves to possess its prey via their mindscape. It directly seeks to extinguish the soul itself, though Ichigo's sheer power means that there isn't nearly a chance it can actually harm him." she explained. "This is our means to recruit him. Once his darker half surfaces, he will be an instrumental force under our wing."
"No way! I call bullcrap!" Mercury growled. "You're just getting sentimental over him! This guy was about to waste all three of us! I can tell these things! You're scared of him, but you're for some gods-forsaken reason strung up over him, too! We've gotta kill him, now!"
"Well, I never thought you would choose now of all times to grow a spine, Mercury..." Cinder sneered, as her lone eye lit aglow with the Fall Maiden's arcane magic. "Keep talking, if you don't value that tongue of yours."
"Uhm, Cinder...?" Emerald spoke up, her voice shaky and meek. "Maybe Merc does kinda have a point... I don't see why we should risk—"
Bubbling, burbling frothing. The sounds of something truly supernatural, and not of Remnant at all, filled the clearing. A few red leaves fell from the branches above, carried by the slow air softly to the earthy ground.
All at once, they turned back to Ichigo. His horns were melting.
What was once some sort of spiritual ivory became liquid, running down his face and covering it almost entirely. It dribbled mostly down his left side, before it slowed and hardened, taking on the texture of porcelain.
"Ah!" Emerald lost her nerve, and whipped out Thief's Respite. She fired at him, three shots right at his chest. The bullets hit him square-on in his solar plexus, but that was all they did. The metal jackets crumpled, dropping to his feet, and the spot where they hit him bubbled and frothed with liquid bio-matter. When the bubbles died down, they revealed a vacuous hole straight through his chest.
"What in gods' name..." Mercury gasped. "—What is this?"
Her eye widened, and Cinder hesitantly touched at the scarf around her throat, before she steeled her nerves. "Ichigo..."
This time, she would draw upon all the elements at her disposal. Frost seeped from where her shoes contacted the soil, spreading a radial blanket of white crystals beneath her. Whatever came her way, she would face it. Failure here meant death– in a literal sense.
Lethal quantities of microscopic ice crystals combined with harsh, biting wind to create a blast of air so cold that it instantly-froze every square-inch of the clearing in front of her. Mercury and Emerald stood back, as the stationary, transforming Ichigo was completely encased in a tree-sized shard of translucent ice.
It didn't last long.
Cracks sprouted across it, converged and broke the massive crystal in seconds, revealing a monstrous sight. 'Ichigo' was hefting his massive greatsword like it was a paperweight with one clawed hand, as the left side of his face was covered by a stark, bone-white skull mask. A black stripe ran down over the eyehole, where a rich golden-yellow iris stood out against the pitch-black onyx sclera.
It wasn't Ichigo standing before them anymore.
"Hraaaaaah..." He breathed out, steam condensing from the rush of air between his sharpened teeth in the subzero air. The alveoli in his lungs should have instantly been encrusted with fatal ice crystals from that, and yet here he was, exhaling and inhaling deeply just fine.
The air grew heavy, and Cinder could swear she felt a weight against her... as though her very bones were being crushed by the sheer presence the eldritch creature before her held. The air became blurry to see through, obscured by a buzz of disorienting static. Nausea clawed at their mortal composures, and one of their number succumbed to the sudden, primal fear of death itself immediately.
Another gunshot rang out across the half-frozen clearing, as a panicked Emerald tried to draw on her semblance– but before she could even think, he was gone.
"Ahahahahaha!" Zangetsu cackled.
The mask moved with his ghastly expressions, like a second face. His mouth was open, and it was far, far too wide and toothy to be a human's bloodthirsty grin. The laugh had a slight unnatural echo to it, with a warbling, unnerving tone that made hairs stand on end and goosebumps rise.
He shoved his sword into the hard, frozen ground at a shallow angle, right under Emerald's feet like a giant shovel. He stomped on the hilt with enough force to crack the floor beneath him, and whip up a shockwave of wind pressure that rocked the trees over his head. The earth beneath her crumbled and wedged upwards from the lever-like effect, flinging her straight up and uprooting a couple trees behind her.
She hadn't been in the air for even half a second before Zangetsu hopped, and gave her a rising jab to the stomach. A 'jab', by his standards. Her face face twisted in intense pain, as blood spurted from her mouth and nostrils, and her aura shattered completely in one blow in a broken mint green burst of dying light. A few droplets of the sanguine splatter got on his face, and the mask parted as he licked at the blood. His lips curled in sadistic delight at the taste.
His fist twisted against her shattered ribcage, and she was sent shooting off from it like a corkscrew dart. Emerald hit a tree-trunk as it was falling, and smashed straight through with a resounding crack of wood and bone together.
Zangetsu landed back on the mangled ground, and Ichigo's body shifted as it transformed further. A thick, white tail sprouted from his back, tipped with blood red. It snaked around the huge sword's hilt, ripping it free from the upturned earth.
"Now then, who should I finish off next?"
A single second. It had only taken him that long, for him to take out Emerald as soon as he looked at her. And now, he was looking at the other two.
"What are you doing? If you two just stand there..."
Neither Cinder nor Mercury could even react as they felt claws digging into their shoulders, drawing wells of blood that stained their clothes. Zangetsu was in front of them, and now he was behind them. It was as simple as that. He was too fast for them to perceive his movements as anything else.
"—I'll kill you."
He lifted them both in either hand, Mercury on his left, Cinder on his right. Gripping the wounds he pierced into their flesh like gory handles, his dark eyes were wild and manic with sadistic glee.
Cinder twisted and spat a jet of wind-enhanced, super-heated arcane blue fire right into his face, burning and charring the flesh that wasn't covered by his chilling mask.
He let out a simpering laugh, even as the blackened flesh bubbled white and streamed down the side of his body. It wasn't long before it hardened, revealing an osseous striped skull-mask that now covered almost all of his face. The white bio-matter that had covered his left side was now a smooth second skin, pale as death, that melded with his human right half in a grotesque manner. Talons emerged from his feet, matching the savage claws on his hands. A black stripe had emerged from the hole in his chest, passing up to his left shoulder and collarbone.
"Oh, look at that! You've got some fight in you, after all! I like that!" He brought his face close to hers, pulling her in with a flex of his arm. Cinder was utterly thrown off, her eye darting left and right, but drawn back to his approaching face. It inched nearer and nearer to her own. "I like that a lot..."
Was he really about to—?
Zangetsu's head arced down and took a bite out of her throat.
He'd pulled her up, to bare her neck, and his sharpened, inhuman teeth sank in. When he pulled his face away, it wasn't bloody to the gums as one might expect, but instead filled with a mouthful of black silk from her detached collar that he'd ripped off with his teeth.
He spat it out, right into her horrified face, and sneered.
"What? Did you think I'm a vampire, or something? A cunt's soul like yours would leave a bad taste in my mouth."
"Y-you're a demon..." she grunted.
He wasn't just a psychotic berserker... he'd purposefully dealt with Emerald first, to cripple their biggest strategic advantage... he'd remembered how Amber mentioned she was caught off-guard by the hallucinations... and acted accordingly...
"Can't sweet-talk your way out of this one, bitch." He inspected her neck, closely, as Mercury's silver eyes were wide in shock at the sight of his boss's bare throat— " 'Surprising you can do much talking at all..."
—Because Mercury could see right through it.
Another hole, just like the one through Ichigo's chest.
It was situated right where her larynx would have been, and passed straight from the front of her neck, out to the back. An entire, apple-sized perfect circle of missing flesh.
How did she breathe? Did she breathe? Was she even human? He didn't sign up for this!
Then again, Mercury thought dryly, he hadn't 'signed up' for any of this... he got paid solely in the valuable currency of 'being allowed to continue to live'. –And right now, he really wanted to cash in on his savings.
Zangetsu spied him out of the corner of his lurid-yellow eye. The orb of brimstone and sulphur zeroed in on his sorry ass.
"Shall I mince you?"
"I'd..." he swallowed, as sweat beaded down the side of his face. "...prefer not." Why did everything feel so heavy?
"Hmm..." Zangetsu dropped him unceremoniously, and Mercury landed in an unsteady crouch, his chest heaving. "How about I meet ya in the middle. I'll let you run, 'till the count of three."
Mercury didn't even speak. He took off like a light, sprinting in the general direction Emerald had fallen. Maybe he could scoop her up, and—
"Three—!"
With a supersonic buzz, Zangetsu swung his door-sized sword at him from behind with one hand. The 'countdown'– it was just to mess with him. All just to play with his food.
Cinder was dragged along behind Zangetsu as he struck, a sideways slash that lopped off both Mercury's legs in one fell swoop, treating aura like tissue-paper. Zanpakutō meant 'soul-cutter' for a reason.
"Psych, chicken-legs!"
A slivery-grey flash accompanied the severing of servos and rotors, prosthetic legs flying free even as Ichigo spun to thwack the young assassin's flailing body with his tail.
His aura barely flickering, his legs lost, Mercury's blood seeped through his clenched teeth as he was thrown through the branches of a few crimson trees, his wounds indistinguishable from the broad-leaved canopy.
Zangetsu spotted the mechanical legs still flying upwards, and pointed at them, two razor-claws together. Scarlet lightning crackled at his fingertips.
"Bala!"
The sheer shockwave of the faster-than-light spiritual blast annihilated the severed limbs instantly, shredding the red leaves on the boughs of the tree-line below with hurricane-force winds.
Mercury was nowhere to be seen, though a bloody trail leading off into the woods gave him some clue as to where he'd been flung. It was the same direction Emerald had been launched. Zangetsu didn't care though, whether the weak lived or died. There was really only one person here he had his eyes on.
And her mangled arm was in his right hand.
He pulled Cinder up into full view, her gloved left arm cracking loudly once again as it bent unnaturally. She groaned in pain, even as Zangetsu yanked her up by it, and put his foot against her chest.
"I'm gonna borrow this."
His left arm, holding his blade, flashed up, as he kicked out and pulled against her socket with his right hand's talons. His tail thrashed against her chest, smashing it in like an eggshell.
"Aaaaaaaiiih!" she screamed, as she rolled, over and over, across the clearing, until she was back up against the garganta she had torn open right at the start.
She had made a terrible, terrible mistake. And now, she was paying the price in blood.
Zangetsu carelessly inspected the severed limb, sniffing the blood dripping from its macabre stump, and feeling the reiatsu. He picked at the long, black, glove still clinging to it, the wet, stained fabric peeling away to reveal...
The pale, alabaster hue of a hollow, much like his own skin.
Not the black ichor of a creature of grimm, but something much more.
He dumped it on the ground, right into the damp leaves. He cared far more about getting to fight than he did any mere curiosity, anyways.
"Aaaaah! Krgh... iaaaaah!"
Cinder Fall crawled to her knees, groaning and moaning from the nightmarish agony flaring from her missing limb. The ghost-pains, the sensations, the fact that her arm had just been ripped off, had her screaming out. There was so much blood... her blood...
Faintly, she felt something falling from her face, onto the blood-slick scarlet leaves below. It was her black glass eyepatch. It seemed that it'd snapped off, from the force of the cut. It didn't matter. She wasn't in the frame of mind to care.
When she squared her fearful, enraged, demented eyes on Zangetsu, it revealed what was under the glass for all to see. A toxic-yellow iris, with a coal-black sclera, drawn tight and vengeful.
"I'll kill you..." she reared back, rising up, and falling back down, dizzy and delirious from the blood loss and shock, clutching tightly, despairingly, at her wounded, bleeding stump with her right hand. "I'll kill you! I swear–I swear–I swear I'll kill you!" she screamed at the top of her ruptured lungs, forcing down a mouthful of bloody vomit.
Desperately, she turned towards the garganta, her half-hollowfied eyes wide and deranged. She pleaded to it, or rather, who was behind it.
"Please, oh please Mistress, grant me strength! I need it, I beg for your aid more than I have ever in my life!"
𝐀𝐡...
𝐌𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫...
Her mismatched eyes widened at the voice, and her heart soared to hear its motherly, dark tone.
...𝐒𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞...
"Yes, yes!" Cinder nodded, debasing herself even as the oozing crimson puddle beneath her grew, a petrichor with a distinct iron tang to it scenting the air. "Without you, I am nothing!"
𝐒𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦... 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭.
"My huma—? Mmph!? Mmph! Mm!"
Before Cinder could even open her mouth, or formulate another thought in her mind, she was set upon by a tangle of spear-like tentacles, that pierced her from behind and wrapped around her like the chrysalis of a butterfly. They pushed a few more Nightmare seeds out as they slithered from the portal, popping the grimm seeds onto the squelching, wet dirt.
𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥...
Her spasming, shaking, thrashing body was carried up into the canopy, and hung there, strung up like a silk-moth's pouch. Viscous, frothy blood seeped eerily from between the gaps, soaking and running down to flow to the forest floor below in a miniature morbid shower. It bubbled up like the accursed overspill of a black cauldron. Something was happening in there, and it was not a biological transformation.
No; it was a spiritual one. The blood was her entire body being liquidated like a horrific, human smoothie, and expelled through the blackest of magic to free her soul's true power. A resurrection, of sorts.
The thrashing had stopped.
𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧...
𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡... 𝐂𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫...
A clawed, four-fingered hand tore free from the cocoon, and scratched at it from the outside. The entire thing disintegrated into flecks of ash instantly, along with all the red-leaved trees it had been tied to. The clearing had just doubled in diameter, with dust all across the wind.
𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫, 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧. 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠...
The garganta slipped shut, slowly closing, and sealing away the dark voice. The Witch Queen had accomplished more than just giving power to Cinder. She had obtained something quite valuable for herself, as well. Those grimm-tubes had transferred memories, and relayed information unspoken. Visions of Soul Reapers, and silver-eyed girls...
Salem had chosen not to mention that, without a way to seal herself, the released Cinder was stuck like this now. At least, so long as she herself decreed so.
With a mighty siren's scream, ashen-white wings unfurled, kicking up a typhoon of wind-pressure that wiped away all the ash, leaves, fallen trees and loose debris in sight.
Zangetsu stood his ground, and looked her over.
Cinder Fall was no longer on the corporeal plane. She was now a pure spirit. A true Arrancar... and a dangerous one, at that.
Her skin was bone-white, concealed with a ragged, onyx-black dress, with white, door-length moth-wings spread wide behind her. Large, eye-like dark patterns in the centres of the membranes stood out against the rest of the velvety wings. Four segmented arms, with one less digit than a human's each, all blazed with the arcane magic of an differing individual element. Frostbiting ice, skin-flaying wind, bone-crunching stone, and flesh-burning fire. The monstrous Maiden of Autumn shone brightly against the silver, cloudy sky as she levitated over the forest canopy of Forever Fall.
Her neck was filled with her enlarged hollow hole, now.
Two ribbed chitinous antenna stuck out from the top of her lengthy, ashen-black hair. Her face was ghostly and pallid, as she opened two, then four, then all six of her new eyes. Each one blinked individually. Amber irises on blood-red sclera. Two were in their normal places, with two more situated above them, both angled more sharply downwards, and two more underneath the originals, angled upwards towards the bridge of her nose, like the others were. Other than that, her facial features were the same as before, and far less panicked. She was... in ecstasy.
Her inky black pupils were dilated, and her breathy voice had the tinge of an echo to it, and seemed to not be all there. As if the range of her vocal chords was beyond the capacity of mortal ears.
"I... I see... so this was what she meant... humanity did indeed hold me back... but now..." she let out a deep breath, the air around her both burning and freezing all at once. "...Now I am just like you, Ichigo~! Isn't this wonderful!"
Zangetsu had been there for all of this, to witness her entire transformation. Her ascension. And yet, he just laughed at her.
'Just like you?'
"Ahahahaha!" he cackled maniacally, before pointing at her, side-on. "You call that a Resurrección? No, no, this... is a Resurrección."
Black-red reiatsu erupted like a volcano, rushing fast, flaring high, spreading voluminously up into the atmosphere, like reality itself was a sheet of dry paper, and Zangetsu was the lit match that had been put to it. Where Cinder had just diffused the air, he distorted space itself. The air fizzled and popped with static, and merely existing became that much harder. The flares of spiritual pressure only grew more and more intense, the output not dying down as it shrank but instead growing more focused, controlled, and distilled.
The obfuscating red-black aura pulsed away, and revealed a new shape.
Gone was the bulky red-tipped tail, and any trace of humanity. His eyes were fully hidden in shadow. The skull-mask had fully formed, enclosing Ichigo's head completely, with two fully returned, viciously sharp, angular horns jutting from its sides. A mane of thick orange hair hung down to his lower back. Parallel jet-black stripes ran from the top of the skull, across hollowed cheeks, down his neck, into a red tuft of fur around his collarbone, matched by similar, smaller rings of fur around his ankles and wrists. Said ankles and wrists were connected to clawed hands, and taloned bare feet. His shihakushō had been shrugged off over his shoulders by the transformation, letting it hang around his waist. His chest was exposed, with four black stripes from his shoulders and flanks leading to a hole straight through the centre. He had no heart.
Vasto Lorde.
Zangetsu roared. It somehow sounded like the howl of a great, world-destroying beast, as well as the wail of a lost, wandering spirit, and a collapsing skyscraper, all at once. Then it sounded like nothing at all, because Cinder's eardrums had already ruptured, her ears hot, uncomfortably sticky and wet. All she could feel was the rattling of her bones from the sheer vibrations.
Zangetsu roared, swinging his head of long, orange hair back, and wiping away the forest for miles around. Trees were uprooted, and the ground ruptured and broke apart like it was the site of a localised armageddon. Where once was a dense wood, was now a bed of broken-over trees, snapped like twigs, and a roiling sea of discarded, shredded leaves of blood-red.
Mercury found himself legless and alone, nowhere near the battle. He'd since managed to drag himself over to an unconscious Emerald. They'd been thrown clear and far, but he still just barely managed to dive forwards and grab onto her as the bark-stripping winds broke over them as the forest was erased. The last of his aura shattered from the force, but he'd been able to hold onto her, at least. At least...
Cinder, meanwhile readied herself. Her ears had healed, and she was about to—
Zangetsu stabbed her.
With his horns. From the side. She had last seen him in front of her, but here he was, striking from a completely different angle. It was a headbutt, and an animalistic battering ram, all in one.
Ah. So he was simply that fast...
Faster than light. Faster than fate. Far faster than her feeble sense of perception could possibly hope to comprehend.
She understood.
It was already over.
The keen horns ripped straight through her torso, coming out the other side. Zangetsu raised his head, and Cinder rose with it, impaled on top. A pair of her arms were grabbed and bent back, cracking horribly even as they froze the entire length of his limbs. Zangetsu growled, and simply put a palm between his horns and her stomach, and pushed. A third of Cinder's torso was ripped off with her in a messy spray.
"Hrgh!" her many eyes narrowed in pain, and flicked around wildly as she tumbled. He wasn't even talking, anymore. Could he even speak, like this?
Cinder was flung though a row of fallen trees, even as her arms and stomach burbled with new hollow bio-matter. Instantaneous-regeneration. That was all she could try, and it wasn't even consciously. Before she could even come to a stop, she felt a massive sword spear straight through her as though she wasn't even there.
It came from above– Zangetsu came from above, bringing his giant greatsword down like a guillotine. A gigantic crater exploded out from the impact site. Cinder was pinned to the floor like it was an immense butterfly board, even as her wings beat and fluttered against the calamitous crash to no avail. Her legs had bent the wrong way, and barely seemed to still be attached. She couldn't fight back. There wasn't a thing she could do. She couldn't resist– She couldn't even react. She couldn't plan– She couldn't even think.
Zangetsu left his sword inside her, the tip sinking into the cracked ground like a man-sized nail, now soaked with her dark-tinged blood. It was a deeper shade than it was before her Resurrección.
Cinder burst into flames, completely covering her moth-like form entirely in bright orange wreathes of supernatural fire that warped the very air with their heat. She reached for something, anything beside herself, and grabbed hold of what she'd found. A glowing, palm-sized seed filled her burning hand. She must've landed back near where this doomed 'fight' had begun. Another Nightmare seed? Could she—
Crack.
–No, she could not. Zangetsu snarled, ignoring her multi-thousand degree magical cloak of fire and slammed his clawed hand down, grabbing her by the face to smash it into the already-ruined earth. Cinder was out like a light, but he wasn't done, even after shattering her skull. He could see the ghostly, pallid flesh starting to weave together before his eyes, once more. That wouldn't do.
He checked the only arm she still had, finding something in her hand. It glowed red. He recognised it.
Wordlessly, he ripped her hand off, pried the seed free of her rigor-mortis clenched digits, and shoved it into the hole in her neck.
Zangetsu straightened up to his full height, and stood deathly still. That was it.
The entire sequence of events, from when Zangetsu first broke free of the ice, to now, had been taken less than forty seconds in total. Not even near a full minute.
A gust of wind blew across the stripped stumps of the forest, and upturned logs. Any grimm here were already dead, turned to dust. It was quiet, apart from the rustling of the freed red leaves.
Slowly, slowly, Zangetsu sat down... on top of Cinder's body. She was oddly soft and comfortable with her velvety blood-soaked carapace. He leaned against the sword that was still impaled into her, and slipped away.
It was instinctual, but he presumed he needed to be in physical contact with her for the next part. She was still alive, in the barest sense, but wouldn't be for much longer– straddling the brink of life and death, as she was.
The Nightmare seed inside Cinder's hollow hole had disappeared.
NEXT: 25 - STRAWBERRY IN FLAMES - [Nothing Can Be Explained]
Author's notes:
Happy 25(–1)th chapter! The shortest chapter of all ironically followed the longest.
Since this week had Ichigoat showing up to beat everyone up, it's time for him to do the same, here. Only, it's a bit more messy, here. I don't really think Number One would fit for this absolute mauling, either. You can pick either one of the songs in the title, from the final Ulquiorra fight.
Ichigo was in his sealed state, but that doesn't really matter here. I decided to do a thing where Cinder gets a massive horror-style power-up, and a crazy form, and then just gets oneshot, lol. White doesn't care about any mysteries; he just wants to throw down. If you're wondering why Salem hasn't already won if she's got access to powers that are wayyy beyond RWBY's scope like these, or WTF even is Cinder, I'll explain it quite soon. I won't be overcomplicating things. This chapter– and fight– was really short, but I thought that was the best way to go about this. Zangetsu doesn't mess around. Also it was way faster to write, too. Maybe I'll write shorter chapters once I start University, so I can still release things more regularly.
Cinder's Resurrección is based on a moth, literally just because of the phrase 'moth to a flame'. ̷ ̷̶̷̶̷̶̷A̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷l̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷s̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷o̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷ ̷̶̷̶̷̶̷b̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷e̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷c̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷a̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷u̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷s̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷e̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷ ̷̶̷̶̷̶̷a̷̶̷n̷̶̷i̷̶̷m̷̶̷e̷̶̷ ̷̶̷m̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷o̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷n̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷s̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷t̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷e̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷r̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷g̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷i̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷r̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷l̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷s̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷ ̷̶̷̶̷̶̷a̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷r̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷e̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷ ̷̶̷̶̷̶̷h̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷o̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷t̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷̶̷.̷̶̷ Her six eyes thing was inspired by Kokushibō, so just imagine him, but girly. Plus moth wings. And four arms. And antennae. I'm sure I could come up with some cool broken Espada-esque hax ability of hers, but again, she just got oneshot. Too bad for her. This is freaking Vasto Lorde Ichigo, after all. I hope I conveyed how psycho Zangetsu is well.
To Shatter Fate just hit 2,000 follows, and I'm incredibly happy to see it. I need to make sure this is story worthy of 2000 regular readers, so please keep up the reviews. I really do read and change stuff because of them. The only reason this chapter even happened is because someone (Kabuto S. Inferno) suggested I bring the Nightmare grimm from Ice Queendom into this wayyy back in chapter 5– in January. I have a note section on my phone where I just save ideas for later, like that. Trust me, I read every single comment. Even (You)rs.