Re: Black as Death (Closed to Sean)

by **Zell** October 17th 2013, 8:00 pm

I could have killed him! Zell snapped. He was inside his mind once more, string at Ouroboros who stood with arms crossed and an arched eyebrow. Zell glared at him. Godsbane would have taken the Titan's head clean off, and even if it hadn't the Imperium protocol would have been more than enough, save the fact that Ouroboros intervened ever single time. Each time Zell went to strike, Ouroboros seized his train of thought and derailed it, causing a muscle failure or a klutzy faltering that would not have been made otherwise. Are you quite done now? He would wonder of the other version of himself.

       I understand now. You are not Zell Atterrius, rather you are a fragment...a n echo of anger and hatred. Ouroboros thought as he observed the energies radiating from the figure of Zell Atterrius. Such a poison was inside him and he didn't even know how or why, granted he couldn't care any less than he did already. Ouroboros smirked and stood off the ground of his purified soul. Well this is interesting, but as you can see Sean is a Titan now, not this half-assed energy form, but a pure, nether-born Titan. You've officially overstayed your welcome. I'd purge you myself, but why would I waste the effort when my Titan can do it for me.

       When Zell snapped back, having noted that there was a fully healed, fully marked Titan before him. His face twisted into a scowl, but he would not let it derail him. It was only another obstacle, one that he needed to overcome. One that he would overcome. The hared pulsing through him made Misanthropy roar out with glee as it fed from the hatred that pumped through him. He would not allow Ouroboros to be his limiter, oh no. He would make Ouroboros his weapon, one way or another. Sean assured him that he had never seen a true monster, although he was willing to quickly say the same of Sean.

       Zell dissipated the illusion, revealing that now both Zell, his tendrils and Sean were fully healed and ready to go. Zell activated the visor's command and the nanites behind his eyes began to stimulate with a warm and fuzzy buzz as his eyes began to glow even brighter. The visor began to peel away and Zell shot out two continuous beams of Ethereal energy straight for Sean. Upon his will the beam ceased to persist after three seconds. Godsbane flew to Zell, and it placed itself in his hand as that he would be able to wield them himself.

       "Oh thank god..." Zell said with a feighned chuckle and his eyes narrowed with a sickening smile. "I thought you might have actually done something unpredictable."

by **Arcana** October 17th 2013, 8:27 pm

He felt it, his body now fully healed and the pureness of his energy running its course through his body. There was no hesitation, nothing that once held him back, only something malevolent running through him and strengthening him even more. A sadistic smirk formed across his face, as he simply crossed his arms over his chest, looking Zell Atterrius square in the eyes, silver eyes now becoming like hard steel. The beams would come at him, though a barrier of Nether would form infront of Sean, and take the brunt if the impact as cracks spider webbed across it, and in the end it would shatter into small purplish shards that sprinkled the ground lightly. ”Cute, Zell is trying to be witty.” He mused with a dark chuckle, the near silent laughter echoing ominously.

”It seems that I had forgotten that you indeed are not Ouroboros, just a shade, the fragment of a sad little man. You are beyond words, so I won’t waste my words on you.” He held his right hand palm up, as what appeared to be a necrotic blade would appear within his hand, the blade made of a blood red crystalline material, oozing pure malevolence. With a simple mental command, it would begin to float about in the air, perhaps mocking his foes control over the two blades that he wielded.

’So let’s dance Atterrius, since you seem so aware of what I’ve done with that body, I hope you don’t mind me giving you a sound fucking as well.” He said, punctuated by a loud derisive laugh, as Sean reclined within midair, moving only a few feet from the ground, legs now crossed. In an instant the necrotic blade would begin an assault upon the Ethereal being, slashing in wild and unpredictable patterns.

by **Zell** October 17th 2013, 9:22 pm

      "This is my life....and I would see it destroyed before I'd let that happen." Zell said. The blade flew at him, mocking the way that Ouroboros had designed his blades. Zell smiled. Are you watching as he mocks your tactics? Are you seeing his disrespect? How could someone like me, or someone like you were supposed to be ever find anything like that interesting in the slightest? Zell thought, the thought sunk in, and it was even more enjoyed when Ouroboros didn't respond. Ouroboros was being mocked, and Zell knew that it likely irked the being even greater than it did himself. Zell's advanced mind seemed to slow time and with the honed skills and Shi's training he was able to move in time to react to his perceptions. The blade would make several points of contact, but none of them fatal, in fact none of them going any deeper than a simple annoying cut. The blade was wild, but there was very little at this point that Zell didn't learn to compensate for. Several small slashes the blade was strong enough to pierce the Hydra's skin even, which made Zell's concern rise a little, but once again he was certain that Sean would not beat him. It was clear however that even the slightest misstep was likely to be a fatality. Zell learned this the hard way, with a wrong step the blade dug into his arm and blood spewed everywhere.

      Zell knew already what this meant. While the blade was focused on him, Zell released Godsbane, and it flew out to Sean. Misanthropy and Godsbane both flew and slashed at Sean equally as unpredictable as Sean's blade. Godsbane threw energy slashes galore at the Titan. Ouroboros would not allow this transgression to go unattended, but for now, he needed time.

      Damnit Zell cursed. He felt the corruption sinking into his skin, tearing into him in ways that the Hydra's skin could not compensate with. His body was failing. What bullshit was this? How was he being corrupted form the inside out yet that Titanic bastard shrugs off his poison like it's a goddamn speck of dust. Zell really was going to die...again.

      In the final hour, my body is hardened as stone, and my immune system will not fail... A voice said within, softly, but almost...without emotion. (+3 Durability +1 speed) Zell swatted the blade away with his Ethereal Glaive and held himself with composure.

      so now you're helping me? Zell mused to himself. There was no sound, no response. Only silence. It brought a small smirk to Zell's face as the corruptions lethality dropped, and while he was hurt, rather severely, he would not die. With another shot of his eye beams, he continued the assault. Then with his fully charged energy, unleashed a chest beam out at Sean. The son of a bitch couldn't withstand all of this being thrown at him, or at least Zell was hoping.

by **Arcana** October 17th 2013, 9:42 pm

”As you wish.” Sean noted whimsically, allowing the blade to continue its dance, showing that the pathetic exterior of his hydra skin was nothing against his blade. His flesh would rot, turning as black as the nanites had tried to do to his own body, and he would feel the racking pains of corruption. He would die at this rate, but within this state Sean felt nothing, no human emotion to control him; only the desire to destroy the being that was now Zell Atterrius. Both of his cursed blades would begin to slash out at Sean, but instead of trying to dodge them, he would just make them miss. When they seemed to cut him, all that would spew from him was a black mist as his form seemed to blur for a moment, as they hit nothing.

The Ethereal slashes also hit mist as he simply kept his eyes upon the being trying so desperately do dodge his attacks. Even with all of the cuts he had received, why had that bastard not died? There were many reasons, but only one seemed to come to mind, and it caused the Titan to grimace lightly. Either somehow he was healing himself, or somehow he was beginning to gain control over his Ethereal abilities, and as the three beams of intense energy went through the intangible being, Sean considered this for a moment. There were many other reasons why this could have been happening, but he was sure there was no way that Ouroboros would help Zell, that being until it came to him that the being may have not wanted to die.

”Of course.” Sean hissed lowly, aiming one fingers at the ceiling above the male, and with a small beam of Nether that would explode upon contact, forcing everything above him to fall downward. It was perhaps at best a distraction, as he aimed another beam of the energy at where the male was standing, full powered and large enough to consume the whole area he pointed at, or at the very least it was hard to dodge. The blade that was once trying to kill Zell appeared instantly within his hand.

by **Zell** October 17th 2013, 10:33 pm

      Why not take this a little bit further? Show the Titan how annoying he really was. Zell suddenly went to become an Ethereal mist as he tried to dive out of the way, only to have his left arm snagged by the blast. The arm was torn from it’s socket and blood poured. The Hydra’s skin immediately became a bandaging like cover to the forced amputation. How had this happened before he had the chance to become an Ethereal mist? His blades continued their assault. A cry of pain, no a roar of it. Not a roar of Zell, but a roar of Ouroboros. His entire arm had been removed and nothing but dusky skin and death surrounded him.

      Zell began panting, he was beginning to feel as if he were reaching his limits. Unlike Ouroboros his mind was not conditioned and could not sustain the energy as much as he wished it to, unlike Ouroboros he knew nothing of the tricks and methods of Ethereal, Zell was simply a child without the capacity to understand nor use the magic that was his power. This was, if nothing else a testimony of Zell’s persistence. He did not relent, though while missing an arm he dropped to his knees and entered a blank far off stare. The blood trickled so warm against his skin…but he was becoming so cold. His hair would have stood on end, but that was too much energy for his body to expend. He felt a low throbbing pain where his arm had once been, but now he felt nothing. His body had entered shock, natures way of coaxing you into the final sleep. The body was failing, there was nothing left for him to do.

      Zell Atterrius….had lost.

      Deep within him, Ouroboros’ eyes bugged out as the figure of Zell fell within the sanctuary. Ouroboros walked over to him, eyes wide in shock as the form suddenly looked beaten all cut and his left arm mangled. Ouro took a knee next to the fallen figure, look of total stone, no emotion, just a depressing staring off into space with a few tears welling up. Ouroboros cocked his head like a curious little pup that had just heard a strange noise. His Titan had obviously prevailed, cheers all around I suppose, however there was a sinking feeling within the Ethereal King. The area around, the sanctuary they were in, with a harsh breaking noise, Ouro turned his head to see a large portion of the sanctuary fall. What happened!? Was his body being destroyed? What the hell was going on? The only logical conclusion was that Sean in fact was destroying the body of Ouroboros. Misanthropy was the first to fall into the ground, and Godsbane let out one last energy slash at Sean before drifting back to Zell and laying at his knees.

by **Arcana** October 17th 2013, 10:55 pm

The attack he had seen went well enough, though in the start he noticed that the Ethereal was attempting to copy his trick, but within that moment the Nether connected with the flesh of his arm. There were be pain unknown, and he could hear how painful it was within the roar that the male would release, as the blade splattered from the place where an arm was once. In the end Zell Atterrius had lost, and he had defeated him soundly with one stroke. The victory felt hollow still, but in the end all battles were pointless, only fought to fuel the death that lay within their wake. It was time that he took the unconscious male, or so he thought until the blade Godsbane slashed out at him one final time in an act of defiance, and he had little time to react.

His body was moving as fast as it could, but it was not fast enough as the blast hit his right arm on the elbow, and in an instant the limb fell to the ground. Sean couldn’t really think of how to react as the appendage fell onto the ground, dead and lifeless. The rune would attempt to heal his damage, as blood squirted from the damage part, black liquid spurting about as his vision slowly began to blur and soon enough the bleeding itself would stop. Sean cursed heavily under his breath, seething as he couldn’t really grasp what had just happened, and his eyes fell upon the now prone body of….he was unsure who it was anymore.

The pain would recede as the healing washed over the part where it originated, though he was temporarily struck dumb. He stared at the limb fallen to the ground for a moment, and sighed audibly. Snapping with his only remaining hand, the large summon would appear, a mass of smooth looking muscle chiseled from darkness itself, with a masculine appearance. It would appear to look to Sean confused by his appearance, but not questioning as it reached down and picked up the unconscious Ethereal Being. Sean wondered if it could even say anything. ’Come on, I don’t want to waste anymore time here.”

by **Zell** October 18th 2013, 9:54 pm

      The Nanite Emission command began to take effect, healing the body of Ouroboros, not beginning to regenerate the arm quite yet though. The summon would make it’s way towards him. Sean mentioned something about grabbing Ouroboros and getting out of there. The summon itself went to reach for the seemingly unconscious Ethereal King. As it went to take a hold of it’s “charge”.

      ”Don’t touch me.” A voice snapped. Suddenly a large Arm of Ethereal energy spawned and Ouroboros suck out the arm and opened the hand, producing a large Ethereal blow back, likely to throw anything back, though damage was not the primary purpose of it. The building itself began to shake and rumble. The Energy dissipated and the amputated arm began to grow back as the nanite emission took full effect and the arm reformed. The Hydra’s skin would grow over it as well, as if nothing ever happened. Meanwhile Ouroboros glared at Sean and without even doing anything but willing it, the Nanites headed towards Sean, aiming to fix the damages done in their battle.

      ”You mock me and damage my body without regard, you allow yourself to be drawn and controlled, so be it. But don’t think to raise a hand against the Ethereal King and expect to win so easily.” Ouroboros snapped. A group of six police officers walked into the entry way. Ouro looked over his shoulder and snapped his fingers, with the snap there was an explosion of Ethereal energy behind them, throwing them towards him, one dying upon impact and the other three wounded. The fourth was in perfect condition. Misanthropy flew to Zell’s hand, and with one slash, two slash and three slashes, Three of the humans had glowing green eyes and their glares fixated on Sean’s summon. The one was smart enough to kill the last surviving officer for Ouroboros, as Ouro’s emerald eyes settled on Sean. With another whim, Ouroboros spawned five Ethereal swords, each one augmented by his own manipulative powers. He turned to look at the Titan and brushed his hand through his hair.

      ”Get him.” Ouroboros commanded his new Ethereals. Each human transformed into blackened creatures, akin to that of his own monstrous form. Metallic like tails to double their length, and the hardened scales. Ouro nodded to Sean’s summon and without hesitation the three creatures barreled for the summon without hesitation. The speedy Minion held onto the strong one, and with advanced speed he brought the scrapper minion to the Summon, allowing him to attempt to hit hard at advanced speeds. Once they were past the summon, the speedster let go and the scrapper dropped on all fours. With hopefully both the Titan and The Ethereal king restored, they could fight without bars. The three minions were focused on tearing down the Titan’s follower. Ouroboros looked at him. Something about him was not quite the same. He was Ouroboros, but hew had been altered, traces of his former life still lingered, though it was slowly fading. Soon Ouroboros would be back to his senses, but for now he was focused on Sean. ”You mocked me, you damaged me and virtually sent me into soul-shock… Hell, you were on the verse of killing me with that damn blade. Despite popular belief coming back form dying is a true pain in my ass!” He snapped, traces of Atterrius still clouding his mind. Godsbane flew to him and Misanthropy let out a happy purr as its master beckoned it. Ouro gracefully caught the one and then with a fierce grip he grappled and tamed the mighty Godsbade.

      ”So you want to dance?” Ouroboros said with a slight smile, his shoulder turned. The blade brought back, his front leg bent a little, as if he were getting ready for a large attack of Ethereal energy. His mouth was covered by his arm that was brought back, but his emerald eye narrowed with a focus unlike that had been seen before. There was a moment where his heart skipped a beat, where everything was in slow motion. It was funny how he could actually hear his heart beating. It happen incredibly fast. His advances intellect and time processing and his reflexes to accommodate, he used his Ethereal belt and suddenly vanished, reappearing right before Sean, eyes still not leaving his. Part of him wanted to do this, but it was sheerly for amusement, it was just to see if he could do what Zell Atterrius could not. ”Well welcome to the ballroom Coupirah!” Ouro said playfully, yet somehow aggressively as he lashed out across, leading with Misanthropy and following with Godsbane. The five swords would follow flying at even greater speeds due to their boost of Ethereal energy granted by Ouro’s own abilities. Ouro’s eyes told him all he needed, if the blade of corruption would strike out to defend Godsbane would unleashed a blast of energy, one that Ouro intended to add his own oomph to.

     His visor flashed back on, and he noted the status of his new Etherealites.

Spoiler:

by **Arcana** October 18th 2013, 10:31 pm

With but a motion, the blundering black being was forced back, reeling against the Ethereal energy used against it. Its black flesh sizzled lightly, as feet dragged against the ground underfoot and tile easily cracked from the force being exerted to stop itself. What small damage was done easily repaired itself, dark matter knitting itself back together within seconds as it wordlessly grunted, annoyed by the small amount of damage that had been done to it. It seemed that he was still in one piece, and with enough fight to keep talking. Around him the building shook, trembling under the influence of the Ethereal Kings power, as his only good hand wrapped around his torso, though he could feel the phantom sensation of the other arm attempting to do the same and coming up with nothing.

A small wave of ethereal nanites or whatever they were called came his way, but something happened, his body burning painfully as the markings across his body burned like fire. Instead of undoing the damage as they were intended to do, nothing happened except for the burning sensation that was produced, and Sean cursed under his breath as his body threatened to retch. Still it seemed that Zell, Ouroboros or whoever had to fucking monologue now of all times, as if Sean gave a piss at what they said. He may have been the Ethereal King, but it was he that raised a hand first against Sean, and he was the one who got away from the prior scrap without any lasting maladies.

He snapped there was an explosion and now he had some of those useless summoning things of it; imperfects or whatever that sprung up because of his worthless blade. His vision was growing red, tunneling until it focused upon a single individual, and his teeth ground together tightly. There was of course more of the damn annoying swords, and within that instant Sean calculated his chances in surviving, and they did not seem favorable. Within an instant these summon would barrel towards his own, all three aiming to hit it at once, and their combined strength caught it slightly off guard, as it was forced to move back around three meters before being able to stop itself.

The summon attempted to fight off these speed demons, swatting full strength at them with its powerful fists, ground bursting upon contact and releasing loud booming sounds. Part of him really wanted to kill the mouthy bastard now, maybe rip off his arm and attack it onto his own body as a replacement. He beckoned for his worthless swords, and the black blade floated around Sean lazily, humming with a red aura as the air itself filled with Nether. He gave Sean a smile, and he wanted to extend the expression across that face of his, anger pouring through his veins like a poison. His eyes could barely keep up with him, but when you give up those lovely superhuman reflexes, skill could only get you so far.

So instead of simply trying to block it, he would revert to that lovely mist state, avoiding all attacks in one fell swoop and backing up a good few feet. ”I see, my arm isn’t enough for you is it? If you’ve got to maim me, why not go all out?” He spat sneering, as the red tinged blade danced about upon its own volition. ’Fine, let’s dance.” There was no humor within his voice, and then within an instant the hellfire band appeared on his left hands ring finger, and within that instant black energy coalesced into a sphere and aimed towards the Ethereal Being, unleashed a torrent of black bullet like spheres that would have shredded through his flesh. They were however meant only to increase the difficulty of dodging the erratic slashes of the corrosive blade.

by **Zell** October 22nd 2013, 12:44 am

Dodging would be problematic, however it need not worry the Ethereal king, if that's who he truly was. Even he himself didn't know anymore. He activated his power to empower his physiology, allowing him to avoid all damage. The Titan was problematic at this point, but nothing he couldn't take. He thought at least. The blade attempted to strike at him, phasing through. That blade was the most annoying piece of weaponry since the goddamn Godsbane. Godsbane flew out to Sean, aiming to strike him, but suddenly it stopped. The ethereal weapons stopped their assault and Ouroboros' blades simply returned to him. He gripped at his head, his right hand over the right eye, hair sliding in between the fingers and the palm over the eye. His teeth were gritting together, as he began to tremor in his abdomen. He suddenly pulled through once he saw Sean's arm.

"I-Th-that shouldn't have happened." Ouroboros said to himself. Something was wrong, why couldn't his nanites heal Sean? Why couldn't the power of Ethereal remedy that wound? Was there something wrong with his powers? Was he losing them!? Too many thoughts at once. He didn't know what to do. His heart sunk and he could swear that he felt it stop.

by **Arcana** October 22nd 2013, 1:02 am

Each of the deadly Nether bullets passed through the male, though without the grievous damage that they were intended to do in the first place, but that was no wholly unexpected. Instead anything unfortunate to be standing infornt of them were reduced to a pile of nothingness, his destructive blade was met with the same failure, missing through the being as he seemed to phase through just as Sean seemed to enjoy doing to his foes within this form, eyes narrowing into lines. So it seemed that he was still playing around with him, but then again something about that did not feel new in the least. He kept an eye on the blade known as Godsbane, preparing to counter it when it simply stopped itself, as well as the other blades that he had under his control and they all returned to Ouro within an instant. That was when something seemed to set in, Sean’s body shuddering violently as his stomach threatened to come out from his mouth, and the markings across his body began to glow cherry red.

One could hear sizzling and yet his flesh was not burning; only an acrid looking black smoke began to issue from the markings, as his body suddenly felt weaker than ever before, even when he had nearly used all of the Nether within his body once. The end where his arm once was burned painfully, and Sean had to exert large amount of self control to keep himself from roaring in pain, teeth clenching together and within an instant he knew what had happened, or had an idea. Well no matter what it was, his body felt like it was going to fall apart, and there was really nothing that Sean could do as he felt his entire body become heavy like lead, and yet he had to keep himself standing. Vision blurred as he held his only hand against his head, even his own energy seemed to grow erratic and unstable for those that could feel it.

by **Zell** October 23rd 2013, 9:27 pm

The gravity of the situation finally took affect. He wasn’t able to help Sean. No…no that couldn’t be it. The Ethereal King could do anything, he could force any creature to bended knee, Topple any tower or plague any city. He could create life, sustain it and empower it. How could he not heal a simple injury like that!? It made no sense, his mind was running on overtime, going faster and harder than ever before. He had put supercomputers to shame before, now it was just plain ridiculous. He felt as if his ears were puffing out smoke his head hurt so bad. His eyes bloodshot and he let his left hand reach up and grab onto his hair, tugging at the smooth follicles.

Too many questions, too many questions and no answers, not enough times. He ran the equations time after time again, and it didn’t match up. Why didn’t it work? What happened, and what went wrong? Ouro had little time to process this information when he looked back to Zakaken whom laid in a pool of his own blood. Did he do this? How could he not remember? Could he save Zakaken? With an extension of the hand, the nanites began to knit the wounds of the fallen Imperfect. Ouroboros noted that the wounds were grave, though he did not believe them enough to finish his Seneschal. Though seeing Zakaken being remedied brought no relief…no triumphant feeling…it brought only anger. Why could he heal Zakaken and not Sean!? IT made no sense and he would get to the bottom of this immediately. He shot a glare at the unconscious elderly looking man named Bastion and with disdain he released the elder…

His left eyebrow twitched but otherwise his face would remain as stone. Shocked, bruised colored bags under his eyes, the whites being replaced by red cracks and bursting vessels. He was at a loss, not because of the damn battle, not because of the fight. Hell, he didn’t even care that he hurt Sean in truth…what truly had him was the fact that he couldn’t help Sean. He was needed and yet was somehow powerless?

”What bullshit is this!?” He crushed through his teeth as he shifted his left hand digging the tips into his forehead just under the hairline, covering his eye. The rage seemed to drive him into a state of total ignorance. He was neglectful of all sensory beyond his thoughts. He was confused, perplexed and he was unsure. Something that was abnormal for him. But then it happened. It was brief, subtle and it came like a church mouse…but the reaction it made would echo throughout the ages. This “little mouse” had done it.

Ouroboros snapped.

A chuckle turned into a laugh. The laugh turned hysterical as he glared on the ground. Drip…drip…drip. The red water splashed against the tile floor. Like a faucet that didn’t stop properly. Maybe that in itself was symbolic, though too late was the harbinger for the destroyer was not far behind. Blood began to flow from the hairline, where Ouroboros had lost mind of his own strength and the abuse he had upon his own body. The finger tips and nails dug through the skin, and Ouro’s eyes narrowed with a sick smile as he noted the sharp pain in his head. The last trace of erratic Nether was eliminated and it faded as Sean sipped away into the unconscious, at that moment it began. Ouroboros slowly drug his hands down the side of his face and kept laughing like a maniac. With vicious yank he splattered his blood across the tile, staining it while a few threads of flesh remained torn. His laughing only grew unstable, like a hyena with a demonic reverb to it. His eyes began to glow two separate colors, a deep purple with red around the edges, and a bright blue with yellow surrounding glow.

”I didn’t know it was paradigm to kill your mates, Atterius.” A voice said from behind him. Ouroboros felt the urge to look to the voice, discerning that it was too familiar to ignore. There he saw her, where he had once been standing, none other than Xarlessa herself. The only question that Ouroboros had was what was she doing here? She had no reason…or so he believed, until he finally put two and two together. ”Don’t let me stop you…you’ll be two for two at this rate.” She said with a slight edge as she descended the stairs. She walked past Zakaken, whom seemed to lift into the air as if being levitated by a spell, and Bastion would take upon the same uplifting appearance. With a flash of her eyes, the Ethereal Arc appeared behind her and the bodies floated past her and into the Ethereal light, into the safety of Valhalla.

”Y-you!?”

”Who else? Now come quietly and take your medicine.” Xarlessa said as she revealed a large mechanic contraption.

Ouroboros would awake some time later, and immediately took to the labs, only after checking upon Sean’s status. Ouroboros designed and began theoreies, he tested them and was in depth into the research as to why he could not heal that wound. He would not be made a fool of. No man, woman or child… No plague, pestilence or famine…no idea, or concept. No Human or inhuman, hero or villain…None would best Ouroboros. He would not allow it. This wound was just another problem. And Ouroboros would have no problems. Only solutions.

He would easily lose track of the time as he tested these theories while Zakaken recovered in the infirmary, and he assumed Sean would be recovering as well. Perhaps Sean would seek him out to share choice words. It would not be welcomed…but it would be permitted, he deserved nothing less than the full wrath for his actions. Though….he did not look forward to facing the consequences for his mishap.

by **Arcana** October 23rd 2013, 10:41 pm

It came upon him like a wave, blocking out all sight as he could not even muster up the strength to even vocalize anymore, only fall. All pain felt inconsequential as blackness overtook him, and for a moment he wondered if this was what dying felt like. Weightlessness was the new sensation, and a lack of cares for whatever was out there; he did not even care that the one person that he for some reason cared for had brutalized him. Within the sea of darkness, his limbs felt light as he fell deeper and deeper, memories releasing themselves from his mind like so many snowflakes, until he realized that he was indeed not dying at all. It all really began when his physical body hit the floor, and the fighting between the dark mass and imperfects ceased. Sean also felt himself collide with something, dark ground black as soot, dust rising into the cold and Nether rich air. ”So what now?” It was a familiar voice, one that he had heard once before and it brought up a strange resonation within him, as his body burned painfully. ”He broke you, probably more than the fool could ever realize. Silver orbs darted about the ruined landscape, looking upon…..himself?

”What’s wrong pup? Your master just neutered you, all the while you believed that he considered you an equal. Sean let his eyes wondered, still feeling the clenching of his right hand, though when he looked down, all that was there was a wavering image. In an instant it showed that he was indeed broken, the markings all trailing down to that ugly stump that formed where a limb once resided, where fingers could once clench into a fist. ”Don’t go getting all pathetic on me though.” A fist collided with his chin as he landed on his back, fresh blood forming from his nose, and everything going hazy.”I thought you were some kind of big bad Ti’taen, some being of darkness that laughed at petty human emotion. I thought you were a stone cold bastard that spat upon the concept of love, but you’re just fucking pathetic. If anything, I think you might be the weaker one.” Sean rolled onto his side, feeling the dry ground crack under his weight, though any weight would cause the dilapidated landscape to break in someway, and that was when he noticed the sky.

A large ugly scar ran along it, jutting through the clouds, as well as anything else that was within the heavens above them. ”You may be going a little hard on him, after all he is still an incomplete being and probably even more so with what the Ethereal one did to him.”A female voice noted, and when he turned towards it, what he saw was a woman in simple looking clothing, and with long flowing black hair that seemed to only make her silver eyes stand out even more. ”Now that I mention him, if it wasn’t for him he would have never even awakened the power, but…” She let that thought move about before continuing. ”It doesn’t matter.” She looked into the horizon of the strange place, what looked like a storm was upon them, something dark and foreboding as thunder boomed loudly. Crackling from the large cloud was a strange lightening; something light green in appearance and it reeked of a familiar energy that made Sean bristle. ”So what now Sean?” The female questioned before the other could interrupt. ” I think you could say that you are…in a rather tricky situation.” The ground beneath him groaned loudly, as a large crack worked itself along the earth, working its way towards Sean.

”Woah, you better move before….well I’m sure you know what happens.” The male voice mocked as Sean tried to move but his body refused to work, and he lay weakly on his side. ”Bark for me doggy.” The ground gave underneath him as he fell, blackness once again taking over everything that he saw. Sean was falling, falling and falling until……

With a jolt Sean rose, something over his body as eyes snapped widely open and his breathing was erratic at best. He didn’t really know where he was, but something told him that trying to get up would not be best at the moment, as his weak feeling body fell against whatever he was lying on. Sensation whipped through his right hand, and Sean tried to bring it to his field of vision, but nothing except a pathetic looking stump would come up. He would have been angry, but it was something that he partially expected, and then Sean let the ruined limb fall back down, sighing deeply. He chuckled bitterly to himself, realizing that this may have been worse than initially thought, seeing as how he did not return to his half human form within that time of unconsciousness. The only real indication of that was the fact that he noticed the black markings were dominating the place where an arm once resided, thought they now all ended at the end of the stump. ”Well….” He didn’t really have words for what he was dealing with, only a blank stare as he heard footsteps near him. His eyes shot up to see….his son walking in on him, slight trepidation within his expression, but then again it was expected. ”Michael….I” He found himself once again at a loss for word as the young Ethereal male looked at the stump with a mixture of curiosity and horror, though Sean was glad that it was at least healed enough not to be grotesque.

Michael walked up to him, sitting lightly on the bed, as he examined the damage, running a finger along it carefully but only after Sean gave him a nod.”Woah.” He noted lowly, though it was enough for Sean to hear, and part of him was annoyed by it.

’Alright, I know it may look weird but that doesn’t mean you can gawk at it.” He wasn’t angry, something about that bothered Sean more than anything. He wasn’t angry at Ouroboros for crippling him, he wasn’t happy either, Sean felt nothing on it or felt nothing on anything else it seemed. ’Where’s your father, I need to talk to him.”

”You aren’t going to kill him are you?”

”No Michael, I would never do that.” Even though that was what seemed like the proper response within this situation, but he was within a forgiving mood this time around, or so it seemed. With his only good arm, Sean wrapped Michael into a tight hug, thought it didn’t seem to affect him as usual, though he was still weak. The younger Ethereal male sighed lightly, wrapping one of the arms around Sean. Already Sean could see that he was aging fast, and before he knew it, his son would already be fully grown, and with his father crippled already in the midst of his childhood. ”So where is he?”

”In one of his labs doing whatever it is he does.” Sean removed his arm from around Michael, trying to push himself from the bed, and swinging his legs over the edge. He was in the infirmary, and it seemed that someone had the decency to change his clothing while he was out, and that was gods send within itself. He was in a simple white t-shirt and simple khaki colored shorts that cut off mid knee, and his feet were bare, though that never really hindered him when walking around the castle Valhalla. Michael would follow him for a short while, perhaps showing slight concern but nothing out of character for him, which made Sean feel somewhat secure in the fact not everyone that he cared for was going off the deep end. After a small amount of walking, and Michael walking off to find Shael to hang out with or something, Sean found Ouroboros within his little occult lab working over something. There were so many words that he could have shared with the Ethereal Being, angry words that he would have shouted from the top of his lungs for having been maimed as he was; but in the end he could only say these few words.

”So...whatcha working on?”

by **Zell** October 24th 2013, 2:29 am

       Ouroboros stood there, dark undertones in his normally blonde hair, the left side of his face was masked by the hood he wore over his hydra skin suit. He stood in the center of a white platform. The Ethereal king was armed once more with Godbane, he looked upon the blade with the utmost repulsion. In truth, the only reason he was touching that damn thing was because in order to replicate the experience he needed to wield it.

      The “Experiment” itself was quite simple. There was a being of great deathly energy across the platform from him, Ouroboros was forced to take an ocular injection that made him see Sean, and then a unique type of neuro-shock treatment that forced his mind to stimulate raw emotion that he experienced when he was fighting Sean. The needle was Driven into his eye slowly and painfully, eventually with little more than a grunt, The needle would be pulled form the eyes and small streams of blood would flow from them like tears. Then the greater lighting runes lit and shot him in the head and heart. He fell to the ground, gasping for air. His face remained covered by the roguish hood bye his hand over his heart made it clear. The intense pain wracked his body like the bell of Big Ben, sending actual spasms and tremors through the Ethereal King. Suddenly to him everything was the same as it had been before. There was only one thing left. There needed to be a large blast of Death energy to fire off at him…and who better to than the guest they selected?

      The Lych stood across from Ouroboros, the exact same distance, the exact same stance. It was like someone had copy and pasted everything from a movie, except Ouroboros was wearing a hood and it was Lych across from him. Though there was a computer monitor from the technology labs set up to show them everything from the Ethereal Kings perspective. Lych looked like Sean, his brain patters were reacting that were typical, though there was less subconscious activity, and this was something that they could not replicate.

     The blade reappeared inside “Sean’s” hand and it happened exactly as it did earlier. Then Lych pointed to the roof and fired out a small beam of nether, causing tile to fall and debris. Ouroboros first thoughts were of self preservation and how to keep his eyes on the Titan before it could damage him any farther. Without hesitation, Lych pointed at Ouro and fired out a blast of deathly energy towards Ouro. The difference being that the Lych’s power was altered by runes on the ground and converted to feel just like Seans. In that moment, Scientists on the Technology end of things all looked stunned and fascinated, and began to whisper amongst themselves. Meanwhile the Occultists seemed to fixate on the flows and identities of the energies and any fluxuations. Ouroboros went to over out of the way, and he reacted short. More Scientists began to murmur as they made new observations, and the Occultists all looked gravely with eyes wide as Ouro began to jump to the side. Their faces made it quite clear that any flux in the energy of Ouroboros definitely should NOT be happening. Ouroboros lost his arm and fell over writhing as he had before and ending on his knees, defeated. Godsbane had done as it had before and made one final attempt at Lych, or “Sean” rather. The blast took of Lych’s bone arm, leaving it to drop onto the floor. Lych used his energy to form a pseudo-minion and sent it towards Ouro, showing off his own linguistic talents by saying “Come on, I don’t want to waste anymore time here.”  Sounding flawlessly like Sean, his skeletal jaw moving only slightly. He was reliving the memory as if on replay, Ouro did the shockwave and sent everything back with his ethereal force. As the shockwave came to the observers it crashed into an invisible wall. The Ethereal nanite command was executed, remarked by the scientists so that the occultists could keep track of energies better. With that, Lych’s bone arm began to regrow and he looked at it with an approving nod.

      ”That is enough.” Lych commanded, everyone just looked around and began taking notes. A few occultists went and met up with scientists. Many argued and squabbled, throwing across insulting terms, while others came to peaceful theories and more solid possibilities. Lych looked down at the new arm and gave an uncaring ‘meh’ before pulling it out and throwing it over his boney shoulder, picking up the one that had dropped to the ground by the blast and sticking it back in place. ”Those of you who aren’t incompetent gather on me. We’re going to discuss test number sixty eight.” Lych said with his creepy voice as he began to see occultists flock to him like moths to the flame.

      Ouroboros looked to his bloody reformed arm. His eye narrowed and he growled as he threw the fist into he ground with a sickening cracking in his hand. A few from all sides looked to the obviously angry Ouroboros. His left arm was tremoring as shattered splinters of bone began to puncture the skin and let blood flow.

      ”Goddamnit…why?” He was helpless. He was lost and confused, and of course couple that with the volatile fact that he had just caused Sean such pan and complication and he was a bottled up pressure heater. ”WHY!?” He roared as he drove the already broken arm into the ground once more, causing it to smash and deform, simply hanging from his shoulder like a drape. Godsbane flew to him and he severed the arm personally, his ethereal life support system bubbling around him to heal his arm back to it’s normal form.

      ”Well, sleeping beauty rises from his slumber.” Xarlessa said with a rather pleased tone as eh stepped up beside Sean in one of her more formal dresses. She looked to him with a genuine smile and then looked back to Ouro with genuine concern. ”I am sorry. I arrived too late. By time Zakaken’s news reached us that Atterrius had returned…I am sorry. It is more mine and Zakaken’s fault than it is the Kings.” She said.

       ”Are you alright?” Shael asked as he popped up next to Xarlessa,. Looking to Sean. Unlike his sibling, he wouldn’t gawk at the arm or look at it even, honestly he didn’t care and it creeped him out so he chose to avoid it, but he still managed to ask if his “Dad” was doing better.

      ”Shael, please tell Ouro that Sean is here.” Xarlessa told the child, and the child immediately up and went towards the barrier. Simply by placing his hand on the barrier, Shael proved how powerful his ability to absorb energy was, as the entire thing fell down, and the computers drained of their electricity. Shael turned and looked to the technology station that all looked with a groan at the powered off monitors.

      ”Occult rules!” He said in a “Big dog” sort of way with a deeper booming voice. He snickered and grinned huge as the scientists all glared at him.

      ”He’s done this every hour since he’s been back. He brought you back with Bastion and Zakaken…and he came here…doing this. He’s gone through this save event sixty eight times. Each time he’s done this he gets angry…” She explained. The painful experiment had occurred sixty eight times, and likely another sixty eight before Ouro would let his workers rest. Shael approached Ouro and the words Sean were mouthed. Ouro’s hood still obstructed view, but he turned and the left part of his face was all that could be seen. The eye was activated as it was when he fought Sean as Zell Atterrius, but the feel to it was more natural, not as strained, the eye was also a little different in color, and there were desert like cracks coming from it as scars, form where Ouroboros had torn at his skin. He turned and walked away, pulling down his hood as he walked up, looking at Sean with concern. Before Xarlessa left Sean to Ouro and the like she pointed up at the occult planning and magical construct idea for regenerating Sean’s lost arm. ”It’s funny…this is twice he almost accidentally killed his lover.” She said as she walked away towards Lych. Shael would then seek out Michael and tackle him, because he’s Shael and he friggin can.

      Ouro now stood before Sean, and waited for what he was dreading to hear…

by **Arcana** October 24th 2013, 3:30 am

One of the first things that he noticed was a dark energy within the room, something similar and annoying all at the same time. It was Nether and not one that he cared to be near, especially since they were a source of annoyance on his first visit to the Isles. Sean could never truly forget the energy of The Lych, and him being here meant that something big was going on in his occult lab. His left arm reached over and grabbed his right shoulder tentatively, Sean exhaling deeply as his silver pools scanned the room and he was caught rather unaware by one of the Ethereals. It was the female one that he remembered from that rather annoying meeting with the Ethereal jack ass brigade, but something about her was strange in comparison to the other; if only because she was bearable. ”Yeah, I’ve heard enough about what happens to you when you lay around too long in bed”If bed sores were truly a problem within this castle was unknown but it was mostly idle chatter more than anything else.

She would continue to apologize; perhaps diverting the blame from Ouroboros onto herself for not getting there in time, but that wouldn’t regrow his arm, so Sean found no point in it. Perhaps it was meant to soothe his damaged ego, but then again it would not help that either. Before Sean could note that he didn’t really care to fling blame about like a primate its dung, Shael appeared out of nowhere, and something about the young males appearance caused Sean to smirk lightly. ”Yeah I’m fine, still got my other arm, so it’s not a complete loss.”He said it with as much humor as possible within his current emotional state, but then again that was not much. Sean had wondered if Shael was his or another accident on the blonde’s part, but he would just pretend that the male was his, and save the annoyance. Besides, he found the young male charming more than anything, so he tolerated him and in most instances enjoyed him.

Before he could delve into any kind of small talk, Xarlessa asked the younger looking male to get Ouroboros for them, which meant everything would have to get all heavy soon. Sean sighed lightly, watching the male walk away towards the testing site where scientists and many others were doing what they did best. With a small show of his rather amazing power, Shael drained all of the energy from the barrier as well as the computers, which drew groans from the scientists; those poor fool. All of this punctuated by a rather loud statement that made Sean able to control himself, as he snicker lightly and smirked at the males antics. Well the lighter tone was obliterated as the female explained what was happening, and about how he was trying to fix something, or rather that was the undertone. Was he trying to find out the great secret as to why Sean’s arm refused to regrow, or was there something else to that? No matter what it was, Sean was sure it was something of importance.

His attention was directed towards what looked like the schematics for something important, probably something that would regenerate his arm without fail. With that done, and before taking her leave, she mentioned how he had almost killed two of his lovers, though either the prior was not dead, or he simply was not up to par on his English today. So now with Xarlessa gone to do whatever, and Shael likely going to goof around with Michael, that left him with Ouroboros pulling down that rather tacky looking hood. Sean noted what looked like strange scars going down the side of his face, and ones that he did not remember from when he was last conscious, and he had those same damn eyes that Atterrius had used, though they seemed more natural now.

”Don’t give me that look its pathetic. What? Are you expecting me to blame your for the stump, or berate you for not having thought up a proper counter measure for something like this? Well don’t bother waiting, no point in it. I could yell at you until I bleed from my throat and it would do me no good, so I just won’t. You seem to be beating yourself up for me.” He inclined an eyebrow, perhaps taking note of how Xarlessa said that whatever test he was doing had been done sixty eight times. He let the eyebrow drop, exhaling loudly. ”But if you want the truth, as stupid as it sounds, I don’t even blame you.” Fingers trailed along the white sleeve of his own shirt, feeling over the flesh of what remained of his arm before moving back up.

by **Zell** October 24th 2013, 9:15 pm

”Then whose fault is it? You’re missing an arm Sean. You’re missing an arm, and It’s because of me. Blame or not the facts are there. I hurt you, I did something I’d never though possible, and what’s worse is that I can-” Ouro said. His voice was a little more gruff than usual, maybe a little side effect of being shocked so many times. He quickly recalibrated his train of thought and finished the sentence. ”haven’t found the way to fix it yet. I can’t let this happen again, and with ever time I do this I’m getting more and more information in order to fix this mess…and prevent it from ever happening again.” Ouro snapped indirectly, his distain for himself showing at the moments as transparent as a cheerleader with daddy issues.

He looked down at Godsbane, his anger welling up in a surplus of rage. He wanted nothing more than to make a clone of himself and take out his rage on the identical creature. Wait…now that’s an idea….now THAT-IS-AN IDEA! Of course everything would need to be prepared for, and it would take time, though time was something he had plenty of. He looked back to Sean and sighed. Sean calling his look pathetic would have normally troubled him, though now it was another story.

”I only value one thing in this world….and I’m not going to lose it. Not without fighting.” Ouroboros said as he turned around, Lych had taken his position. Instead of Ouroboros getting shocked though, Lych flat out attacked him as the barrier turned up. Ouroboros defended, but nothing seemed to go as planned, for the second he rose his blade the Lych’s Scythe extended right for his arm. The arm was severed and Godsbane fired out as it descended. Lych used his won power to form a shield and blocked most of the ethereal damage, but the residual would ail him. Lych laughed as his own arm became irradiated and trapped the Ethereal energy.

”Bone…such a wonderfully inalienable and impressionable, yet durable substance.” He said with a wry smile. Ouro’s arm regrew as per usual., but Lych’s did not. ”As I suspected.” He said proudly as he picked up his arm and walked over to the occultists, the barrier lowering. Apparently Lych knew something that Ouro didn’t, which worried the Ethereal king slightly. Though it did not show. He looked back and he began to walk on for Sean, getting intercepted by Jordan. Ouroboros looked at Jordan with a slight smile of curiosity, to which Jordan pulled a hand form his pocket and handed Ouro a small black thing. Upon taking it into his own hand, he noticed that this black thing was in all actuality was an eye patch. Not just any eye patch either, it was made custom. Ouro recalled perfectly that it once belonged to the Dragon King Yam. It was Jordan’s only memento of his fallen father. Ouro accepted it and put it on, covering his left eye before he approached Sean. Jordan didn’t speak, he rarely did speak anymore. When he did speak, he was combative and snaky, it was an endless teenager stage. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about the patch, but it preformed it’s function well, though the patch did not cover a few small parts on the lower area of the eye, where scars were formed. True enough that he could easily fix the scars and it would look as if they had never been there, however he left it be for the principle of the matter. He returned to Sean and sighed as he stuck Godsbane in the ground, leaving it go from his grasps. His own will wasn’t even into the blade, causing a whining like beaconing to him, but like a master displeased with it’s pet, Ouroboros left it neglected.

”As I said…this is my fault. I don’t need you to affirm that, it simply is. It’s my mess, and I need to fix it.. But enough, are you…well…feeling well enough to be walking around like this?” Ouro would ask, concern under his guise.

by **Arcana** October 24th 2013, 10:22 pm

Something about that look upon the Ethereals face screamed pathetic, and it made the Ti’taen cringe slightly at the sight of it. Fault was irrelevant, and placing it on someone will not fix a damn thing, not now anyway. Sean flexed his hand, fingers curling into a fist as the muscles along the limb tightened. Still, something about how the sentence would have ended before he cut himself off amused Sean slightly, as he knew what was going to come next. It seemed that Sean had learned more about the being standing before him than he initially expected, and that was that he did not want to admit that there was something that he could not do. His acting in this manner was perhaps a new thing, or maybe his memory itself was failing him; it was one of the two anyway.

For a second his vision blurred, everything wavering like a haze but his limbs did not feel weak in the least. His heartbeat picked up for a second before calming down once again. Still none of this showed in his expression, except perhaps his eyes moving to the floor and pausing there for a second. He spoke of valuing only one thing within this world, though Sean did not have to do much guess work on what that was, unless his mind was becoming a little too self centric. Sean found himself caught within his own thoughts, and those turned upon the strange dream that he was going through less than an hour ago. It was one that he had never had before, but the people within it seemed so painfully familiar in some way. Running a few fingers through his hair, Sean watched the Ethereal being turn around and take a position, opposite of the Skeletal Lych.

He shivered lightly, eyes glowering at the machination of bone and Nether. In an instant they would start, or rather The Lych would start and that gave Ouroboros little time to react within that instance, when he moved to block, the scythe move to slice off his arm with one swift motion, severing through flesh and bone with an insane looking ease. Of course Godsbane would react with equal power, and even with the defense put up, the arm would find itself removed from the rest. He would laugh as his arm was served even, and something about that annoyed Sean, though it did not show. He acted as if he had discovered some great mystery and then approached the occultist with the arm as they would mutter amongst themselves, perhaps with some kind of theory that he was not sharing with the Ethereal King it would seem.

He would make his way back to Sean, when the dragon spawn would appear with what looked like an eye patch, making Sean cringe lightly. He remembered the patch of material well, and especially who it once belonged to. It was perhaps one of the only kills that Sean did not fully enjoy, though it was something that had to be done, even if his initial goal had not been achieved. Ouroboros used the small momento of the dragon king to cover his left eye, one that had bore strange scars around it, and one that drew up many questions. Were they self inflicted or something else entirely? He sunk Godsbane into the ground, and Sean could for a moment feel the keening coming from the blade, perhaps like a child that knew it had done something wrong, but would still cry for attention.

He could have said so many things upon hearing what he had said, so many things filled with so much spite. ”I’m fine.”He knew he wasn’t but there was no way that Sean would allow himself to be looked at like some kind of cripple, especially not by him. Sean inclined his head to the left, before jerking it harshly to the right as a loud popping issued from it, relieving some tension from his sore feeling neck.”I’m not weak or anything if that’s what you’re getting at.” He tried but his lips turned into a slight snarl at the word weak as if it were some vile curse.

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