Where angels fear to tread [Nekro]

Rumors were something that a creature like Michael Atterrius fed off of, even after everything that he had been through. His adventures through the many realms had left him changed, and yet he was not done, the secrets to defeating Raziel were still out there. Where he found the great rumor wheel turning him now was Hong Kong, far from his usual haunting spot, but it was enough of a scoop to be worth checking out, and something within Michael wanted to check it out. The male who had gone by many names, including Hyperion was looking over the building where he was expecting to find something, though to say that it was a building would have been a massive understatement. His void armor was formed, replacing the now usual seeming biker attire, climbing up to his neck and kissing at his jawline, where one could see the white line of a scar scrawling up from there.

Even from his lofty position, Micheal was what one would call unseen, hiding within the shadows and using them to his advantage, kneeling down and resting a hand upon his knee. Strange colored eyes would fall upon the police that were arrayed before the building, narrowing slightly as he attempted to get a better view of them and seeing mostly nothing. It seemed that mostly the humans were pandering before the building, likely there for some reason but even with his information networks there was almost nothing that he could find out about this damn place. Still, Mike was more than aware of what he was supposed to be doing, and so that was what he would do. He would investigate the site and then with that done, he would move on.

”Now, lets get this little....mission started.” he muttered and within an instant he was gone, leaving only a small cloud of grey mist that was taken with the wind. With9in a few seconds he was standing on an open window sill, slipping in before anyone would really be able to notice him. It was dark, yet that was when his void armor proved its worth, enhancing his eyes by circulating the ethereal energy within him, and allowing his eyes a greater vision. It was within this darkness that he noticed something, a trail of blood that lead from a ripped bed that would move to a door. Michael followed that trail, his footfalls causing the floors to creak lowly. Through the door he would be lead into what appeared to be a mangled corpse, human but their lower half had been removed, and then thrown down the narrow hallway.

”Interesting.” Michael muttered in ethersong, a low smirk forming upon his lips. It seemed that he was dealinng with something interesting, but what that something was he had yet to see.

Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong

The city of Hong Kong ranks among the world’s cities with the highest population densities, with more and more people being crammed into giant concrete boxes called subsidized housing. Little wonder that when things go wrong here, things go very wrong.

A short walk away from the posh and clean tourism districts of Kowloon, one can immediately find the crowded backstreets of Hong Kong. Delivery bikes and bicycles carrying all manner of foods and goods navigate through a veritable sea of bodies of all kinds. Small, three table eateries are squeezed together with tailors, bakeries, hardware stores and many more, with most of their stocks piled up right outside. The smell of bodies and Cantonese food mixes into some dizzying kind of scent in the air. CCTV and police outposts maintain order, but one particular apartment was especially crowded today.

Hong Kong Police Investigators had cordoned off one rather ‘old’ 30 storey apartment bloc with a staggering 300 apartment units. Chinese news crews were reporting the incident, but the Police were being extremely tight lipped. People and reporters were especially wary when local Metahuman Response was present, the heavily armed and armoured police officers alone already making the place a hotbed of rumors. Heavy armor, combat shields, big guns and sophisticated detection equipment were present, while a trio of Buddhist monks knelt down nearby to pray. In moments, one of them quickly passed out and began weeping black tears. This made the evening news.

Soon enough, a forensics team had arrived and was ushered in. The ground floor shops were razed and several bodies laid dead. All the lights were also destroyed, necessitating crews to bring in high powered lamps. While CSI was on the case, one of the investigators slowly left the main area and headed for the more quiet lower levels...

Her Hong Kong Police uniform slowly shifted into a form fitting black armor, and Diana was soon in her new, leather outfit which fit her so perfectly it couldn’t have been normal clothing. More bodies lingered in corridors and hallways barely two feet wide, trying to reach the exits or hiding places, but she knew that what she was looking for allowed no quarry to escape. She knelt down to inspect one unfortunately dead aging woman in kitchen attire, rigor mortis setting into her hand still clutching a wooden knife handle. She was hideously mauled with massive claws for her trouble of resisting. Her entrails were eaten. Her eyes remained open in horror. Diana wondered what the old lady saw, though her expression remained unfazed.

The faint scraping of claws on concrete put Diana on high alert, but her eyes saw nothing... Her hands went to her throwing daggers, these cramped corridors no place for her long swords. She began a tense search for the killer in the dark, who was still inside the building.

Michael knelt down within the limited space of the hallway, examining the desiccated body that was once a male of around thirty, face twisted in horror, and painful looking claw marks raking down the left half. It was this half that was caked with blood, as well as something else, a black substance that was oozing from the wound even as the blood had stopped. Whatever he was dealing with, it was deadly and likely employed some manner of poison defense, but then again this might have also been something else entirely. It was within this examination that he began to indulge his Titan heritage some, drawing upon the radiant nether within the air and letting it flow into himself, causing a small amount of glowing purple runes to glow about his face, and pronouncing a few scars about his face even more.

His eyes would become ringed with a similar glow, radiating within the dark and perhaps only adding to the otherworldly appearance of the male. ”I wonder what tore you apart, sad little human.” Michael muttered still within ethersong, the tone lilting as it moved through the hallway almost mythically. One could tell that he was done examining the corpse, Mike would stand to his full height of 5'5 again, giving the body a soft kick that would send it rolling over. Blood would ooze from the ruined mid section, as intestines much like macabre sausage would release itself further from his torso, leaving the ethereal with a disgusted face.

”Disgusting human.” He muttered in english stepping over the mess that the corpse had made, making sure that not even his blood red armor was stained by the disgusting dark red liquid. What he was looking for did not appear to be in this section of the building, though it was possible that what he was looking for was not even in the building at all. Close to where he was walking was a staircase of some manner, though it appeared just as cramped as the hallway that he was walking through. Something dark was moving through this place, and it was likely finding this that he would be able to come upon what he was looking for.

UPPER APARTMENTS

Walking down the narrow corridors, the cramped lobbies, the minimal exits, Michael could see whatever did all this had a morbidly easy time. The doors to each apartment were small, and the people were crammed into what were nothing more than large closets called studio and family occupancy apartments. People were being served up to some man eating monster one cramped apartment at a time, some of them likely having relied solely on a flimsy lock and a hollow door for security. There wasn’t much to do in each apartment but wait for death, as their entire lives were in these incredibly small spaces. Floor to ceiling were boxes labelled with day to day items, the bed doubling as storage.

Some were died in their underwear, holding instant cup noodles and chopsticks. Others tried to run, but it took only a hallway filled with garbage bags to cut off any escape.

And then there were the pitter patter sounds, the stalking footsteps of predator or predators prowling the building. Even when it was daytime outside, the interior of the apartment was unnaturally dark, and it didn’t help that the perpetrators destroyed the lights.

More ambient sounds surrounded Michael. Some were mechanical in nature, the building’s utilities performing their functions, or suddenly grinding to a halt; some were terrified voices drowned out by a quick death, and then... silence. Michael had come into a place where dark things played cat and mouse with anything that was not of the darkness. In his peripheral vision, a night black... thing... quickly slid out of his view, just enough to tell him, to tease him... he was now prey.

BASEMENT LEVEL 1

Diana walked down corridors slowly, cautiously, facing a similar predicament. She dashed between blind spot to corners, her deadly daggers in hand. Where she saw movement she was eager to release her projectile, but knew also that to do so was to open herself to attack for a split second. She almost cursed this darkness, this palpable sense of the unseen and the unknown, expanding the tight confines of this apartment to meandering and unpredictable size.

Movement caught her eye and in a flash of sinister steel, the throwing dagger was embedded in the neck of a corpse of a long dead bespectacled office worker. His color and his smell indicated he was killed mere minutes ago. “...I see your game.” She muttered. She moved on, finding it prudent to take to the nearest stairway and head to the more open ground floor, as the living things in the shadow seemed to come towards her from unexpected angles.

The darkness held no secrets, there was nothing that could escape Michael's eyes as they were and nothing that could escape senses honed to their limits, enough to that they would serve well within such a dimly environment. He may have been within the darkness, but Michael had experiences greater fear, he had met beasts that preyed upon even beings as powerful as the Titans, and even dared to go after one such as an ethereal. His examination of this location was a simple one however, the monster was preying upon the humans, devouring them and the close quarters were enough. It was more like opening a can of tuna and plucking the fish out, rather than hunting. There was no real sport, trying to devour something that was as weak as humanity, especially within such close spaces, it was too easy but he would not complain. The nether flowing from the dead was feeding something ancient within him.

His sense of hearing would snap to something, the sound of pitter pattering that could be heard, moving just out of his sight and thriving within the darkness, glowing Titan runes radiating with their own luminescence within the darkness. It was ominous, growing brighter the more that people died, and fueling him ever so lightly, giving Michael the power that he needed. His muscles were tense, filled with the power of death that part of him ran off of. It seemed that the hunter was only strengthening the prey, or what it had perceived as the prey. ”Now where are you?” He muttered in ethersong, drawing a clawed finger along the wall slowly, creating a sound that would play along the wall. Slowly he would begin to descend, looking for what he was looking for, coming upon body after body.

To those steeped in the occult, the building reeked of extra-planar space by now, to some dark and foreboding place where there was hunger and darkness. The building groaned as another tear in reality opened on the middle floors.

Even as the building reeled from being slowly distorted in space time, the beasts continued their hunt. Given their behaviour and the environment, the killers could be almost relied upon to strike from behind. Perfectly silent, borne of this darkness, with only their malicious intent to give them away the first one tried its luck with Michael, following the otherworldly sound he made. Its hunting mate moved down the corridor into Michael’s view. Its body was darker than black, almost painful to see, but its malevolent yellow eyes made eye contact with him. Once his gaze was held, his attention caught by a low growl and a show of vicious teeth, then the first beast would strike, those wicked claws going for eyes and collar while its teeth went for the jugular. Then the second one would move in to secure the kill.

Shadow Beast Occ 1 Str 6 Spd 6 Dur 6 Abi 3 Fs 7

Diana found herself going from a brisk walk to a sprint now as she realized she was being cornered by a larger number of these fiends. She sensed the rifts in this place, and decided to turn back when she concluded she walked into a nest. Avoiding the fiends due to being unable to put a number to her enemies, she eventually reached an air well, a gap in the building to allow air circulation. Luckily there were many ledges, clothes lines and air conditioning units from which she could ascend slowly, as the monsters amassed below her and slowly began to climb as well.

She attempts to discourage them with her throwing daggers... which actually encouraged them to go full sprint up the walls.
Diana doubled her pace, her armor manifesting itself like creeping scales overlapping, granting her the strength to perform high leaps, while using her gymnastics to right herself. Once she could no longer outrun them, she smashes through a window... and came face to face with Michael’s second hunter in a narrow corridor.

Michael could sense it, tears within the very fabric of reality that were likely realising more of the horrors, beings that likely wished to taste of the ethereal. The strange silver eyes, flecked with neon green would look on ahead, lips pursed as he made sure that his senses were at the pinnacle of awareness, so that not even a sound out of place would go unnoticed. Within the darkness he barely caught sight of what appeared to be a shape, black and predatory, slinking along the ground and through the small hallway. It was impressive, the slim creature that seemed to tear move through such confined spaces with little trouble. The only thing that made it visible within the darkness really was the glowing golden eyes, the opposite of Michael's eyes almost, like a demon standing before the angel. He was not an angel, true but the comparison was apt enough to apply however.

Viscous white teeth would flash within the darkness, and within an instant it was moving through the confined spaces, moving at a speed that normally would go unreadable. Yet everything seemed to slow down to Michael, beast moving at speeds that one would consider a crawl. The positioning of the claws, and teeth showed where it was aiming to attack and how he would have to move to counter it, his mind moving at speeds that one would call impossible. It was within that moment that his lips curled into a smirk, as Michael would not move a muscle, the beasts claws meeting with the armor, and within that instant it would give way to a grey mist. The thing would likely fly through the male, slamming into the one that lurked behind Michael. The mist would glide forward a few feet before coalescing and forming into a humanoid form.

Back within a corporeal form, Michael would spin upon his heel, turning towards the monsters and sigh, as he took a combat stance. "Interesting, so they use tactics." Michael muttered considering his surroundings and growling to himself, his blades useless within such confined spaces. Within his right hand appeared a pistol, white in color with golden designs, quickly aimed at the two monsters that had attempted to kill him, and with a pull of the trigger, pure ethereal would rush from its barrel. Two shots in the form of small bursts aimed to take off their heads.

The creatures moved fast, but more importantly this darkness seemed to protect them. As the eldritch energies gushed from the occult firearm, it almost seemed to connect; almost. The creatures moved out of the way, perhaps being grazed, perhaps killed, but what was important was that they tried to not let Michael know.

Diana momentarily looked back behind her and realized the monsters were holding back. They were just smart enough it seems to see if these two would fight each other.

“That’s a nice gun. So... you’re not with them?” She asked, smirking. The last thing she needed was fighting some kind of dark angel packing heat, while surrounded by man eating shadow beasts.

She twirled her rune coated knives in hand, the weapons as useful in melee as when thrown, especially in these narrow corridors which would make wielding the Blood Sword on her back difficult. Her body was poised to move like a hunting cat, to defend herself if need be. Her boots audibly crunched the broken glass at her feet, muscles tensing in her arcano-organic armor.

The burst of energy would release a temporarily bright light within the hallway, bright green and seafoam blue in color as it illuminated Michael's slightly pale face, and reeling a few white lines in the form of scars upon his face. His eyes however were from the beast as soon as he released the burst of deadly energy, boring through the wooden floor, leaving small scorch marks within it. How far the attack went was not of his concern, as he was more interested in the strange female that had appeared upon the scene. Michael once again considered the surroundings, and maybe moving to a place where he was more likely to be able to properly fight.

”Not with them? No, I don't think I would ally with monsters trying to devour me.” Michael noted twirling the weapon upon his index finger, yet keeping all of his senses on the building around him, considering perhaps bringing out Imperium, or maybe even The Black Blade Misanthropy. ”So, what exactly do you think we're dealing with?” Michael asked lowly, holding his weapon carefully and preparing for the next attack.

“Something that’s not supposed to be here, that’s what. They probably had help from this side...” Diana conjectured, her occult knowledge surprising even herself. She eased a little, seeing Michael could be reasoned with at length. Her ever present and sometimes invisible spirit guide Looked to where the beasts would come, but they were not coming. They waited and watched.  “And now they’re here... probably waiting for us to finish each other to fight, and then pick off the survivor. I don’t mind a scrap every now and then, but they fight dirty.”

Seeing that the two newcomers were not going to go for it, the beasts begin their attack, coming in low to the ground or clinging to the ceiling. “...Looks like they’re done waiting!” Diana exclaimed her spirit guide kind enough to warn her.
The melee begun in the confined space, and there were much fewer moves to be had. Still, she proved small framed enough to slide and weave under vicious claws that carved through the drywall, leaving the slight glint of steel embedded in their faces and necks.

Diana revelled in her bloodlust, the feel of flesh being carved by her blades, their black blood spilling onto the floors.  Otherworldly screams of pain drawing the attention of their kind, and filled the warrior's ears like music. Diana’s ample supply of enchanted daggers helped her, as she carved through her attackers and leaving steel in their bodies, but slowly being forced back by their ferocity and number. She and Michael were, of course, trapped- cornered right where the beasts wanted them.

Help from this side? Likey some cocky humans that had gotten ahead of themselves, and ended up releasing something that was far beyond their understanding, as many young mages did if his understanding was correct. However that was just an assumption, as this could have also been the work of a skilled mage and the death was all part of their plan. Still, he was dealing with their mess and that was more than enough of a reason that Michael could be annoyed, even though he had no real other reason to be annoyed than that. The monsters had seemed to be waiting to attack, as if expecting them to do something, and yet that something did not come.”They expect us to fight each other? I think they don't know how this works then.” Michael noted, lifting the ethereal pistol into the air, as if preparing for its use once again.

Upon the females proclaiming it, the beasts would begin to close upon the two youths that were within their own domain. It only took that  to get the ethereal ready for the battle that was about to begin, quickly aiming the pistol at the head of one of the things, and releasing a round from his weapon, letting it take the form of a bullet. While blasts were the preferred method of attack, somethings smaller and more contained bursts would serve their purpose, and it was now that they did. He did not need to destroy the building, only the brains and internal organs of the damn things that were attacking them, yet he was unsure if that would really kill them, much like damaging his insides would not do too much to him. His body began to move upon its own, releasing the rounds one by one into the beings that were rushing them, hoping to stem the tide of the monsters and only finding himself being pushed back.

THE SHADOW REALM
“This place is getting crowded!” Diana growled, driving a knife through a claw forcefully and pinning it to the wall, then driving another through the relatively soft neck. Even someone of Diana’s skill could not hope to fight at full capacity in these crowded corridors, and soon enough the endless number of claws pierce through her defenses and cut into her flesh.

Michael likely drew as much attention with his gun. The beasts showed frightful tenacity, having several more seconds of ferocious life even when most of their insides gone, like wild beasts avenging themselves. Claws and fang ferociously plunge into him, and for each beast that went down, two more was waiting to take a bite out of him.

“I think it’s time to leave!” Diana throws a shadow beast through the window, practicing discretion and fleeing the battle, falling through an unexpected mist and darkness, landing in the... quiet, empty streets of Hong Kong below.

Diana looked around and took in this... shadowy, grey landscape. It was Hong Kong, and yet, it wasn’t. The streets winded and widened randomly, and the buildings extended much, much higher into obscure shadowy forms. Visibility also faded beyond sixty feet. “I don’t think I’m in Hong Kong anymore...” Diana muttered, seeing the apartment building behind her, a writhing, living mass of shadows, the black skies filled with flying shades converging on this nest.

”no kidding!” Michael growled as a claw raked across his cheek, drawing some of the dark blood as Michael destroyed the head of the creature that had damaged his face, leaving bleeding red lines along it under his left eye. It seemed that for every one he destroyed, two more would crawl from the primordial darkness from which they came, ready to tear the Ethereal and the vampiric sword wielder, only to be blown away and to bring more with them.

His gun was attracting all sorts of wrong attention, leading to more and more of the bastards coming, as if he were ringing a dinner bell. It did not take a genius to figure out that Michael would need to either get to a more wide open area, or that he would need to get the hell out of here. Luckily the claws would only scrape against the void armor, leaving him not needing to use its capabilities yet. Even if the impacts were likely enough to leave him with some painful bruises, ones that he could work around.

The question within his mind was how he would get the hell of out here, angling the weapon within the mouth of one of the beasts upwards, and destroying its skull in  a spray of brain matter, blood and skull fragments. Some of the vile blood would grace his face, leaving a few black spattered droplets. His mind would snap to an idea, body shifting suddenly and then he threw himself through the nearest wall, building material giving way to superhuman strength as if it were not there, allowing him to break through and plummet towards the ground. As he broke through the wall, what rushed to meet him was darkness and mist.

Michael would land upon his feet in a world unfamiliar to him, keeping the gun in his hand for a moment before dismissing it as an energy would begin to radiate from his armor, slowly causing the wounds across his face to close up, yet it would leave  a small line under his left eye. Michael had a habit of doing this lately, leaving small scars as reminders of what he was willing to do, for his family and perhaps just to kill one person. Still, even with his body in near perfect shape, he still felt the slight fatigue of using his energy to heal himself. ”No, I don't think we are.” Michael noted the purple ruens along his flesh glowing brightly.

”And I don't like this at all.” He muttered with a frown watching the shadows converge upon the apartment. ”The question I have now is....where are we?” Michael posed out loud as a a blade would appear within his hand with screeches like the chorus of tortured souls of hell. Misanthropy would appear within Michael's left hand, a blade feeling more comfortable within this instance. While guns were Michael's preferred weapon, something about a blade was personal and this was a personal matter. So the blade was how he would deal with it.

“It’s not a land of rainbows, lollipops and robot unicorns that’s for sure.” Diana said, looking around then down, seeing a shadow centipede trying to crawl up her leg. She kicks it Michael’s way, more a nuisance than a threat. The place was something out of a lovecraftian story, so many ominous presences around, so many eyes watching Diana.  

“...Well, at least those things don’t seem interested in us anymore. But Hong Kong is going to have a bad day with all these things coming through.” She remarked, observing all the shades flying in towards the apartment’s roof. The building itself was starting to become abominable, the ground around it sprouting tentacles, eyes, pustules and other wonderful hardscapes. “...Not my problem.” She added, maliciously. She eyed Michael's weapon, but seeing how he fought today, decided to play it smart and keep quiet for now.

“Well... I’m not keen on staying here anyway. I’m going to try and go back and-” Diana turned around and started walking back to the apartment seeing her spirit guide as usual, walking without pause as she always has. But this time, she was completely surprised when she walked into a solid Ancient Warrior, falling over dumbfounded.

“What the... you’re not a ghost anymore?!” Diana rubbed her bum when she fell down onto the strange, hard ground. She really did not see that one coming.

“Diana, I sense the work of mortal magic here.” Straight to the point and always having power on her mind, the ancient warrior spoke in her very Nubian accent, unaccustomed to speaking the modern tongues. “It will be a useful addition to our arsenal. Be it a man... or a tool.”

“That person I came with has a really nice gun... and is holding a pretty cool sword.” Diana suggested, referring to Michael’s ether blaster, letting him hear her implied habit of weapon collection. The Ancient Warrior shook her head in disapproval. “I... We... do not use those things. Those guns.” The Ancient Warrior also eyed Michael's sword and said nothing. She would like to see what it does first.

“You’d be surprised how useful they are.” Diana retorted, helping herself up. But, despite her objection, she listened. “I’ve never been one to turn down a quick shopping trip though. Which way?” She asked. The Warrior pointed down a way, and dust kicked up in a meandering but discernible path. Diana came closer to it, and picked up the scent of a lone human, in this inhuman place.

“...You can go ahead and go back if you want, mister overcompensating with a gun. Try not to get eaten.” Diana said, leaving Michael to his own devices. She returned her daggers to their holding place, and brings out her Blood Sword, following the barely visible human tracks by scent.

The Black Blade Misanthropy seemed to purr almost, as Michael took in a deep breath of the dark air of the realm. As the blade’s very nature seemed to suggest, it enjoyed the darkness that enrapt the realm, a blade of true darkness and evil this one was, and something that felt right within Michel's hand. The reverberating feeling that ran through Misanthropy would reach Michael and draw a subdued smile upon his lips, the dark ethereal within him beginning to rise up some. It desired to spill blood, and he would not deny it now.

His attention did not even turn to the strange centipede kicked in his direction, as one armored foot would rise and come down to squish it with seemingly little effort. Black squished innards would accompany a sickening sound as the thing would wriggle for a moment, before going still. ”Not my problem either, only Raziel is my concern.” He muttered letting his lips return to a neutral line, feeling how close he was to slaying the self styled god. He would be rid of the pest, and perhaps atleast save his family some trouble in the long run, or what remained of it.

A strange accent grasped the males attention as a female seemed to have appeared from nowhere, strange in appearance and with an accent to boot. Yet what she spoke was English, so he would allow his attention to fall upon that conversation. They spoke about his gun, as well as The Black Blade, as if she was planning to steal it. That thought alone caused the ethereal male to scoff silently to himself, letting the tip of his blade trace along the ground slowly, Gemini tip cutting the ground slowly. While the earth beneath his feet seemed to be hard, it was much like butter to the weapon that drew along it.

In the end however the girl ended up on her way somewhere, and while Michael had no need to follow her, he was going to do so anyway. ”Overcompensating with a gun?” Michael asked with a raised brow, following after the female only around ten steps behind.