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Post by Cap'n Failz on Nov 24, 2012 12:23:37 GMT -6
It felt like it had been decades....perhaps centuries or even millennia.
If he had been aware, it would have been little more than a few years, however. He had defied death many times before, forcibly ripping himself from its icy grasp with the sheer magnitude of his rage. But this last time....when he had killed Chakravaritin....that had been the end of it. Chakravaritin was the source of Mantra; without him, beings who were created of and relied on Mantra to live could not function. Asura should have stayed dead.
He should have drifted endlessly in Naraka, with only the barest minimum of awareness. He should have been in a peaceful sleep, his wife finally avenged, his daughter safe, and his wrath gone...
Then why was he slowly growing more aware of his surroundings? Why did he suddenly feel the icy grip of the underworld clawing at his skin? With a flash of terror, Asura's eyes flew open. He stared around wildly, unseeing for several seconds, and nearly losing his grip on the tower he was hanging from.
Regaining his senses, he shook off the stupor of reawakening from death. Without his wrath to guide him, his reawakening had been slow -- not as slow as his first, when all of his power had been stripped from him, but still very slow, all things considered, especially compared to his last revival, which had taken mere hours.
He scanned the dull, misty air of Naraka, searching for the one thing which he had always encountered while here in the past. But the Golden Spider was nowhere to be found. Praising at least this small bit of good fortune, Asura slowly began to climb the tower...
His climb beset him with memories and visions, things that had been lost to him without realizing it during his 'slumber', as well as....seemingly visions and vague memories of what was yet to come, or else what had happened where his body had fallen. They were enough to ignite a spark of anger in his heart. So much destruction and death....with so many causes....
The world was alien to him. It wasn't Gaea, that much he was certain of. But he couldn't tell with any clarity which world it was, not that he had any experience with other worlds. The more he thought about it, the more it gnawed at him and angered him. The spark of anger lit in his heart rapidly grew into a blaze, the red of his irises all at once blazing to life, his eyes becoming pure pools of glowing white. With a savage roar, he hurled himself up the tower with renewed vigor, practically sprinting up the vertical structure, stretching on into infinity...
The ground began to tremble.
The air grew heavy and oppressive.
Slowly, a building surge of energy of some sort could be felt. It ripped through the air for miles in all directions, making a literal beacon of itself.
All at once the ground began to upheave, cracking and splitting. Beams of red light lanced through the cracks in the earth, rapidly beginning to be scorched black. Without further warning, the ground was blasted up and out, virtually disintegrated by the raw power behind whatever was forcing its way up from beneath. A pillar of crimson and white energy shot straight up, a menacing tower of raw might that soared into the atmosphere above, shining like a star for a brief moment.
His body slow to respond, Asura slowly forced his limbs to move, drawing his legs up under himself. He clenched both hands into fists, so tightly his knuckles cracked and threatened to break. The pain from the act only brought a new spike in both adrenaline and rage. He brought himself to stand upright, his teeth clenched into a grimace of pain and frustration.
With a final effort, he threw off the stupor in mind and body, and with a savage roar, he threw back his head, arms spread wide, and announced his presence to the world. With his awakening, a second blast of raw energy speared through the heavens and into the stars beyond, his roar of awakening as loud as an explosion, and the staggering power released seeming to shake the entire planet to its core.
The surge of power dying down, Asura slumped over, staggering under his own weight and exhaustion. Climbing back to life from the bowels of Naraka was a fearsome task. Especially now, when the source of his power was technically gone and he was relying solely on his own power, it was more draining than it would have normally been.
He would adapt, in time, but for now...
He slowly hauled himself up and out of the massive crater he had blasted in the earth, standing on the rim of it and just staring blankly around.
"....where the hall am I?"
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Post by Sparda on Jan 10, 2013 16:30:34 GMT -6
Silence.
It was as if Genesis had deigned to answer the former deity's question with more confusion. A quiet breeze rolled across the dry plain; he appeared to have emerged in the midst of a rocky, flat desert. On his left, in the distance, there loomed a mighty city in the midst of the arid expanse, with a singularly gargantuan tower at its centre that emanated a pervasive and ancient energy. On his right, the desert slowly gave way to distant greenery.
And much closer, there walked a lone figure, clad in purple.
He had witnessed the towering pillars of energy on a journey to the great desert city in the distance, compelled to investigate by the awesome power he had felt therein. Asura would make out more details as the man approached; he stood tall, pale-skinned and white-haired, with a sword sheathed subtly at his left hip.
"...Hello? Do you need help?"
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Post by Cap'n Failz on Jan 10, 2013 16:42:53 GMT -6
He remained there, his breathing heavy, and his stare blank, looking from one side of the horizon to the other. Everywhere he looked, nothing was familiar. He had knew it wasn't Gaea before, somewhere in his heart, but had hoped he was wrong. Though now...staring at the desert about him, and not seeing -- or sensing, for that matter -- anything of any familiarity, he was forced to grudgingly accept the truth of the matter.
And he did just that, right up until he caught sight of the strange tower in the midst of the distant city. It ripped his attention violently toward it, and he stared long and hard at it, the strange energy pouring from it seeming strange and somehow sinister. It was old -- older, perhaps, than even Asura himself.
Wresting his attention from the strange tower, he shook his head, lowering his gaze to stare blankly at the ground, his breathing finally growing to something of a normal, calm tempo. He could only lift his head and stare dumbly at the figure that spoke up, as if he didn't understand the words. But it was more of him being simply struck dumb by what he saw and sensed.
There was something....strange about the man. He looked human. But he didn't feel human in the slightest. There was something very, very wrong about him. He was powerful -- very powerful, in truth -- but it was not any sort of power he recognized. It was not Mantra that fueled his power; it did not even seem divine in any form. It seemed....demonic? It almost reminded him of the Gohma, but it was more controlled, more concentrated and focused, not wild and chaotic, writhing and blindly destructive as the Gohma had been.
"I....I'm fine," he finally spoke up, answering the man's question. "Who.....are you? Where am I?" It was clear just from listening to him he was disoriented and greatly confused, and his mannerisms made it even more clear, with the way he almost seemed to have trouble simply standing.
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Post by Sparda on Jan 11, 2013 15:03:53 GMT -6
His confusion was quite clear, and not at all unexpected. Evidently, this powerful soul had been dragged here just now by the Downward Spiral's mysterious mechanisms.
"You're on the planet of Genesis," the white-haired man answered. "That tower in the distance has opened a myriad of universal rifts somehow. I myself was brought here by one such anomaly, and I've had to make this planet my home."
Sparda stepped forward towards the edge of the enormous crater. "My name is Sparda, and I'm travelling to the city of Kari. If you'd care to accompany me, I can explain the situation as best I can."
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Post by Cap'n Failz on Jan 11, 2013 16:06:22 GMT -6
Genesis...? He was far from a scholar or a man of any sort of learning and knowledge of t he stars and planets, but he had never heard of a planet called Genesis. It might have been among the countless stars and planets he had passed by on his flight to battle Chakravaritin, but...
The tower again caught his stare, and he fixed it with a glare of study so intense, it was a wonder the air didn't combust before his eyes. Opening rifts between the universes themselves...? That would explain the unfamiliar surroundings, as well as the lack of Mantra. That meant he was not only on a different planet, but a different universe altogether....which meant...
"Mithra...."
At his sides, his hands slowly clenched into fists with such intensity, the metallic armor over his arms seemed to groan in protest....before his hands went limp. It was pointless. He couldn't force his way back across universes, no matter how much power he had, and that tower seemed to be connected, so he would need to keep a cool head to think over how to use it to get back, if he even could.
He hauled himself completely out of the crater, onto the level ground beyond its rim. He seemed momentarily unsteady, but quickly shook it off. Already his strength was returning -- and quickly. Given a few hours, he'd be back in top form.
"My name is....Asura." He turned to regard Sparda, the glow of rage in his eyes somewhat dulled so that only the irises actually burned with white light, but the glow was just dim enough to allow the dark red of his natural eye color to be seen. It had been a long while indeed since he had been this calm. "And that....might be for the best."
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Post by Sparda on Jan 11, 2013 16:37:39 GMT -6
Sparda was subtly watching the flows of this Asura's aura. He was a being of truly enormous power, that much was patently clear; but the devil took particular interest in how, just as Asura tightly clenched his fists at the recollection of some brief and painful memory, his aura flared up dramatically, as if fueled by his anger and just adequately bridled. Best to stay on his good side.
With a faint, amicable smile, Sparda continued on his path.
"The situation here is grim," he began. "On top of demon invasions, warmongering neighbours and otherworldly plagues... The creations of one of this continent's old gods threaten to destroy all of existence using the Downward Spiral."
He gestured in the direction of the vast tower. "As I speak, the third of these creations, Eos, marches on Kari. She would use the tower to complete her task. I intend to help stop her."
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Post by Cap'n Failz on Jan 11, 2013 20:24:52 GMT -6
Pushing his misgivings aside, he trudged after Sparda as he continued on his way, listening with no small measure of curiosity. What he heard, however, did nothing to alleviate his foul mood. It only proved to make him all the more enraged. It was always gods that caused chaos! Wherever they went, chaos and death always followed...by their own hands, those of their followers, or those who would oppose them -- gods were never far from the source of any conflict.
Admittedly, his own dealings with certain gods had blinded him to the benevolence and good some gods could possess.
He again turned his attention to the towar as Sparda pointed it out. "....I will lend my strength to stopping her. I will not let her complete her task." The dull glow in his eyes had rekindled with an alarming ferocity, his eyes little more than pools of blank, glowing white in his smoldering rage. And already, the exhaustion and unsteadiness of his gait seemed to have faded, replaced with a strong, determined stride, growing stronger and recovering his flagging energy from the own inconceivable Mantra generation he was capable of.
"I might have no measure of involvement in this world's fate....but it does not deserve destruction." Again, his fists clenched tightly, and his expression was iron-hard and set in a mask that bespoke an undefinable determination. "If this....Eos succeeds....then everything will be destroyed. Even my world....Mithra...and every other innocent life...."
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