17 advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::--------------------------------------------::
Chapter 69 The Last Gambit.
(Davian's P.O.V)
Power.
So much of it...
With each pull, each Shroud I devoured, I grew to heights untold. The collapsing realm stopped heh... collapsing.
Time seemed to slow down. I blinked and was suddenly looking at myself from a different angle, right where Catwoman was, body seized up in an expression of agony.
Then my Perception changed again and I was looking at myself from Karate Kid's angle. Huh.
"...ian?!!"
Someone was shouting. I blinked and this time, I found myself in the Graveyard in my inner World, right infront of a frowning Chase.
"Never seen you make that face before. Wish I had a camera."
I teased him while looking around.
Yup. This was my inner world. How did I even get here? I mean the mechanics of how it worked was, I could only enter if my physical body was asleep or unconscious in the real world. But I wasn't either of those.
Chase popped to the left, draping his fat body onto a thin branch from one of the shrunken trees around the cemetery.
He hummed, scratching his chin with one sharp claw, in contemplation.
"You can sense the death in things. No..."
Chase's head turned in 360 degrees as he smiled. Almost as if he had stumbled upon a particularly juicy secret.
"You are the death in things."
He corrected himself.
I shuddered at the way his neck twisted around.
"First of all, gross." I told him.
He rolled his eyes and the pupils fucked off to somewhere, leaving behind the yellow sclera and a creepier smile.
I ignored that.
"Secondly death? What do you mean?"
Chase popped to my shoulder, blue mist wafting off his tail with a frick to coalesce in the image of a small scythe.
"Death, the Grim Reaper. End of all things. You know buying the farm, cashing in your chips, pegging out."
He rattled off.
I shook him off in annoyance.
"Thank you for the lesson in euphemisms but that doesn't answer my quest..."
I stopped, the realm was starting to collapse. Not this one. Raven's mind space. Shit.
"Later gator."
Chase waved as I was launched out of my inner world and into my body.
'Wait...this is not my body.'
And it wasn't any of the others either. I was looking down at them after all. At all of us infact, me and Raven included. And I wasn't just... looking down on them too. I sensed them from all different directions. It was weird.
Chase said I could sense the death in things and with the realm collapsing from the Serpent's poison, it was obvious I had no choice but to believe his wild claims.
I was death, manifested in the conceptual end of Raven's Mind scape upon it's destruction. Let's try prevent that.
Maybe I could stop it. I willed for death to pause. Kind of. The poison from the serpent seemed to gather in a harmless pool of water, losing its threat value.
I wished for the damage done to the realm to rewind and it did. The realm stabilized and Chase's doomsday countdown ended. Still that was too close.
Being the death in each of my reluctant compatriots was off-putting. Reluctant because the shared suffering caused by Constantine linked us.
And as another awareness opened up, I found out I could see how many years they would live.
Surprisingly enough, Harley would make it to 97.
Catwoman was a solid 53, which given the risk of scaling up walls and jumping over rooftops was not too bad. I thought cats had nine lives though.
'They do. A blessing. But I come for all. Eventually...'
A female voice whispered, the statement reaching my non existent ears somehow. I tried to seek out the source but sensed nothing.
Karate Kid and Dawnstar would live well into their 70's.
Green Arrow was similar to Catwoman, the job he had was dangerous. He would die in battle at 57. Not too long away. In 15 years or so.
Wait...no. It was in 1 year!? His countdown had suddenly changed out nowhere.
'Time travel shenanigans.' I mused, not even the least bit amused.
Fuck. I looked at the ones I already knew their death dates and sighed in relief. There wasn't another unexplained change.
Still...what the fuck happens in a year?
Poison Ivy's 'health meter' almost made me whistle. If I could, I would have.
She would live to an age of 678. That was 6, almost 7 centuries.
Then again, maybe it had something to do with her powers? Yeah most likely.
Next up...
I stopped at Raven. The realm shook at my shock. Shock that turned into anger. Her death was timed at precisely 1 hour, 38 minutes and 43 seconds.
After all this...After all this and she dies!!!?
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuuuuuuck!"
"Use that information well. I like her."
The same female voice from before stated. And then in a flash, everything disappeared.
(Later)
I opened my eyes with a start.
"Raven!"
Her name was out of my mouth before I even knew what was happening.
I blinked, getting to my feet quickly. First of all, take stock.
I was barefoot. And also half naked. The only piece of clothing on me was a burnt pair of pants that ended at my shins. And the most important thing, I was missing my weapon. Dammit.
"Chase?"
I called but received no answer.
Next, I looked around, half in a bid to find my Zanpakuto and half to find out my location.
Where was I?
The surroundings were in a word, weird. Not in a bad way though.
The sky was a molten bright green color and the edge of the horizon had the aurora borealis dancing. It was oddly beautiful. And calming too...
Next, the ground was metallic and flat. Half of it shiny and the other an obsidian black. The obsidian seemed to suck in all the light from the sky. It spread out evenly across the furthest distance my eyes could reach.
I bent to my knees, to better see what I was dealing with. I run a palm over it. The material used was hard and oddly smooth. Mist seemed to dance inside it coming from...
Multiple skeletal faces flashed in its depths, bouncing off the obsidian before getting lost. They wore Shroud cloaks and had burning red eyes. The Obsidian seemed to fog over like glass due to their breath.
What the?
"How do you like the new addition to the realm?"
A smooth voice said from my front.
I got up, startled. My hand reached towards the hip but finding nothing there. I was still missing my Zanpakuto.
The voice belonged to a huge flaming Skeleton cat. A mouthful but apt description of whatever this thing was.
I raised an eyebrow and frowned when I recognized the wide smile on it's face, showing a row of sharp teeth. Chase's slow chuckle only made me sigh.
"Really? You think I'd scare that easily?"
I asked the stupid cat, walking towards him. The bones grinded upon one another as my Zanpakuto Spirit turned to fully face me, a long and bony tail with a purple scythe.
"You should have seen the look on your face."
He said, a flaming green tongue rolling out and running across his teeth.
I stared at our surroundings. Going by his words, this was a new addition to the realm.
"It's...strange. different from the Cemetery or the pale sands of Hueco Mundo."
I finally answered his earlier question.
"And also...oddly familiar.
"Oh come on... don't tell me you haven't figured it out. It's so obvious."
Chase said, amused.
Up close I could tell he was super massive. And...
I finally remembered everything. I had achieved a new form upon devouring over tens of thousands of Shrouds. A form that had apparently made a new realms to sprout out within me.
"The sky represents the sheath." I said in realization. Continuing as my words felt true.
"The ground is Chesha Neko's bladed edge and the obsidian represents the power I had devoured from the Shrouds."
"Bongo!"
Chase stated.
"It's Bingo."
I told him absentmindedly looking around. This place...
But I shook my head, remembering there was something more immediate than exploring this new realm.
Saving the world.
So let's deal with that first.
"Well?"
My Zanpakuto prodded and I found myself sweeping my hands across my head, tying the loose hair into a messy bun behind me.
And then I breathed in...
The flames surrounding Chase begun to spin around the both of us, extending out into long licks of fire that then crawled up my limbs.
A new outfit formed from the flames and Chase, Chase laughed as his form shrunk before me. I held out a hand and pulled the floating double bladed Scythe in my hands.
And then...I opened my eyes in the real world. Exactly on the spot where the shroud I had left behind had been. My Reikaku's range expanded far.
It was big enough to sense that Trigon had already been summoned and busy.
The massive head and horns sticking out of the crater were particularly eye-catching as he destroyed his surroundings.
"He's not welcome here."
My voice sounded off. Layered and scratchy. Still, I was right. Trigon would pay for his crimes.
"WITH HIS LIFE!!!"
I snarled, a sudden flash of unreasonable anger sprouting within me. He had killed and used the immortal souls of the mortals to give himself a foothold here.
It was an insult. Only I got to decide whether a soul is reaped or not. NOT HIM! OR ANYONE ELSE!
The flames around my body extended to my head, burning away the skin, meat and hair to leave behind a flaming skull.
I twirled the new Chesha Neko, then wound my hand as far back as I could, before throwing the Scythe towards the sky.
The air caught on fire behind the Scythe's trail.
Dark wings sprouted from my back and with a single flap, I was off, following closely after my Zanpakuto.
It was time for the Grim Reaper to reap.
(General P.O.V)
"You're mad! And Suicidal!"
Trigon yelled, snapping as his anger got the better of him. This form was still too unstable, it wasn't even a percentage of his true power. He couldn't afford to lose this chance.
The shadows below him coalesced into a large dome of energy, that protected him from the explosion of the Meteor. It sickened him that he was hiding away instead of taking the full blunt of the attack and showing them all who he was.
Raven opened her eyes. They flashed with a bright light that was similar in color to the rest of her outfit.
Her white cloak danced in the harsh winds caused by the meteor as she levitated infront of everyone.
"Huddle closer."
She informed them before the white Raven construct emerged from within her chest.
Then with a cry, the white Raven covered everyone in a shield as the explosion finally reached them.
The blast made everything shake. The roof below them cracked and was washed away under the shockwaves then the blaze that followed.
The dome extended into a sphere that was left hanging over a scene of destruction that was even greater than before.
"Even for me, this is way too much."
Harley whistled, as they stared at what lay out there.
Coventry was nowhere to be found. Now it was just an even layer of blackened soil that extended out from the crater which was the epicenter.
Catwoman fell back, leaning on the walls of the shield before sliding down. She then removed her mask, showing them a defeated expression.
"There is no coming back from this, is there?"
She asked.
No one said anything. The mood was depressing.
Harley and Ivy moved towards her. The rest watched the three women hugged one another.
Gotham was their home. And it was gone.
And yet...the battle between the two entities raged on before them. Trigon had survived the worst of the meteor's explosion by shielding himself.
That shield was compromised when the Reaper slashed out, the pointy end stabbing into the shield and slicing through.
The shield failed to hold and broke apart, revealing Trigon who was in a sorry state. The trans-dimensional being roared, sending out beams of eye beams that the Reaper begun dodging, weaving in and out, through the air while pulling in closer to his opponent.
Trigon punched out towards him with his good hand, the other having had the wrist cut off.
The Grim Reaper's scythe swung out and the attack was blocked by the dull part of the blade.
The pressure blast produced, destroyed the walls of the crater around them.
"Damn you! This world is mine to conquer!"
Trigon yelled out, straining but failing to push the smaller figure back.
What was this POWER?!
Tendrils of dark energy lashed out extending from Trigon's shadow. However the Reaper was quick and agile, darting around the demon's attacks, before slashing out and causing a huge swathe of green flames to contend with the shadow tendrils.
"You cannot escape death. You cannot escape me!"
The reaper announced as Trigon grit his teeth. Nothing was going according to plan.
The tendrils were instantly destroyed and the flames fell upon Trigon.
'Fine.' the Demonic entity thought as his back and shoulders were set on flame.
'I will resort to my last gambit.'
His gaze sharpened and his face was split into a serious expression.
Tendrils of energy had been extending towards the ley Line node blow him from the start. As stated earlier, dark powers raged in those depths.
And as evil incarnate, he could feed on those dark powers.
They wouldn't know what hit them.
17 advance chapters in my Patreon.
Patreon.com/Saintbarbido.
::--------------------------------------------::
Chapter 69 The Last Gambit.
(Davian's P.O.V)
Power.
So much of it...
With each pull, each Shroud I devoured, I grew to heights untold. The collapsing realm stopped heh... collapsing.
Time seemed to slow down. I blinked and was suddenly looking at myself from a different angle, right where Catwoman was, body seized up in an expression of agony.
Then my Perception changed again and I was looking at myself from Karate Kid's angle. Huh.
"...ian?!!"
Someone was shouting. I blinked and this time, I found myself in the Graveyard in my inner World, right infront of a frowning Chase.
"Never seen you make that face before. Wish I had a camera."
I teased him while looking around.
Yup. This was my inner world. How did I even get here? I mean the mechanics of how it worked was, I could only enter if my physical body was asleep or unconscious in the real world. But I wasn't either of those.
Chase popped to the left, draping his fat body onto a thin branch from one of the shrunken trees around the cemetery.
He hummed, scratching his chin with one sharp claw, in contemplation.
"You can sense the death in things. No..."
Chase's head turned in 360 degrees as he smiled. Almost as if he had stumbled upon a particularly juicy secret.
"You are the death in things."
He corrected himself.
I shuddered at the way his neck twisted around.
"First of all, gross." I told him.
He rolled his eyes and the pupils fucked off to somewhere, leaving behind the yellow sclera and a creepier smile.
I ignored that.
"Secondly death? What do you mean?"
Chase popped to my shoulder, blue mist wafting off his tail with a frick to coalesce in the image of a small scythe.
"Death, the Grim Reaper. End of all things. You know buying the farm, cashing in your chips, pegging out."
He rattled off.
I shook him off in annoyance.
"Thank you for the lesson in euphemisms but that doesn't answer my quest..."
I stopped, the realm was starting to collapse. Not this one. Raven's mind space. Shit.
"Later gator."
Chase waved as I was launched out of my inner world and into my body.
'Wait...this is not my body.'
And it wasn't any of the others either. I was looking down at them after all. At all of us infact, me and Raven included. And I wasn't just... looking down on them too. I sensed them from all different directions. It was weird.
Chase said I could sense the death in things and with the realm collapsing from the Serpent's poison, it was obvious I had no choice but to believe his wild claims.
I was death, manifested in the conceptual end of Raven's Mind scape upon it's destruction. Let's try prevent that.
Maybe I could stop it. I willed for death to pause. Kind of. The poison from the serpent seemed to gather in a harmless pool of water, losing its threat value.
I wished for the damage done to the realm to rewind and it did. The realm stabilized and Chase's doomsday countdown ended. Still that was too close.
Being the death in each of my reluctant compatriots was off-putting. Reluctant because the shared suffering caused by Constantine linked us.
And as another awareness opened up, I found out I could see how many years they would live.
Surprisingly enough, Harley would make it to 97.
Catwoman was a solid 53, which given the risk of scaling up walls and jumping over rooftops was not too bad. I thought cats had nine lives though.
'They do. A blessing. But I come for all. Eventually...'
A female voice whispered, the statement reaching my non existent ears somehow. I tried to seek out the source but sensed nothing.
Karate Kid and Dawnstar would live well into their 70's.
Green Arrow was similar to Catwoman, the job he had was dangerous. He would die in battle at 57. Not too long away. In 15 years or so.
Wait...no. It was in 1 year!? His countdown had suddenly changed out nowhere.
'Time travel shenanigans.' I mused, not even the least bit amused.
Fuck. I looked at the ones I already knew their death dates and sighed in relief. There wasn't another unexplained change.
Still...what the fuck happens in a year?
Poison Ivy's 'health meter' almost made me whistle. If I could, I would have.
She would live to an age of 678. That was 6, almost 7 centuries.
Then again, maybe it had something to do with her powers? Yeah most likely.
Next up...
I stopped at Raven. The realm shook at my shock. Shock that turned into anger. Her death was timed at precisely 1 hour, 38 minutes and 43 seconds.
After all this...After all this and she dies!!!?
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuuuuuuck!"
"Use that information well. I like her."
The same female voice from before stated. And then in a flash, everything disappeared.
(Later)
I opened my eyes with a start.
"Raven!"
Her name was out of my mouth before I even knew what was happening.
I blinked, getting to my feet quickly. First of all, take stock.
I was barefoot. And also half naked. The only piece of clothing on me was a burnt pair of pants that ended at my shins. And the most important thing, I was missing my weapon. Dammit.
"Chase?"
I called but received no answer.
Next, I looked around, half in a bid to find my Zanpakuto and half to find out my location.
Where was I?
The surroundings were in a word, weird. Not in a bad way though.
The sky was a molten bright green color and the edge of the horizon had the aurora borealis dancing. It was oddly beautiful. And calming too...
Next, the ground was metallic and flat. Half of it shiny and the other an obsidian black. The obsidian seemed to suck in all the light from the sky. It spread out evenly across the furthest distance my eyes could reach.
I bent to my knees, to better see what I was dealing with. I run a palm over it. The material used was hard and oddly smooth. Mist seemed to dance inside it coming from...
Multiple skeletal faces flashed in its depths, bouncing off the obsidian before getting lost. They wore Shroud cloaks and had burning red eyes. The Obsidian seemed to fog over like glass due to their breath.
What the?
"How do you like the new addition to the realm?"
A smooth voice said from my front.
I got up, startled. My hand reached towards the hip but finding nothing there. I was still missing my Zanpakuto.
The voice belonged to a huge flaming Skeleton cat. A mouthful but apt description of whatever this thing was.
I raised an eyebrow and frowned when I recognized the wide smile on it's face, showing a row of sharp teeth. Chase's slow chuckle only made me sigh.
"Really? You think I'd scare that easily?"
I asked the stupid cat, walking towards him. The bones grinded upon one another as my Zanpakuto Spirit turned to fully face me, a long and bony tail with a purple scythe.
"You should have seen the look on your face."
He said, a flaming green tongue rolling out and running across his teeth.
I stared at our surroundings. Going by his words, this was a new addition to the realm.
"It's...strange. different from the Cemetery or the pale sands of Hueco Mundo."
I finally answered his earlier question.
"And also...oddly familiar.
"Oh come on... don't tell me you haven't figured it out. It's so obvious."
Chase said, amused.
Up close I could tell he was super massive. And...
I finally remembered everything. I had achieved a new form upon devouring over tens of thousands of Shrouds. A form that had apparently made a new realms to sprout out within me.
"The sky represents the sheath." I said in realization. Continuing as my words felt true.
"The ground is Chesha Neko's bladed edge and the obsidian represents the power I had devoured from the Shrouds."
"Bongo!"
Chase stated.
"It's Bingo."
I told him absentmindedly looking around. This place...
But I shook my head, remembering there was something more immediate than exploring this new realm.
Saving the world.
So let's deal with that first.
"Well?"
My Zanpakuto prodded and I found myself sweeping my hands across my head, tying the loose hair into a messy bun behind me.
And then I breathed in...
The flames surrounding Chase begun to spin around the both of us, extending out into long licks of fire that then crawled up my limbs.
A new outfit formed from the flames and Chase, Chase laughed as his form shrunk before me. I held out a hand and pulled the floating double bladed Scythe in my hands.
And then...I opened my eyes in the real world. Exactly on the spot where the shroud I had left behind had been. My Reikaku's range expanded far.
It was big enough to sense that Trigon had already been summoned and busy.
The massive head and horns sticking out of the crater were particularly eye-catching as he destroyed his surroundings.
"He's not welcome here."
My voice sounded off. Layered and scratchy. Still, I was right. Trigon would pay for his crimes.
"WITH HIS LIFE!!!"
I snarled, a sudden flash of unreasonable anger sprouting within me. He had killed and used the immortal souls of the mortals to give himself a foothold here.
It was an insult. Only I got to decide whether a soul is reaped or not. NOT HIM! OR ANYONE ELSE!
The flames around my body extended to my head, burning away the skin, meat and hair to leave behind a flaming skull.
I twirled the new Chesha Neko, then wound my hand as far back as I could, before throwing the Scythe towards the sky.
The air caught on fire behind the Scythe's trail.
Dark wings sprouted from my back and with a single flap, I was off, following closely after my Zanpakuto.
It was time for the Grim Reaper to reap.
(General P.O.V)
"You're mad! And Suicidal!"
Trigon yelled, snapping as his anger got the better of him. This form was still too unstable, it wasn't even a percentage of his true power. He couldn't afford to lose this chance.
The shadows below him coalesced into a large dome of energy, that protected him from the explosion of the Meteor. It sickened him that he was hiding away instead of taking the full blunt of the attack and showing them all who he was.
Raven opened her eyes. They flashed with a bright light that was similar in color to the rest of her outfit.
Her white cloak danced in the harsh winds caused by the meteor as she levitated infront of everyone.
"Huddle closer."
She informed them before the white Raven construct emerged from within her chest.
Then with a cry, the white Raven covered everyone in a shield as the explosion finally reached them.
The blast made everything shake. The roof below them cracked and was washed away under the shockwaves then the blaze that followed.
The dome extended into a sphere that was left hanging over a scene of destruction that was even greater than before.
"Even for me, this is way too much."
Harley whistled, as they stared at what lay out there.
Coventry was nowhere to be found. Now it was just an even layer of blackened soil that extended out from the crater which was the epicenter.
Catwoman fell back, leaning on the walls of the shield before sliding down. She then removed her mask, showing them a defeated expression.
"There is no coming back from this, is there?"
She asked.
No one said anything. The mood was depressing.
Harley and Ivy moved towards her. The rest watched the three women hugged one another.
Gotham was their home. And it was gone.
And yet...the battle between the two entities raged on before them. Trigon had survived the worst of the meteor's explosion by shielding himself.
That shield was compromised when the Reaper slashed out, the pointy end stabbing into the shield and slicing through.
The shield failed to hold and broke apart, revealing Trigon who was in a sorry state. The trans-dimensional being roared, sending out beams of eye beams that the Reaper begun dodging, weaving in and out, through the air while pulling in closer to his opponent.
Trigon punched out towards him with his good hand, the other having had the wrist cut off.
The Grim Reaper's scythe swung out and the attack was blocked by the dull part of the blade.
The pressure blast produced, destroyed the walls of the crater around them.
"Damn you! This world is mine to conquer!"
Trigon yelled out, straining but failing to push the smaller figure back.
What was this POWER?!
Tendrils of dark energy lashed out extending from Trigon's shadow. However the Reaper was quick and agile, darting around the demon's attacks, before slashing out and causing a huge swathe of green flames to contend with the shadow tendrils.
"You cannot escape death. You cannot escape me!"
The reaper announced as Trigon grit his teeth. Nothing was going according to plan.
The tendrils were instantly destroyed and the flames fell upon Trigon.
'Fine.' the Demonic entity thought as his back and shoulders were set on flame.
'I will resort to my last gambit.'
His gaze sharpened and his face was split into a serious expression.
Tendrils of energy had been extending towards the ley Line node blow him from the start. As stated earlier, dark powers raged in those depths.
And as evil incarnate, he could feed on those dark powers.
They wouldn't know what hit them.
