Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2018 22:38:18 GMT -5
It had all happened so fast, but it had happened nonetheless. Amatricina had slain her prodigal son, carving out his heart with her right hand and crushing his throat with her left. The Frost Demon she had grown to think of as an ally, a friend, a son, was dead by her hand. In that moment she had felt only Wrath, she was rage incarnate and the fires within her roared forth in a way they had not since her beloved mother had departed from the realm of the living some long centuries ago. The last time Amatricina had felt this way, oceans of blood were spilled. The death of Lady Bonara had been renewed, unbound violence from the Fire Demon Clan. The loss of their matriarchal ruler had enraged the demons of Amatricina's clan to new heights of carnage and destruction. They had scoured entire worlds of life in their grief. The aching mourning of an entire clan brought to bare in a terrible inferno of loss. A violent maelstrom hurtled at their enemies in a crusade of bloodshed their rivals needed centuries to recover from.
But now, on this day, the only one to mourn was Amatricina. No others shed a tear for the slain Frost Demon, this pain was hers alone to bare. As the battle between the Mark I and Kamui had come to its violent, emotional conclusion Amatricina had cleaved open a Dimensional Rift in time and space itself. It was easy in her ascended form, her Darkness Demon state made the act as easy as her claws peeling through flesh. The Demon Lord, clutching the broken body of her slain child in her arms leapt through her rift, spirited towards her destination. The portal had taken her to the one place befitting of such a moment. Kabocha, it was to end where it began. Amatricina emerged high in the skies above the planet, though the mighty Kabochan Confederacy fleet had left for the Galactic Peace Accords, with it it had taken the warships of the Crusher Corps, and Kamui's own vessel the Dread Spectre. The demoness could tell the slain warrior's crew of his demise later, it was the least she owed them. Now though, now was a time for grief.
Amatricina's gaze briefly cast its way skywards, the might of the Omnipotence had left this world. With it, Carambolis was sure to be gone. The Emperor's eyes were not upon his home world, there was no being present to stop Amatricina from what she must do. Good, woe to any who dared cross the demon's wrath at this hour. Still in her Darkness Demon form, the Demon Lord's energy surged forth in a violent ruinous aura that could be felt across the planet. It was pure malevolence, the every sin of Amatricina made manifest in a brilliant onyx display of raw power. Amatricina looked down below her, to the gnarled branches beneath. The Husk of Might, the petrified remains of the once grand Tree of Might that dominated this world. Now little more than a corpse, just like Kamui, who's broken body lay in her arms. Amatricina took off like a meteor flying down towards the Husk of Might, the sound barrier breaking a hundred times upon itself in a deafening display of speed. She landed upon its wooded surface with enough force to send tremors ripping through the continent. She was a force of nature in her grief, all of Kabocha would mourn alongside her whether they wished it or not.
The demoness moved in slow, purposeful steps. Every moment a calculated effort as she walked along the great barren branches of the Husk. Clutching Kamui's now cold body in her arms. The demonic energies that had sustained him in life, Amatricina's very energies, poured from his flesh as the demonic seals holding his body together failed. The Demon Lord's aura drank in these radiant energies, absorbing them back into their place of origin. It was a small recompense for what she was feeling, and it did nothing to stem the tide of the demon's grief. Amatricina's gaze was narrowed on the sight before her. Hallowed out of the central trunk of the Husk of Might was a small room, barely ten feet in diameter and just as tall. It had been seared out of the Husk by her hand, some months ago. Inside the room was inscribed with hundreds of demonic runes and sigils, incantations and blessing of power and strength. Meant to bestow ever more might into her creation, her child, no amount of magic had saved Kamui from the fate he brought himself. His pride had been overtaken by hubris, his overconfidence in his own demonically enhanced abilities had cost him his life at the hands of his own creator. Now she must bury her folly, her great shame, in the way only a Fire Demon can.
Within the Fire Demon Clan there was an edict, ancient as it was revered. It simply stated "Die Standing." Two words, no greater meaning for her clan. To die standing meant for a warrior to die gloriously, nobly in battle. Refusing to run or even surrender in the face of their hated foe. Refusing to kneel, to turn their back and flee, to grimly accept their dies with fire in their heart and vengeance in their eyes. It was how any Fire Demon should die in battle, if they could not emerge victorious then at least have the dignity to die in a defiant blaze of glory. Kamui had done this, never backing down to the Mark I, even as it became clearer and clearer he was outmatched and could not win. He had not cried out for Amatricina's help, he had not begged Mark I for mercy. He had fought on his own, foolish terms. And for his failure he had died, but died with his honor intact. He had earned a warrior's burial.
Amatricina stepped into the ashen room, still charred from the ritual she had done to infuse Kamui with her demonic power. It had restored his body to full, casting off his cybernetic enhancements and liberating him from their burden. The demon sighed, it felt like a lifetime ago, even for one as long lived as her. She looked down at the small pool where she had laid the cyborg Kamui's ravaged body, there was no Sap of Might to mend him this time. The demoness slowly fell to her knees, placing Kamui's lifeless corpse in the same place she had restored it to full splendor. Like a macabre inversion of her previous ritual. Her heart was heavy with sorrow as Amatricina looked down upon her slain creation, her beloved chimera. She let out a long sigh, mentally steeling herself to the grim task at hand. With that task done Amatricina turned to leave the small room, raising a hand the seals she had seared on the walls once more illuminated with fiery arcane light. A last display of a foolhardy ritual, a final reminder of her folly. As if the spells woven into the very walls could offer up any power to the dead.
The demoness stepped outside, back onto the great branches of the long dead Tree of Might. The sky was a brilliant blue overhead, the sun shining brightly down on her face. She would soon change that. The skies of Kabocha would grieve, as she did. With one last look back at the ritual site, now Kamui’s tomb, Amatricina summoned her ki and flew off high into the skies ahead. She did not care what Carambolis thought of what would come next. Amatricina would deal with the Emperor when that time came. Kamui had died as any proud Fire Demon could only hope to. He had died standing, nobly in battle against a worthy foe. It was how all her kind should perish if they must do so on the battlefield. No retreat, no surrender, victory or death.
Kamui may have been no Fire Demon, but he had earned a Fire Demon’s burial. His bones would not sully the dirt, his flesh would not rot in the sun for the carrion feeders. No, he would be cremated, returned as ash and cinder to the fires of life. There was only one place so fitting a funeral pyre as where it all began. Amatricina gazed down at billions of tons of dried, ashen, kindling. The Husk of Might would burn this day, by her hand.
“From the flames we were born, and to the flame we return!” The Darkness Demon roared, raising her hands over her head as she gathered infernal energy at her palms. Amatricina threw her head forward, expelling a massive blast of fiery breath that washed over everything before her in an roaring inferno. Her Evil Flame technique, pure undiluted hellfire of the most potent variety. The malevolent flames washed over the Tree of Might’s dried trunk. Branches and what few crinkled leaves remained igniting instantly. The trunk smoldered, but soon enough it too was ablaze. Amatricina flexed her fingers wide, pointing her palms at the roots and firing two more jets of hellfire from her palms. All three streams washing over the Husk of Might as a massive black plume of smoke began to fill the skies.
The burning of the Tree of Might was no simple task, the deceased flora was the size of a landmass, it stuck up from the very planet like a growth as it jutted to the edge of space. Amatricina bathed every inch of it in flame, the act was therapeutic to her grief. Just her, the open skies, the husk, and the roaring flames. Already the atmosphere above Kabocha was being afflicted by such a cataclysmic fire. It filled the skies with soot and ash, darkening the sun as smoke plumes plotted out the sky. It would take days before the blanket of ash began to thin, weeks before it dissipated fully, and months before the weather patterns had once more fully normalized. Amatricina did not care, she did not care for any of it. She just wanted to watch it burn. It was her most primal, instinctive purpose. To burn…
When at long last the Husk of Might was fully burning, Amatricina allowed herself a moment to admire her funeral pyre. Huge skyscraper sized branches of the tree snapping like twigs as they gave out from the flames. Crashing the ground, leveling whole forests of normal trees that grew like grasses among the roots of the god-like plant. The smoke cloud could be seen across nine tenths of the planet’s surface, guided eastward by the prevailing winds. The very air temperature had risen dozens of degrees from the heat, killing lesser plants and forcing people and animals alike fleeing for shelter in a hundred miles wide radius around the base of the trunk. Good, let them know the suffering of grief, Amatricina thought as she sensed their panic, their fear.
The Demon Lord flew down to the central trunk of the tree once more, landing not far from her ritual site. Everything was engulfed in flames, hundreds of feet high. They did not phase Amatricina in the least as she summoned her own Demonic Barrier to shield her from her magic flames. Her ruby eyes were locked somberly on the tomb as she slowly walked towards it. Already the demoness could see within, past the fire and the smoke to the burning corpse within. Already Kamui’s skin was completely gone, his bio-armor gems twinkling like jewels in the fell light. Amatricina raised a hand, lifting the slain warrior’s skull to drift within the safety of her barrier’s energy.
The bone was black, both from being charred but also from the Dark Energy that had once sustained it. Amatricina dropped the skull into her waiting hands. One holding it aloft, the other slowly running over its surface. The demon allowed herself to grieve openly here, where no damnable mortal eyes could see her. Her hand slowly petting along the skull’s length as she gazed down at it mournfully. When Amatricina opened her mouth to speak, she sounded on the brink of tears. The words stung in her throat, and her hands trembled slightly. The normally proud demoness fell to her knees, chest heaving as she spoke.
“Kamui… my dear sweet Kamui. You damned fool, you ignorant, stupid, bull headed child.” She clenched her fist, then relaxed when she admitted the uselessly of such anger now. “My greatest creation in this pitiful mortal realm. My prodigal son, my darling chimera. An avatar of my demonic strength, testament to my ability. You learned nothing from me Kamui, that is why I slew you. Not because you fell in battle, but because you failed me as a pupil.” A tear would stream down the demon’s cheek, if the heat of the blaze around her did not turn it to steam. “A damned machine learned more from me in weeks than you did in months. Was I so blind, or were you so stubborn? Or was it Pride, pride that blinded us both.”
Amatricina looked wistfully into the empty sockets of the skull, the black horns at its sides almost reminded her of her own. “You stupid child. Do you remind that day Kamui? When you pledged yourself to me? Claimed you would be the ‘Strongest in the Universe?’ I was right, I always am. So long as I draw breath, you would never claim that title. I meant what I said that day, every word of it. I truly would have enjoyed striving towards that goal alongside you. You were, and are, the only mortal whose voice I looked forward to hearing. Now I have only silence and your skull. Such a fool I was.”
After a moment of silence, Amatricina reached her hand away from the skull, carving open a small Dimensional Rift. On the far side lay the crypt of the Fire Demon Clan, deep in the bowels of their ancient fortress. An empty pedestal before her, she knew just where it was in relation to the cavernous room. A place for safekeeping, where she could stow away the slain Frost Demon’s skull until she had a chance to give it to his loyal crew. It was the least Amatricina owed Kamui, and the least she could do for the soldiers of the Dread Spectre. “Farewell... Kamui.” The demoness said softly, closing her eyes as she closed shut the portal. Amatricina turned and looked skyward through the roaring inferno that consumed the Tree of Might around her. There was no beautiful blue sky, there was no shimmering yellow sun. There was only darkness and fire. A blackened sky, clouds of ash and soot, and the brilliant light of the flames that surrounded her. As it should be on such a dark day. Let all of Kabocha feel Amatricina’s sorrow firsthand.
Word Count: 2,513 | Doctor Kaijin Vex
But now, on this day, the only one to mourn was Amatricina. No others shed a tear for the slain Frost Demon, this pain was hers alone to bare. As the battle between the Mark I and Kamui had come to its violent, emotional conclusion Amatricina had cleaved open a Dimensional Rift in time and space itself. It was easy in her ascended form, her Darkness Demon state made the act as easy as her claws peeling through flesh. The Demon Lord, clutching the broken body of her slain child in her arms leapt through her rift, spirited towards her destination. The portal had taken her to the one place befitting of such a moment. Kabocha, it was to end where it began. Amatricina emerged high in the skies above the planet, though the mighty Kabochan Confederacy fleet had left for the Galactic Peace Accords, with it it had taken the warships of the Crusher Corps, and Kamui's own vessel the Dread Spectre. The demoness could tell the slain warrior's crew of his demise later, it was the least she owed them. Now though, now was a time for grief.
Amatricina's gaze briefly cast its way skywards, the might of the Omnipotence had left this world. With it, Carambolis was sure to be gone. The Emperor's eyes were not upon his home world, there was no being present to stop Amatricina from what she must do. Good, woe to any who dared cross the demon's wrath at this hour. Still in her Darkness Demon form, the Demon Lord's energy surged forth in a violent ruinous aura that could be felt across the planet. It was pure malevolence, the every sin of Amatricina made manifest in a brilliant onyx display of raw power. Amatricina looked down below her, to the gnarled branches beneath. The Husk of Might, the petrified remains of the once grand Tree of Might that dominated this world. Now little more than a corpse, just like Kamui, who's broken body lay in her arms. Amatricina took off like a meteor flying down towards the Husk of Might, the sound barrier breaking a hundred times upon itself in a deafening display of speed. She landed upon its wooded surface with enough force to send tremors ripping through the continent. She was a force of nature in her grief, all of Kabocha would mourn alongside her whether they wished it or not.
The demoness moved in slow, purposeful steps. Every moment a calculated effort as she walked along the great barren branches of the Husk. Clutching Kamui's now cold body in her arms. The demonic energies that had sustained him in life, Amatricina's very energies, poured from his flesh as the demonic seals holding his body together failed. The Demon Lord's aura drank in these radiant energies, absorbing them back into their place of origin. It was a small recompense for what she was feeling, and it did nothing to stem the tide of the demon's grief. Amatricina's gaze was narrowed on the sight before her. Hallowed out of the central trunk of the Husk of Might was a small room, barely ten feet in diameter and just as tall. It had been seared out of the Husk by her hand, some months ago. Inside the room was inscribed with hundreds of demonic runes and sigils, incantations and blessing of power and strength. Meant to bestow ever more might into her creation, her child, no amount of magic had saved Kamui from the fate he brought himself. His pride had been overtaken by hubris, his overconfidence in his own demonically enhanced abilities had cost him his life at the hands of his own creator. Now she must bury her folly, her great shame, in the way only a Fire Demon can.
Within the Fire Demon Clan there was an edict, ancient as it was revered. It simply stated "Die Standing." Two words, no greater meaning for her clan. To die standing meant for a warrior to die gloriously, nobly in battle. Refusing to run or even surrender in the face of their hated foe. Refusing to kneel, to turn their back and flee, to grimly accept their dies with fire in their heart and vengeance in their eyes. It was how any Fire Demon should die in battle, if they could not emerge victorious then at least have the dignity to die in a defiant blaze of glory. Kamui had done this, never backing down to the Mark I, even as it became clearer and clearer he was outmatched and could not win. He had not cried out for Amatricina's help, he had not begged Mark I for mercy. He had fought on his own, foolish terms. And for his failure he had died, but died with his honor intact. He had earned a warrior's burial.
Amatricina stepped into the ashen room, still charred from the ritual she had done to infuse Kamui with her demonic power. It had restored his body to full, casting off his cybernetic enhancements and liberating him from their burden. The demon sighed, it felt like a lifetime ago, even for one as long lived as her. She looked down at the small pool where she had laid the cyborg Kamui's ravaged body, there was no Sap of Might to mend him this time. The demoness slowly fell to her knees, placing Kamui's lifeless corpse in the same place she had restored it to full splendor. Like a macabre inversion of her previous ritual. Her heart was heavy with sorrow as Amatricina looked down upon her slain creation, her beloved chimera. She let out a long sigh, mentally steeling herself to the grim task at hand. With that task done Amatricina turned to leave the small room, raising a hand the seals she had seared on the walls once more illuminated with fiery arcane light. A last display of a foolhardy ritual, a final reminder of her folly. As if the spells woven into the very walls could offer up any power to the dead.
The demoness stepped outside, back onto the great branches of the long dead Tree of Might. The sky was a brilliant blue overhead, the sun shining brightly down on her face. She would soon change that. The skies of Kabocha would grieve, as she did. With one last look back at the ritual site, now Kamui’s tomb, Amatricina summoned her ki and flew off high into the skies ahead. She did not care what Carambolis thought of what would come next. Amatricina would deal with the Emperor when that time came. Kamui had died as any proud Fire Demon could only hope to. He had died standing, nobly in battle against a worthy foe. It was how all her kind should perish if they must do so on the battlefield. No retreat, no surrender, victory or death.
Kamui may have been no Fire Demon, but he had earned a Fire Demon’s burial. His bones would not sully the dirt, his flesh would not rot in the sun for the carrion feeders. No, he would be cremated, returned as ash and cinder to the fires of life. There was only one place so fitting a funeral pyre as where it all began. Amatricina gazed down at billions of tons of dried, ashen, kindling. The Husk of Might would burn this day, by her hand.
“From the flames we were born, and to the flame we return!” The Darkness Demon roared, raising her hands over her head as she gathered infernal energy at her palms. Amatricina threw her head forward, expelling a massive blast of fiery breath that washed over everything before her in an roaring inferno. Her Evil Flame technique, pure undiluted hellfire of the most potent variety. The malevolent flames washed over the Tree of Might’s dried trunk. Branches and what few crinkled leaves remained igniting instantly. The trunk smoldered, but soon enough it too was ablaze. Amatricina flexed her fingers wide, pointing her palms at the roots and firing two more jets of hellfire from her palms. All three streams washing over the Husk of Might as a massive black plume of smoke began to fill the skies.
The burning of the Tree of Might was no simple task, the deceased flora was the size of a landmass, it stuck up from the very planet like a growth as it jutted to the edge of space. Amatricina bathed every inch of it in flame, the act was therapeutic to her grief. Just her, the open skies, the husk, and the roaring flames. Already the atmosphere above Kabocha was being afflicted by such a cataclysmic fire. It filled the skies with soot and ash, darkening the sun as smoke plumes plotted out the sky. It would take days before the blanket of ash began to thin, weeks before it dissipated fully, and months before the weather patterns had once more fully normalized. Amatricina did not care, she did not care for any of it. She just wanted to watch it burn. It was her most primal, instinctive purpose. To burn…
When at long last the Husk of Might was fully burning, Amatricina allowed herself a moment to admire her funeral pyre. Huge skyscraper sized branches of the tree snapping like twigs as they gave out from the flames. Crashing the ground, leveling whole forests of normal trees that grew like grasses among the roots of the god-like plant. The smoke cloud could be seen across nine tenths of the planet’s surface, guided eastward by the prevailing winds. The very air temperature had risen dozens of degrees from the heat, killing lesser plants and forcing people and animals alike fleeing for shelter in a hundred miles wide radius around the base of the trunk. Good, let them know the suffering of grief, Amatricina thought as she sensed their panic, their fear.
The Demon Lord flew down to the central trunk of the tree once more, landing not far from her ritual site. Everything was engulfed in flames, hundreds of feet high. They did not phase Amatricina in the least as she summoned her own Demonic Barrier to shield her from her magic flames. Her ruby eyes were locked somberly on the tomb as she slowly walked towards it. Already the demoness could see within, past the fire and the smoke to the burning corpse within. Already Kamui’s skin was completely gone, his bio-armor gems twinkling like jewels in the fell light. Amatricina raised a hand, lifting the slain warrior’s skull to drift within the safety of her barrier’s energy.
The bone was black, both from being charred but also from the Dark Energy that had once sustained it. Amatricina dropped the skull into her waiting hands. One holding it aloft, the other slowly running over its surface. The demon allowed herself to grieve openly here, where no damnable mortal eyes could see her. Her hand slowly petting along the skull’s length as she gazed down at it mournfully. When Amatricina opened her mouth to speak, she sounded on the brink of tears. The words stung in her throat, and her hands trembled slightly. The normally proud demoness fell to her knees, chest heaving as she spoke.
“Kamui… my dear sweet Kamui. You damned fool, you ignorant, stupid, bull headed child.” She clenched her fist, then relaxed when she admitted the uselessly of such anger now. “My greatest creation in this pitiful mortal realm. My prodigal son, my darling chimera. An avatar of my demonic strength, testament to my ability. You learned nothing from me Kamui, that is why I slew you. Not because you fell in battle, but because you failed me as a pupil.” A tear would stream down the demon’s cheek, if the heat of the blaze around her did not turn it to steam. “A damned machine learned more from me in weeks than you did in months. Was I so blind, or were you so stubborn? Or was it Pride, pride that blinded us both.”
Amatricina looked wistfully into the empty sockets of the skull, the black horns at its sides almost reminded her of her own. “You stupid child. Do you remind that day Kamui? When you pledged yourself to me? Claimed you would be the ‘Strongest in the Universe?’ I was right, I always am. So long as I draw breath, you would never claim that title. I meant what I said that day, every word of it. I truly would have enjoyed striving towards that goal alongside you. You were, and are, the only mortal whose voice I looked forward to hearing. Now I have only silence and your skull. Such a fool I was.”
After a moment of silence, Amatricina reached her hand away from the skull, carving open a small Dimensional Rift. On the far side lay the crypt of the Fire Demon Clan, deep in the bowels of their ancient fortress. An empty pedestal before her, she knew just where it was in relation to the cavernous room. A place for safekeeping, where she could stow away the slain Frost Demon’s skull until she had a chance to give it to his loyal crew. It was the least Amatricina owed Kamui, and the least she could do for the soldiers of the Dread Spectre. “Farewell... Kamui.” The demoness said softly, closing her eyes as she closed shut the portal. Amatricina turned and looked skyward through the roaring inferno that consumed the Tree of Might around her. There was no beautiful blue sky, there was no shimmering yellow sun. There was only darkness and fire. A blackened sky, clouds of ash and soot, and the brilliant light of the flames that surrounded her. As it should be on such a dark day. Let all of Kabocha feel Amatricina’s sorrow firsthand.
Word Count: 2,513 | Doctor Kaijin Vex