No
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:38 pm
In the middle of a stone room with four walls of impenetrable concrete a beast sat fetal upon the cold floor. Her sleep was trouble, sobbing heard from her chest. She thrashed and turned as she clawed at her own shoulders and face. The dreams had not relented for many moons, and worse they grew by the night. Being within the realm of fire had done nothing to ease them. Even the brokered deal for her family had done absolutely nothing to easy her suffering. Sure, the consistent food aided against the physical pain. The creatures that clawed at her insides and snuffed out her breath made bearable. But it did nothing for the nightmares. Nothing for the pain and hatred that plagued the shadows.
"My pretty beast must rest. Her face is scarred even more deeply than her body." The voice of Arsa came from the eternal shadows deep within. The melody of her singsong sound was comforting but it's lack of source even more threatening than a knife to the throat. "Lass, ye know we be alive. But not sure how long I be keepin it that way." Strong and sturdy came the bear's voice. Comfort mixed with the cold facts locked blades in her dream. "Sweety. . . where are you? Don't make me bury another child. . ." Tinged with pang and fear came the voice of Ano. Another to dance through the echoing darkness. "Katsu. . . Where is her call in this void of fire?" Even the titan dragon was panged with eternal dread. "Miss Katsu may be gone. . . I never thought it possible."
The beast lashed out in a fit, screaming with agony in the voice. The night terrors rang through the quiet halls of her cell and down the ally. A man in red robes with blue mask looked back over his shoulder at the pitiful sound. He did nothing. Within the walls she clawed at her own skin, begging for the nightmare to stop, but the voices continued. "You dying is bad for business, my dear. Though, I do miss my drinking buddy." Inoriki's voice tinged with regret. His silhouette shadowed at the bar alone. "I'm sorry. . . lass. I'm so sorry."
Katsu's voice rang out in fits of sobbing shudders. "I'm alive. I failed but I'm here. . . Just find me. . . please. please find me. Please. Please help me. I need. . . . I need help. Please. Please. Help me. I don't know where you are. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to find. . . Please help me. It's. . . dark." Katsu sobbed hard and rolled over, her tail lashing against the wall to leave another scratch in the concrete. The bed long since shattered and the spartan comforts turned to scraps. "I'm trying. . . The shard. . . Pathetic begging now. Terror overtaking. "I can't."
Her memories assailed her of that day. The day of betrayal and failure. Standing against her former god. Vorashu stood with absolute dominion but the color around his neck shackled his will. Instead there stood a man with a gaze as primal as hers. His instinct on full display but restrained. It's tempered steel was hardened, trained. Not like her raw pig iron that broke against the softest stone. Malice in his gaze he bore down upon her. She baulked but it meant nothing. . . It faultered in his face and she fell. Forsaken. "I'm sorry. . . Vorashu."
Beastia."
The voice commanded respect. It resonated with the aura of dominion and pride. A primordial force of might and change it demanded her attention and respect.
"Beastia, Katsu?"
The proud voice was tinged by fear. . . It unsettled her more deeply than anything else.
"Oblivion?"
The question spoke with uncertainty. A tone she had never heard from such a creature. An uncertainty that didn't benefit a god. The nightmare folded into itself again. It become very dark. It became very, very cold.
"Love, I don't think she's coming back. He's demanding we leave and give the people of Rivers their home and my daughter is. . . missing." The scene had shifted once again to the ramshackle building constructed in haste after the takeover of the Realm of Titans. sat upon two stool at the bar were a truly huge man with his head hung low. The woman beside rest a hand upon his shoulder, her grief barely contained. "I know, darlin. I know. But we must hold. We must stay case she returns. That be our daughter. She be not smart but her will be strong." The voice achoed ethereal through blackness. "Hidestuga, you know as well as I my daughter. . . our daughter is dead. She failed. The reports say as much. That bastard Aimi did nothing but antagonize the fire banin into attacking her too. We need to leave." The bear looked at the huntress with disgust. "That girl has stood against the lizard and won! You think one feckin banin cunt can slay her? Where is your faith in your own blood!?" At this the huntress stood and glared at the bear. "Dead! With her! And with this failed fucking nation!"
Oblivion took her mental landscape once again. All that rang out for a time was "I'm not dead, momma! Please find me!" Her nightmare wouldn't fade though. The night was young and it had such plans for her.
"Weakness is to be abhorred." The voice of Koriastraz was low and rumbling as if the mountain itself spoke. "You taught me that, mother." The dragon lurked beneath the rivers of lava upon the plain of gehenna. His girth rumbled and created tidel waves of molten rock. "But if that's true. . . where are you? I can't. . . I can only hear the crackling of fire. This place. . . It's fire is bright but. . . Where are you?" Korialstraz floated through the molten rock and ebbing fire through a realm of endless destruction. No life flourished in this place of desolate entropy. Nothing changed. . . ever. "Where are you, momma? Do I need for find somewhere even darker to drag you back? If so, then my flames shall light you to me."
"Kori, I'm alive. Please, just find me. Please. . . It's so cold my dragon."
The scene shifted again. This time to Kiri in the academy. To a boy who sat bloody and broken. His body was shattered by a monster. A woman named Naoko who carved at his body with cruel glee. His consciousness faded into oblivion and his memory faded when Katsu found him. The wounds to the bone and eyes staring into nothing she saw only his pain induced madness. Death was all she saw here. The boy's torture filled her not with thoughts of helping, but of senseless massacre. When she bounded he was forgotten, only revenge shaded her sight. And when the woman stood before her, blade in hand and smile upon face, all Katsu thought was bloodshed. Naoko smiled and brought the blade up to painful lesson. "Where were you?"
The field changing to the verdant greens of Tir na Nog now. A shaman sits alone among stones with her head in her hands. Her body painted but smudged and neglected, no ritual can succeed. All ritual items forsaken in the ash beside her and only a pile of stones before her. "My pretty beast. . . Please come home to me. I'm. . . scared." Her body shuddered with the sobbing words. "Please come home, my monster."
"I'm trying, Arsa! Just please tell me how!" Katsu screamed out to the cold stones.
the scene faded once again. This time only cold darkness greeted the beast. She looked around through blurry eyes and wiped away the tears. A girl stared back into oblivion with naught but fear to lead her. Accusations faded and now only the cold darkness of nothing stared into her. With only the eyes of regret and horror the pathetic being stared back until eyes greeted her gaze. The eyes of hatred, hunger, and malice. The eyes of a monster who stepped forward drenched in blood and hatred. It's endless primordial hunger saw a small girl as a meal to be devoured but no move was made. Instead the crimson malice simply glared at the woman who huddled in the fetal position on inky blackness. Primal and unrelenting fear was all the girl could feel in that moment of weakness, and that emotion was greeted only with a sharp toothed predatory grin.
"Please. . ."
The grin said nothing but stepped forward. A large powerfully built woman stood in the fading light. Her chest split open to show rows of pointed teeth and her face contorted into a wicked grin of sinful delight.
"Please. . . Go away!"
The hatred filled smile simply stepped forward again, now inches away. It's powerful body oozed yellow and red from fresh wounds. Parasites of all kind danced around it's emaciated corpse but still it stood. It squated down before the huddled bundle of missery that was the former unbound. With a gleeful grin that spanned both it's mouths it leaned in close.
"GO AWAY!"
A soft chuckle emanated from the monster that now salivated over Katsu. It's fetid stench was overwhelming as it's mouths opened to come closer, now mere inches away. The needle teeth almost brushed against Katsu's bare skin.
"Why?"
The voice was venomous, tinged with the echos of her family. The echoes of her failure speaking back to her. The sound resonated as naturally wrong. Completely false to the world.
"Please."
Katsu's voice was pitifully weak, begging between sobs. The monster stooped low and reached out a hand to caress the girl's face.
"No. . ."
"My pretty beast must rest. Her face is scarred even more deeply than her body." The voice of Arsa came from the eternal shadows deep within. The melody of her singsong sound was comforting but it's lack of source even more threatening than a knife to the throat. "Lass, ye know we be alive. But not sure how long I be keepin it that way." Strong and sturdy came the bear's voice. Comfort mixed with the cold facts locked blades in her dream. "Sweety. . . where are you? Don't make me bury another child. . ." Tinged with pang and fear came the voice of Ano. Another to dance through the echoing darkness. "Katsu. . . Where is her call in this void of fire?" Even the titan dragon was panged with eternal dread. "Miss Katsu may be gone. . . I never thought it possible."
The beast lashed out in a fit, screaming with agony in the voice. The night terrors rang through the quiet halls of her cell and down the ally. A man in red robes with blue mask looked back over his shoulder at the pitiful sound. He did nothing. Within the walls she clawed at her own skin, begging for the nightmare to stop, but the voices continued. "You dying is bad for business, my dear. Though, I do miss my drinking buddy." Inoriki's voice tinged with regret. His silhouette shadowed at the bar alone. "I'm sorry. . . lass. I'm so sorry."
Katsu's voice rang out in fits of sobbing shudders. "I'm alive. I failed but I'm here. . . Just find me. . . please. please find me. Please. Please help me. I need. . . . I need help. Please. Please. Help me. I don't know where you are. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how to find. . . Please help me. It's. . . dark." Katsu sobbed hard and rolled over, her tail lashing against the wall to leave another scratch in the concrete. The bed long since shattered and the spartan comforts turned to scraps. "I'm trying. . . The shard. . . Pathetic begging now. Terror overtaking. "I can't."
Her memories assailed her of that day. The day of betrayal and failure. Standing against her former god. Vorashu stood with absolute dominion but the color around his neck shackled his will. Instead there stood a man with a gaze as primal as hers. His instinct on full display but restrained. It's tempered steel was hardened, trained. Not like her raw pig iron that broke against the softest stone. Malice in his gaze he bore down upon her. She baulked but it meant nothing. . . It faultered in his face and she fell. Forsaken. "I'm sorry. . . Vorashu."
Beastia."
The voice commanded respect. It resonated with the aura of dominion and pride. A primordial force of might and change it demanded her attention and respect.
"Beastia, Katsu?"
The proud voice was tinged by fear. . . It unsettled her more deeply than anything else.
"Oblivion?"
The question spoke with uncertainty. A tone she had never heard from such a creature. An uncertainty that didn't benefit a god. The nightmare folded into itself again. It become very dark. It became very, very cold.
"Love, I don't think she's coming back. He's demanding we leave and give the people of Rivers their home and my daughter is. . . missing." The scene had shifted once again to the ramshackle building constructed in haste after the takeover of the Realm of Titans. sat upon two stool at the bar were a truly huge man with his head hung low. The woman beside rest a hand upon his shoulder, her grief barely contained. "I know, darlin. I know. But we must hold. We must stay case she returns. That be our daughter. She be not smart but her will be strong." The voice achoed ethereal through blackness. "Hidestuga, you know as well as I my daughter. . . our daughter is dead. She failed. The reports say as much. That bastard Aimi did nothing but antagonize the fire banin into attacking her too. We need to leave." The bear looked at the huntress with disgust. "That girl has stood against the lizard and won! You think one feckin banin cunt can slay her? Where is your faith in your own blood!?" At this the huntress stood and glared at the bear. "Dead! With her! And with this failed fucking nation!"
Oblivion took her mental landscape once again. All that rang out for a time was "I'm not dead, momma! Please find me!" Her nightmare wouldn't fade though. The night was young and it had such plans for her.
"Weakness is to be abhorred." The voice of Koriastraz was low and rumbling as if the mountain itself spoke. "You taught me that, mother." The dragon lurked beneath the rivers of lava upon the plain of gehenna. His girth rumbled and created tidel waves of molten rock. "But if that's true. . . where are you? I can't. . . I can only hear the crackling of fire. This place. . . It's fire is bright but. . . Where are you?" Korialstraz floated through the molten rock and ebbing fire through a realm of endless destruction. No life flourished in this place of desolate entropy. Nothing changed. . . ever. "Where are you, momma? Do I need for find somewhere even darker to drag you back? If so, then my flames shall light you to me."
"Kori, I'm alive. Please, just find me. Please. . . It's so cold my dragon."
The scene shifted again. This time to Kiri in the academy. To a boy who sat bloody and broken. His body was shattered by a monster. A woman named Naoko who carved at his body with cruel glee. His consciousness faded into oblivion and his memory faded when Katsu found him. The wounds to the bone and eyes staring into nothing she saw only his pain induced madness. Death was all she saw here. The boy's torture filled her not with thoughts of helping, but of senseless massacre. When she bounded he was forgotten, only revenge shaded her sight. And when the woman stood before her, blade in hand and smile upon face, all Katsu thought was bloodshed. Naoko smiled and brought the blade up to painful lesson. "Where were you?"
The field changing to the verdant greens of Tir na Nog now. A shaman sits alone among stones with her head in her hands. Her body painted but smudged and neglected, no ritual can succeed. All ritual items forsaken in the ash beside her and only a pile of stones before her. "My pretty beast. . . Please come home to me. I'm. . . scared." Her body shuddered with the sobbing words. "Please come home, my monster."
"I'm trying, Arsa! Just please tell me how!" Katsu screamed out to the cold stones.
the scene faded once again. This time only cold darkness greeted the beast. She looked around through blurry eyes and wiped away the tears. A girl stared back into oblivion with naught but fear to lead her. Accusations faded and now only the cold darkness of nothing stared into her. With only the eyes of regret and horror the pathetic being stared back until eyes greeted her gaze. The eyes of hatred, hunger, and malice. The eyes of a monster who stepped forward drenched in blood and hatred. It's endless primordial hunger saw a small girl as a meal to be devoured but no move was made. Instead the crimson malice simply glared at the woman who huddled in the fetal position on inky blackness. Primal and unrelenting fear was all the girl could feel in that moment of weakness, and that emotion was greeted only with a sharp toothed predatory grin.
"Please. . ."
The grin said nothing but stepped forward. A large powerfully built woman stood in the fading light. Her chest split open to show rows of pointed teeth and her face contorted into a wicked grin of sinful delight.
"Please. . . Go away!"
The hatred filled smile simply stepped forward again, now inches away. It's powerful body oozed yellow and red from fresh wounds. Parasites of all kind danced around it's emaciated corpse but still it stood. It squated down before the huddled bundle of missery that was the former unbound. With a gleeful grin that spanned both it's mouths it leaned in close.
"GO AWAY!"
A soft chuckle emanated from the monster that now salivated over Katsu. It's fetid stench was overwhelming as it's mouths opened to come closer, now mere inches away. The needle teeth almost brushed against Katsu's bare skin.
"Why?"
The voice was venomous, tinged with the echos of her family. The echoes of her failure speaking back to her. The sound resonated as naturally wrong. Completely false to the world.
"Please."
Katsu's voice was pitifully weak, begging between sobs. The monster stooped low and reached out a hand to caress the girl's face.
"No. . ."