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Chapter 166: Might Makes Me Right part 1.
(Davian's P.O.V)
The light-show ended abruptly and I gently descended onto the ground.
A ground that was covered by a soft layer of grass. The air blowing past me was fresh and carried with it power.
A power that was running through my body, filling me with a strength I'd only felt once. The first time I'd ever achieved Bankai.
But my Reiryoku didn't feel overwhelming to my soul or body. It was gentle. Like a sleeping giant, softly rumbling as it awaited to be summoned.
My awareness dove into what was happening within.
The spirit nodes across my soul transferred Reiryoku through the spirit channels, before then melding into the Tairyoku (life force) contained in each of my cells.
That combination was what gave birth to this new power.
It was harmonious, strange and most of all...felt right.
"So, what can you do now?"
Chase enquired once I landed on the wildly changed graveyard. The vines coiling around the gravestones were now long and thick enough to hide the stone under a layer of green.
I made a fist, mildly surprised by the strength I could exert in my hand. I felt like if squeezed too hard, the space within my palm would deform and distort.
"I...have no idea."
I answered honestly, just as confused as he was. Yes I had power. Lots of it, and I could feel it. My body had surpassed whatever notion of human it had started off as.
I felt so different yet... basically the same. As if this was always something meant to happen. From the instant I fought Vandal Savage, the Life king, my journey to reach this astounding level had begun.
Physically, I looked no different. There were no crazy changes to be observed. I didn't suddenly grow taller than my initial height of 6'4 (Ah, seems like I'd been getting taller actually, last time I measured I'd been 6'2.)
The point is, I didn't have access to a new state or form. I was just me...only more.
Elevated.
"I'll just have to figure it out on the go."
I decided.
"Do you think it's smart to go out there and fight without knowing what you can do? Knowing yourself is a much half the battle you need to win, as knowing your adversary."
He advised.
Unfortunately, while he did make sense,
There wasn't time to spend finding out what I could or couldn't do.
"I'm needed out there Chase, I can feel it. The final battle calls for me. My soul reaper senses are tingling."
I joked slightly.
He did not look amused.
"Look, I know you're concerned."
I said more seriously.
"But you don't have to. The way I feel now? Doomsday wouldn't be able to land a single blow. And even if he did, I would probably shrug it off."
And it was true as well.
"Mmmh you sound confident...fine. go."
He acquiesced, not really thrilled with the decision but understanding he couldn't stop me.
I gave him a thumbs up.
He popped to my shoulder.
"That said, I'm coming with you in case you need someone to save your ass."
He decided in a tone that brokered no argument.
"Okay then, hold on. Next stop, Limbo."
I chuckled.
Then I closed my eyes and followed the link I could clearly feel connecting me to the material realm.
I breathed out, feeling the phantom stale and inert air of Limbo pass through my air ways.
The Phantom Zone was truly weird. Anything living wouldn't notice a massive change in their biological functions. You could still breath but you wouldn't be breathing any substance.
Shadows danced beyond my closed eyes and an almost consistent sound, like the erratic beating of bongo drums, reached my ears.
Then I opened my eyes.
It was to a sight I wasn't expecting.
"Welcome back, Mate- A little- a little help here?!"
Constantine yelled out, face red with exertion as he maintained a yellow magical barrier around us.
The erratic sound turned out to be hundreds of Limbo Devourers periodically slamming onto the barrier with wild abandon. The barrier already had cracks running all over it.
"They just- just showed up out of nowhere when you started glowing."
Constantine threw over his shoulder.
I got to my feet, my body surging with so much power than I knew what to do with.
"I was glowing?"
I enquired, stretching my body to get rid of the kinks after staying in one position for so long.
"Like a strobe-..."
He trailed off as the Devourers strangely ceased their attacks the second I was on my feet.
Their animalistic eyes begun to regard me with something akin to...fear.
Constantine was breathing heavily, his eyes roaming around in question.
"Not to sound ungrateful, but what did you do to make them stop?"
How strange.
"I have no idea."
I tilted my head in confusion as well.
Using my foot, I scraped the magical circle on the ground below. The energy flared before disappearing.
Outside the circle, which had provided a zone that would restrict any phenomenon happening to me within it, I immediately noticed a difference with my Reikaku.
My zone had expanded.
A lot.
I could now cover a massive chunk of Limbo, which was infinite. And now that I think about it, my claim wasn't that impressive given Limbo's endless nature.
However, put in terms of the physical world, My Reikaku could cover the entirety of the Planet.
I felt hundreds of awareness, some of the as powerful as I'd been before, look my way at my intrusive gaze. 99% of them scurried away to hide or conceal themselves in terror.
However I could still feel them. None could hide.
Reikaku had changed. It allowed me to not only sense the world around, but even the one beyond, below, under whatever you want to call it.
Dimensions could be layered together or co-exist in the same reality but vibrating at different frequencies.
'Huh, I can now understand some of the info contained in Nick's memories.', I thought to myself.
This change was welcome though, as I could also sense clearer. Something that allowed me to see what I previously couldn't.
And out of all the inhabitants of Limbo, one particular individual caught my attention.
They were the 1% that didn't hide, run or conceal themselves upon feeling my spirit sense.
I turned my eyes to regard them or rather, him. An old oriental man with a grey moustache ending in two long strands of hair that went down to his neck, matched only by the beard on his chin.
The moustache looked like whiskers. He wore a bamboo hat, with wild tufts of grey hair that pushed out from under the hat.
He was also huge and much taller than me. His thick arms shifted with strings of muscles, jutting out of the sleeveless robe he wore.
His eyes were calm pools, no sense of worry or fear at the fact I could see him.
"It wasn't me."
I finally answered Constantine.
"I'm willing to bet he knows though."
I added, pointing at the form of the Old Man behind the Devourers.
"Where did this old timer come from now?"
Constantine questioned, backing away as the old man approached us.
The Devourers seemed to be under his command, letting him through before hovering above him protectively.
Something felt familiar about him.
His eyes ,stormy with anger landed on me.
"I am Aethyr. The Principal deity of this realm."
The entire realm echoed with the claim. The Phantom Zone's essence swirled about him in a storm.
"Call it Limbo, call it the Phantom Zone, one thing you must understand is this."
He spread out his hands.
And in so doing, his body begun to change. His skin turned red, his jaw grew wider,
"This universe is Aethyr. I'm the bridge to your understanding, like the red sun to Rao's priests, the burning bush to Moses."
His bones creaked as if they were breaking, his size increased, his body morphing from a biped to a Quadruped.
"Is that a fucking dragon?!"
Constantine asked gob-smacked.
Was he being serious?
"I thought you fought mythical creatures all the time?"
I yelled, pushing out my Reiatsu to combat the pressure Aethyr was exuding, creating a protective barrier around us.
That's odd, my Spirit Pressure feels so moldable.
"Demons. Not dragons. And even Demon-dragon hybrids never get this nasty, mate!"
Constantine shot back.
Aethyr begun to speak,
"You have intruded into the Oversoul's realm time and time again. You have erased the line between its existence and yours, child of death. My existence and yours. You belong to Limbo. You belong to me."
At the end of the transformation, we were looking up at a massive cat/dragon hybrid. It's size was bigger than the Plant serpent, the Gillian Savage had created and even bigger than Deimos.
It flared up it's wings, huge fleshy constructs with pulsing veins across them.
His shadow cast over the Rock Island we stood on and extended to the ones closer to our own. The Devourers that had hovered around him now maintained a safe distance, thousands of meters high in the sky.
That more than anything was an indication we were about to get wrekt.
"Mate, this is the part we run away."
Constantine told me, backing away only to reach the edge of the Rock Island.
"I don't run away."
I responded habitually.
But even I could feel it. Whatever or whoever this Aethyr guy was, he was the most powerful thing apart from Rama that I'd ever faced.
"I gave you a chance to leave on two separate occasions." His voice now contained a rumble.
"YOUR ARROGANCE HAS LED YOU HERE. IF YOU WON'T LEAVE MY REALM, THEN YOU CAN STAY HERE AS ASH, DRIFTING ACROSS MY ESSENCE. PERMANENTLY!!"
The Dragon's chest bunched up. Light pulsed along it's neck as it pulled back it's head.
"Oh, scratch that, this is the part we die."
Constantine amended his earlier statement.
The Dragon opened it's maw wide,
A sea of ghostly white occupied my vision. And even before they reached me, I could tell these were the hottest flames I'd ever felt.
"Okay, this might be bad for us."
I finally admitted, the dragon breath shooting down towards us.
(General P.O.V)
Powergirl's flight speed didn't slow down. She passed by dozens of Rock Islands, getting ever closer to the shining light way off in the distance, though by now it had all but disappeared.
But she recognized this area of the Phantom Zone, she'd come this way before after all.
One strange thing she noticed the closer she got, was how scarce and devoid of beings the surroundings became.
The inhabitants of Limbo who like her had no doubt seen the flashing lights seemed to be missing.
"More like hiding."
Powergirl said to herself in shock, getting the answer to her question.
She was stunned silly by the collosal dragon looming over the horizon.
"That thing must be hundreds of meters long."
She muttered.
Measuring from the tip of it's tail which was waving in the air, to it's head, she wouldn't be surprised if it was even more than that.
She gulped. Davian and Constantine had to be down there.
Facing that thing.
And while she knew that Davian could protect not only himself but the magician as well, she still didn't want to leave anything to chance.
They were her ticket out of here. Plus she owed him.
"Hey! You overgrown Lizard!"
She yelled at her loudest.
Unfortunately, the Dragon couldn't hear her or it did but decided to ignore her taunt.
So she flew down and grabbed a massive rock Island, hoisting it above her as she flew forward with a battle cry.
Powergirl's heart leapt to her throat when the Dragon pulled back it's long neck and then released a pillar of white flames onto the rock islands below it.
A solar wind blasted over her, burning her entire costume to ashes. Her indestructible body faired better but she still felt the heat.
The rock Island behind her was immediately incinerated into nothingness. So was her immediate surroundings. Nothing was left for thousands of miles.
Powergirl blinked.
'What the fuck had just happened?'
Did...one attack really deal that kind of damage?
Just one attack? She looked down at herself. She was naked. Her costume woven from Kryptonian fabric and designed to be indestructible had turned to ash at the heat.
That meant...the other two were probably not alive.
She had been a distance away, not even the target of the attack yet the mere heatwave generated had disintegrated her clothes.
Davian and Constantine were probably dead. She...needed to go check.
A shadow appeared above her. Powergirl turned her vision up, then up, Then up some more.
A Red hide, spurs across it's impossibly huge body, muscles shifting with power, spikes across the neck, leading up to a horned head.
A long snout that exhaled smoke which blew the dust hanging around her away. Cat whiskers. Long cat whiskers.
Then a massive mouth filled with rows of teeth, each bigger than her.
And finally two cruel eyes, looking right. Down. At. Her.
"OVERGROWN LIZARD?"
Arthyr's chest rumbled as it looked down towards the insignificant pest below him. How long had he been asleep that these little insects running around his place had gotten so brazen?
******
For Powergirl on the other hand, things had just gone from fucked up to fucked up in all caps.
The Dragon, it was above her.
She needed to run. Away. Fast.
Like right now.
Without a single hesitation, the Kryptonian; usually brash, turned on her heels and flew towards the opposite direction.
"NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU RUN... YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME."
Aethyr's voice reached her from her front.
How could something so huge move so fast? Had it teleported? It didn't matter. She changed directions, shooting towards the sky, whipping past Rock Island after rock island, headed for the Phantom Zone's ceiling, if there even was one.
Space begun to invert. Gravity flipped causing her to begin falling towards the sky. She gained control of her trajectory, cutting to the side as destruction was wrought behind her.
Long claws cleaved through space, aiming to swipe Powergirl away.
The wave of debris, reached her, but she managed to push through the spaces in between the claws.
Fighting was not at all on Powergirl's mind, she knew she stood no chance. It didn't matter how much she could lift or how hard she could punch.
She darted around, escaping another claw swipe as she approached an unstable space formed by the pressure exerted by Aethyr.
Maybe that was a way out.
"FOOLISH GIRL. I AN THE REALM ITSELF. YOU'RE WITHIN ME. I CAN SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING."
At the drop of his words, a force begun to suck her back towards the Dragon.
She chanced a look behind her. Aethyr had his jaws wide open.
Powergirl begun to fiercely fly against the suction.
"No, no! Just a little-"
She stretched her hand out, gritting her teeth as she encouraged herself to hold on, to push on...
She knew what awaited her behind.
"Aaahhh!!!"
She screamed, giving it her all. She couldn't do it anymore. It was too much.
She let go.
Snikt!
A huge purple and white furred paw smacked Aethyr on the snout. The dragon's head whipped back at the unexpected slap.
It's body was lifted by the surprisingly substantial force, plowing through hundreds of floating rocks and causing a massive shake up that could be heard all over the realm.
"Not that I'm complaining, but cover-up."
Davian said, appearing next to Powergirl in the blink of an eye.
He extended his Zanpakuto out. The sword unfolded into thousands of purple strings that recreated Powergirl's previous costume.
"Spoilsport."
Constantine cursed lowly from the green construct he was riding on.
Powergirl ignored the magician, looking down at herself and flexing her body. The suit clung to her tightly. It was comfortable, even more comfortable than her real suit.
"Thanks. Never thought I'd be happy to see you two alive." She nodded at Davian with a relieve smile.
"Yeah. I wasn't expecting it either."
The soul reaper looked down at his hands.
"But when that fire breath reached me, I just...knew I could take it. Absorb it. So I did."
Davian turned to face their front. Before him, past the rock island they were on, Chase in his giant form had his back to them as he faced Aethyr.
"Whoa... what's that?"
Powergirl asked.
"Not what, who."
Davian corrected with a smile.
"And that my dear super babe, is hundreds of thousands of pounds of Chase. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a better view."
Davian took a single step forward, appearing atop Chase's head.
"I think the smart thing for us to do would be to stay as far away from them as possible. Sound good?"
Constantine offered the Kryptonian.
For the first time ever, Powergirl found herself agreeing with him.
******
Davian bent, patting his Zanpakuto spirit on the head. Chase' gigantic form was constructed by Chesha Neko's strings.
If this was what billions of strings could achieve, Davian was tempted to find out what Trillions could.
(Davian's P.O.V)
"So what number does this bad guy make on the list of those we've beaten? There was Trigon, Barragan, Savage and now him."
I told Chase.
"You forgot Doomsday."
He reminded me, rumbling forward, fur rippling in readiness as Aethyr managed to get up from his fall.
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
The principal deity of Limbo said in shock, spotting me.
"What? Surprised to see me?"
I asked.
"How was the slap? It's nothing compared to what's coming."
The dragon flared it's wings, rising up to face us.
"TCH! IMPUDENT TRASH! I AM AETHYR YET YOU MOCK ME?!! I SHALL BURN YOUR SOUL!!"
It pulled back it's head and whipped it, sending a fresh wave of flames our way.
"Ready Chase?"
Chase snorted at my question.
"Always with the suicidal moves huh? At least now we know a part of what you can do."
I chuckled, jumping off his head to face the flames head on.
I stretched out my hand, innately feeling the energy contained within Aethyr's attack. The dragon hadn't exagerrated. These flames were actually hot enough to burn someone's soul.
A fitting and very effective attack in a place like Limbo. Too bad he was fighting me.
Using that sense, I grabbed hold of the flame's essence then (pulled) it within me. The attack disappeared as the flames energy was processed and stored in my energy reserves.
And then...
I (pushed) all that energy through my feet and into Chase.
First ability discovered: Energy Absorption, manipulation and Transference. Pride maybe?
To be fair, my strings could do the same and my Bankai had an evolved version but the limits of this skill were unknown. Maybe it had restrictions on what types of energy I could absorb.
...Maybe it didn't.
Having already processed that absorbed energy within me, it manifested in Chase in the form of a skill.
His huge forearm gained a black coating. The claws extending out obsidian black with an aura of rot surrounding them.
Respira.
The claws cut a path through the air, headed for Aethyr 's neck. They neatly sliced through the god of Limbo's neck, detaching his head from his body.
The Dragon's body staggered forward but failed to fall.
Aethyr's slow laughter sounded out from the fallen head lying across several rock islands.
"I TOLD YOU, I AM THE REALM. THE OVERSOUL. YOU WOULD HAVE TO KILL THIS ENTIRE PLANE TO GET RID OF ME!!"
He roared.
"He's right."
Chase told me, but I was already flying forward. Something about what he said struck a chord with me.
"Davian?"
My Zanpakuto spirit called out but I ignored him, too entranced by this wild idea forming at the back of my mind.
"You called yourself the Oversoul."
I spoke to Aethyr.
Wisps of blue energy extended out of the decapitated part of his neck, attaching to the underside of his head.
"EXACTLY. THAT MEANS I CANNOT DIE."
He said, emboldened. I knew he was priming for another attack. I just...sensed it. Because he was the Oversoul. Emphasis on Soul.
"And this energy...it's not exactly Reiryoku but it is a form of spirit energy. Which makes you not just the god of this realm but it's core. It's soul."
I concentrated on one of the blue wisps.
The strand extended towards me.
Then I absorbed it.
Everything went silent.
"WAIT...WHAT DID YOU- JUST DO?"
Aethyr asked in trembling tone.
"I...I CAN'T FEel a part of myself..."
I snickered.
"Now I get it. Even when I was weak, I could absorb Shrouds and incorporate their power into me."
I looked up, a fervent hunger burning in my eyes.
"What would happen if I absorbed the core of a realm?"
"No...I-"
"Chase?"
I called. My Zanpakuto felt my intentions and responded in action.
Snikt! Slash! RkkkT!!!
Aethyr's soul form was turned into ribbons by a purple shadow. Chase darted in and out of Shunpo, slashing apart Aethyr, causing his body to spew out liquid spirit essence.
At the end, the Dragon was floating on a bed of purple strings below me, it's chest was exposed.
"You have lost."
I held out my hand to him.
"Join me and become my servant and I promise to spare you and your realm."
"Never!" The proud dragon roared.
I retracted the arm.
"Then I shall absorb you. Your will, your memories, they shall cease to be. You shall cease to be, Aethyr. Then I'll remake this realm into something else."
I warned. I never had an habit of leaving an enemy alive and I wasn't going to start now.
Aethyr stared back at me with stubborn eyes burning with discontent.
"What- what gives you the right, child of death?"
He bit out bitterly.
"Because I won."
I answered.
The strings around him speared through his form.
Then I reached out and the tip of my finger touched on a single strand. Aethyr was instantly absorbed into me.
And within the blink of an eye, I found myself ejected out of the Phantom Zone faster than I could react.
I looked around, extending my Reikaku out.
I was in outer space, surrounded by stars twinkling from far away distances. And behind me, was the familiar curve of the green and blue planet I called home.
Only now it wasn't blue and green. It was burning.
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::------------------------------------------::
Chapter 166: Might Makes Me Right part 1.
(Davian's P.O.V)
The light-show ended abruptly and I gently descended onto the ground.
A ground that was covered by a soft layer of grass. The air blowing past me was fresh and carried with it power.
A power that was running through my body, filling me with a strength I'd only felt once. The first time I'd ever achieved Bankai.
But my Reiryoku didn't feel overwhelming to my soul or body. It was gentle. Like a sleeping giant, softly rumbling as it awaited to be summoned.
My awareness dove into what was happening within.
The spirit nodes across my soul transferred Reiryoku through the spirit channels, before then melding into the Tairyoku (life force) contained in each of my cells.
That combination was what gave birth to this new power.
It was harmonious, strange and most of all...felt right.
"So, what can you do now?"
Chase enquired once I landed on the wildly changed graveyard. The vines coiling around the gravestones were now long and thick enough to hide the stone under a layer of green.
I made a fist, mildly surprised by the strength I could exert in my hand. I felt like if squeezed too hard, the space within my palm would deform and distort.
"I...have no idea."
I answered honestly, just as confused as he was. Yes I had power. Lots of it, and I could feel it. My body had surpassed whatever notion of human it had started off as.
I felt so different yet... basically the same. As if this was always something meant to happen. From the instant I fought Vandal Savage, the Life king, my journey to reach this astounding level had begun.
Physically, I looked no different. There were no crazy changes to be observed. I didn't suddenly grow taller than my initial height of 6'4 (Ah, seems like I'd been getting taller actually, last time I measured I'd been 6'2.)
The point is, I didn't have access to a new state or form. I was just me...only more.
Elevated.
"I'll just have to figure it out on the go."
I decided.
"Do you think it's smart to go out there and fight without knowing what you can do? Knowing yourself is a much half the battle you need to win, as knowing your adversary."
He advised.
Unfortunately, while he did make sense,
There wasn't time to spend finding out what I could or couldn't do.
"I'm needed out there Chase, I can feel it. The final battle calls for me. My soul reaper senses are tingling."
I joked slightly.
He did not look amused.
"Look, I know you're concerned."
I said more seriously.
"But you don't have to. The way I feel now? Doomsday wouldn't be able to land a single blow. And even if he did, I would probably shrug it off."
And it was true as well.
"Mmmh you sound confident...fine. go."
He acquiesced, not really thrilled with the decision but understanding he couldn't stop me.
I gave him a thumbs up.
He popped to my shoulder.
"That said, I'm coming with you in case you need someone to save your ass."
He decided in a tone that brokered no argument.
"Okay then, hold on. Next stop, Limbo."
I chuckled.
Then I closed my eyes and followed the link I could clearly feel connecting me to the material realm.
I breathed out, feeling the phantom stale and inert air of Limbo pass through my air ways.
The Phantom Zone was truly weird. Anything living wouldn't notice a massive change in their biological functions. You could still breath but you wouldn't be breathing any substance.
Shadows danced beyond my closed eyes and an almost consistent sound, like the erratic beating of bongo drums, reached my ears.
Then I opened my eyes.
It was to a sight I wasn't expecting.
"Welcome back, Mate- A little- a little help here?!"
Constantine yelled out, face red with exertion as he maintained a yellow magical barrier around us.
The erratic sound turned out to be hundreds of Limbo Devourers periodically slamming onto the barrier with wild abandon. The barrier already had cracks running all over it.
"They just- just showed up out of nowhere when you started glowing."
Constantine threw over his shoulder.
I got to my feet, my body surging with so much power than I knew what to do with.
"I was glowing?"
I enquired, stretching my body to get rid of the kinks after staying in one position for so long.
"Like a strobe-..."
He trailed off as the Devourers strangely ceased their attacks the second I was on my feet.
Their animalistic eyes begun to regard me with something akin to...fear.
Constantine was breathing heavily, his eyes roaming around in question.
"Not to sound ungrateful, but what did you do to make them stop?"
How strange.
"I have no idea."
I tilted my head in confusion as well.
Using my foot, I scraped the magical circle on the ground below. The energy flared before disappearing.
Outside the circle, which had provided a zone that would restrict any phenomenon happening to me within it, I immediately noticed a difference with my Reikaku.
My zone had expanded.
A lot.
I could now cover a massive chunk of Limbo, which was infinite. And now that I think about it, my claim wasn't that impressive given Limbo's endless nature.
However, put in terms of the physical world, My Reikaku could cover the entirety of the Planet.
I felt hundreds of awareness, some of the as powerful as I'd been before, look my way at my intrusive gaze. 99% of them scurried away to hide or conceal themselves in terror.
However I could still feel them. None could hide.
Reikaku had changed. It allowed me to not only sense the world around, but even the one beyond, below, under whatever you want to call it.
Dimensions could be layered together or co-exist in the same reality but vibrating at different frequencies.
'Huh, I can now understand some of the info contained in Nick's memories.', I thought to myself.
This change was welcome though, as I could also sense clearer. Something that allowed me to see what I previously couldn't.
And out of all the inhabitants of Limbo, one particular individual caught my attention.
They were the 1% that didn't hide, run or conceal themselves upon feeling my spirit sense.
I turned my eyes to regard them or rather, him. An old oriental man with a grey moustache ending in two long strands of hair that went down to his neck, matched only by the beard on his chin.
The moustache looked like whiskers. He wore a bamboo hat, with wild tufts of grey hair that pushed out from under the hat.
He was also huge and much taller than me. His thick arms shifted with strings of muscles, jutting out of the sleeveless robe he wore.
His eyes were calm pools, no sense of worry or fear at the fact I could see him.
"It wasn't me."
I finally answered Constantine.
"I'm willing to bet he knows though."
I added, pointing at the form of the Old Man behind the Devourers.
"Where did this old timer come from now?"
Constantine questioned, backing away as the old man approached us.
The Devourers seemed to be under his command, letting him through before hovering above him protectively.
Something felt familiar about him.
His eyes ,stormy with anger landed on me.
"I am Aethyr. The Principal deity of this realm."
The entire realm echoed with the claim. The Phantom Zone's essence swirled about him in a storm.
"Call it Limbo, call it the Phantom Zone, one thing you must understand is this."
He spread out his hands.
And in so doing, his body begun to change. His skin turned red, his jaw grew wider,
"This universe is Aethyr. I'm the bridge to your understanding, like the red sun to Rao's priests, the burning bush to Moses."
His bones creaked as if they were breaking, his size increased, his body morphing from a biped to a Quadruped.
"Is that a fucking dragon?!"
Constantine asked gob-smacked.
Was he being serious?
"I thought you fought mythical creatures all the time?"
I yelled, pushing out my Reiatsu to combat the pressure Aethyr was exuding, creating a protective barrier around us.
That's odd, my Spirit Pressure feels so moldable.
"Demons. Not dragons. And even Demon-dragon hybrids never get this nasty, mate!"
Constantine shot back.
Aethyr begun to speak,
"You have intruded into the Oversoul's realm time and time again. You have erased the line between its existence and yours, child of death. My existence and yours. You belong to Limbo. You belong to me."
At the end of the transformation, we were looking up at a massive cat/dragon hybrid. It's size was bigger than the Plant serpent, the Gillian Savage had created and even bigger than Deimos.
It flared up it's wings, huge fleshy constructs with pulsing veins across them.
His shadow cast over the Rock Island we stood on and extended to the ones closer to our own. The Devourers that had hovered around him now maintained a safe distance, thousands of meters high in the sky.
That more than anything was an indication we were about to get wrekt.
"Mate, this is the part we run away."
Constantine told me, backing away only to reach the edge of the Rock Island.
"I don't run away."
I responded habitually.
But even I could feel it. Whatever or whoever this Aethyr guy was, he was the most powerful thing apart from Rama that I'd ever faced.
"I gave you a chance to leave on two separate occasions." His voice now contained a rumble.
"YOUR ARROGANCE HAS LED YOU HERE. IF YOU WON'T LEAVE MY REALM, THEN YOU CAN STAY HERE AS ASH, DRIFTING ACROSS MY ESSENCE. PERMANENTLY!!"
The Dragon's chest bunched up. Light pulsed along it's neck as it pulled back it's head.
"Oh, scratch that, this is the part we die."
Constantine amended his earlier statement.
The Dragon opened it's maw wide,
A sea of ghostly white occupied my vision. And even before they reached me, I could tell these were the hottest flames I'd ever felt.
"Okay, this might be bad for us."
I finally admitted, the dragon breath shooting down towards us.
(General P.O.V)
Powergirl's flight speed didn't slow down. She passed by dozens of Rock Islands, getting ever closer to the shining light way off in the distance, though by now it had all but disappeared.
But she recognized this area of the Phantom Zone, she'd come this way before after all.
One strange thing she noticed the closer she got, was how scarce and devoid of beings the surroundings became.
The inhabitants of Limbo who like her had no doubt seen the flashing lights seemed to be missing.
"More like hiding."
Powergirl said to herself in shock, getting the answer to her question.
She was stunned silly by the collosal dragon looming over the horizon.
"That thing must be hundreds of meters long."
She muttered.
Measuring from the tip of it's tail which was waving in the air, to it's head, she wouldn't be surprised if it was even more than that.
She gulped. Davian and Constantine had to be down there.
Facing that thing.
And while she knew that Davian could protect not only himself but the magician as well, she still didn't want to leave anything to chance.
They were her ticket out of here. Plus she owed him.
"Hey! You overgrown Lizard!"
She yelled at her loudest.
Unfortunately, the Dragon couldn't hear her or it did but decided to ignore her taunt.
So she flew down and grabbed a massive rock Island, hoisting it above her as she flew forward with a battle cry.
Powergirl's heart leapt to her throat when the Dragon pulled back it's long neck and then released a pillar of white flames onto the rock islands below it.
A solar wind blasted over her, burning her entire costume to ashes. Her indestructible body faired better but she still felt the heat.
The rock Island behind her was immediately incinerated into nothingness. So was her immediate surroundings. Nothing was left for thousands of miles.
Powergirl blinked.
'What the fuck had just happened?'
Did...one attack really deal that kind of damage?
Just one attack? She looked down at herself. She was naked. Her costume woven from Kryptonian fabric and designed to be indestructible had turned to ash at the heat.
That meant...the other two were probably not alive.
She had been a distance away, not even the target of the attack yet the mere heatwave generated had disintegrated her clothes.
Davian and Constantine were probably dead. She...needed to go check.
A shadow appeared above her. Powergirl turned her vision up, then up, Then up some more.
A Red hide, spurs across it's impossibly huge body, muscles shifting with power, spikes across the neck, leading up to a horned head.
A long snout that exhaled smoke which blew the dust hanging around her away. Cat whiskers. Long cat whiskers.
Then a massive mouth filled with rows of teeth, each bigger than her.
And finally two cruel eyes, looking right. Down. At. Her.
"OVERGROWN LIZARD?"
Arthyr's chest rumbled as it looked down towards the insignificant pest below him. How long had he been asleep that these little insects running around his place had gotten so brazen?
******
For Powergirl on the other hand, things had just gone from fucked up to fucked up in all caps.
The Dragon, it was above her.
She needed to run. Away. Fast.
Like right now.
Without a single hesitation, the Kryptonian; usually brash, turned on her heels and flew towards the opposite direction.
"NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU RUN... YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME."
Aethyr's voice reached her from her front.
How could something so huge move so fast? Had it teleported? It didn't matter. She changed directions, shooting towards the sky, whipping past Rock Island after rock island, headed for the Phantom Zone's ceiling, if there even was one.
Space begun to invert. Gravity flipped causing her to begin falling towards the sky. She gained control of her trajectory, cutting to the side as destruction was wrought behind her.
Long claws cleaved through space, aiming to swipe Powergirl away.
The wave of debris, reached her, but she managed to push through the spaces in between the claws.
Fighting was not at all on Powergirl's mind, she knew she stood no chance. It didn't matter how much she could lift or how hard she could punch.
She darted around, escaping another claw swipe as she approached an unstable space formed by the pressure exerted by Aethyr.
Maybe that was a way out.
"FOOLISH GIRL. I AN THE REALM ITSELF. YOU'RE WITHIN ME. I CAN SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING."
At the drop of his words, a force begun to suck her back towards the Dragon.
She chanced a look behind her. Aethyr had his jaws wide open.
Powergirl begun to fiercely fly against the suction.
"No, no! Just a little-"
She stretched her hand out, gritting her teeth as she encouraged herself to hold on, to push on...
She knew what awaited her behind.
"Aaahhh!!!"
She screamed, giving it her all. She couldn't do it anymore. It was too much.
She let go.
Snikt!
A huge purple and white furred paw smacked Aethyr on the snout. The dragon's head whipped back at the unexpected slap.
It's body was lifted by the surprisingly substantial force, plowing through hundreds of floating rocks and causing a massive shake up that could be heard all over the realm.
"Not that I'm complaining, but cover-up."
Davian said, appearing next to Powergirl in the blink of an eye.
He extended his Zanpakuto out. The sword unfolded into thousands of purple strings that recreated Powergirl's previous costume.
"Spoilsport."
Constantine cursed lowly from the green construct he was riding on.
Powergirl ignored the magician, looking down at herself and flexing her body. The suit clung to her tightly. It was comfortable, even more comfortable than her real suit.
"Thanks. Never thought I'd be happy to see you two alive." She nodded at Davian with a relieve smile.
"Yeah. I wasn't expecting it either."
The soul reaper looked down at his hands.
"But when that fire breath reached me, I just...knew I could take it. Absorb it. So I did."
Davian turned to face their front. Before him, past the rock island they were on, Chase in his giant form had his back to them as he faced Aethyr.
"Whoa... what's that?"
Powergirl asked.
"Not what, who."
Davian corrected with a smile.
"And that my dear super babe, is hundreds of thousands of pounds of Chase. I don't know about you, but I'm getting a better view."
Davian took a single step forward, appearing atop Chase's head.
"I think the smart thing for us to do would be to stay as far away from them as possible. Sound good?"
Constantine offered the Kryptonian.
For the first time ever, Powergirl found herself agreeing with him.
******
Davian bent, patting his Zanpakuto spirit on the head. Chase' gigantic form was constructed by Chesha Neko's strings.
If this was what billions of strings could achieve, Davian was tempted to find out what Trillions could.
(Davian's P.O.V)
"So what number does this bad guy make on the list of those we've beaten? There was Trigon, Barragan, Savage and now him."
I told Chase.
"You forgot Doomsday."
He reminded me, rumbling forward, fur rippling in readiness as Aethyr managed to get up from his fall.
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
The principal deity of Limbo said in shock, spotting me.
"What? Surprised to see me?"
I asked.
"How was the slap? It's nothing compared to what's coming."
The dragon flared it's wings, rising up to face us.
"TCH! IMPUDENT TRASH! I AM AETHYR YET YOU MOCK ME?!! I SHALL BURN YOUR SOUL!!"
It pulled back it's head and whipped it, sending a fresh wave of flames our way.
"Ready Chase?"
Chase snorted at my question.
"Always with the suicidal moves huh? At least now we know a part of what you can do."
I chuckled, jumping off his head to face the flames head on.
I stretched out my hand, innately feeling the energy contained within Aethyr's attack. The dragon hadn't exagerrated. These flames were actually hot enough to burn someone's soul.
A fitting and very effective attack in a place like Limbo. Too bad he was fighting me.
Using that sense, I grabbed hold of the flame's essence then (pulled) it within me. The attack disappeared as the flames energy was processed and stored in my energy reserves.
And then...
I (pushed) all that energy through my feet and into Chase.
First ability discovered: Energy Absorption, manipulation and Transference. Pride maybe?
To be fair, my strings could do the same and my Bankai had an evolved version but the limits of this skill were unknown. Maybe it had restrictions on what types of energy I could absorb.
...Maybe it didn't.
Having already processed that absorbed energy within me, it manifested in Chase in the form of a skill.
His huge forearm gained a black coating. The claws extending out obsidian black with an aura of rot surrounding them.
Respira.
The claws cut a path through the air, headed for Aethyr 's neck. They neatly sliced through the god of Limbo's neck, detaching his head from his body.
The Dragon's body staggered forward but failed to fall.
Aethyr's slow laughter sounded out from the fallen head lying across several rock islands.
"I TOLD YOU, I AM THE REALM. THE OVERSOUL. YOU WOULD HAVE TO KILL THIS ENTIRE PLANE TO GET RID OF ME!!"
He roared.
"He's right."
Chase told me, but I was already flying forward. Something about what he said struck a chord with me.
"Davian?"
My Zanpakuto spirit called out but I ignored him, too entranced by this wild idea forming at the back of my mind.
"You called yourself the Oversoul."
I spoke to Aethyr.
Wisps of blue energy extended out of the decapitated part of his neck, attaching to the underside of his head.
"EXACTLY. THAT MEANS I CANNOT DIE."
He said, emboldened. I knew he was priming for another attack. I just...sensed it. Because he was the Oversoul. Emphasis on Soul.
"And this energy...it's not exactly Reiryoku but it is a form of spirit energy. Which makes you not just the god of this realm but it's core. It's soul."
I concentrated on one of the blue wisps.
The strand extended towards me.
Then I absorbed it.
Everything went silent.
"WAIT...WHAT DID YOU- JUST DO?"
Aethyr asked in trembling tone.
"I...I CAN'T FEel a part of myself..."
I snickered.
"Now I get it. Even when I was weak, I could absorb Shrouds and incorporate their power into me."
I looked up, a fervent hunger burning in my eyes.
"What would happen if I absorbed the core of a realm?"
"No...I-"
"Chase?"
I called. My Zanpakuto felt my intentions and responded in action.
Snikt! Slash! RkkkT!!!
Aethyr's soul form was turned into ribbons by a purple shadow. Chase darted in and out of Shunpo, slashing apart Aethyr, causing his body to spew out liquid spirit essence.
At the end, the Dragon was floating on a bed of purple strings below me, it's chest was exposed.
"You have lost."
I held out my hand to him.
"Join me and become my servant and I promise to spare you and your realm."
"Never!" The proud dragon roared.
I retracted the arm.
"Then I shall absorb you. Your will, your memories, they shall cease to be. You shall cease to be, Aethyr. Then I'll remake this realm into something else."
I warned. I never had an habit of leaving an enemy alive and I wasn't going to start now.
Aethyr stared back at me with stubborn eyes burning with discontent.
"What- what gives you the right, child of death?"
He bit out bitterly.
"Because I won."
I answered.
The strings around him speared through his form.
Then I reached out and the tip of my finger touched on a single strand. Aethyr was instantly absorbed into me.
And within the blink of an eye, I found myself ejected out of the Phantom Zone faster than I could react.
I looked around, extending my Reikaku out.
I was in outer space, surrounded by stars twinkling from far away distances. And behind me, was the familiar curve of the green and blue planet I called home.
Only now it wasn't blue and green. It was burning.
