| A Choice Is Made | ||
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As the lost maniac continues light seems to break out of the darkness. Although it passes by him as he walks the light is gone when he stops. Deciding to carry he sees more and more strange events like these until the room becomes fully lit. Standing in the midst of an ancient looking temple filled with black marble pillers, Johnny looks around nervously. The floor is indeed some type of stone. Perhaps the entire place is built out of this marble looking material? Between the pillers he can see the vastness of some alien mountain range. Unable to tell if any of this is real or some strange illusion, Johnny proceds onward. Down the corridors he goes until he enters a vast room. At the far side sits a giant stone carved chair cloaked in shadows. Behind it is what appears to be some kinda sacrificial alter. NNY cautiously approches the thrown trying to peer through the darkness for whomever might be sitting upon it. Raising his eyebrow he asks, "Hello? Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on here?" A gnarled white hand suddenly sits on Johnny's shoulder, the fingertips slowly brushing back and down across his back - smoothly and quickly, and causing a hideous chill to run through the boy. A low chuckle sounds then, and the soft sound of feet shifting on stone as the figure behind him turns and takes a step away, spreading his arms out to either side, standing framed in the darkness - white silks lit with an eldritch glow. The abomination intones a few words in his own language then turns back to face Johnny, bracing his slightly clawed hands to his hips, "What's going on... demon child." He mouths the last two words with a seductive hiss, his bright yellow eyes flaring, "Could be the first day.. of the rest of your life." Johnny glares at the stranger, repulsed to have been touched - let alone in such a manner. Normaly such a strong show of emotions would push the boy far enough that his eyes would begin to cloud over darkly, but for some reason this doesn't happen. "Just who the fuck are you, and what the hell do you mean by that?" Instinctivly his hand goes for his dagger, but it's no longer there. Suffering from a moment of panic he checks himself for weapons and finds none. Even his backpack is gone. Suddenly filled with the feeling of vulnerability he fights to keep himself under control, but already his eyes have begun to water. "Wha-what the hell is going on??" Seraph lifts one hand, the claws extending and darkening to shadows as he reaches out to brush them deftly across Johnny's cheek.. drawing blood. With a foul grin the white-skinned fiend lifts a finger to his mouth and laps at the soaking crimson fluids with a pale tongue. This done he lets his hand fall back to his lip and chuckles darkly, "You know who I am.. we've been acquainted once before... you.. were quite interesting. As for what is going on? Hell..." he pauses and gives a crooked smirk, striding off towards the dark-shrouded throne as he continues to speak, voice becoming increasingly more distant as if each step is a dozen feet or more away from the frightened maniac, "Yes. A term your world favours, they tell me... the -humans- of our dimension are rather similar in their pathetic beliefs. But.. this isn't hell." He finishes bluntly, and turns to face Johnny from the foot of the steps below the throne, throwing both arms out beside him and laughing wildly, the sound choked and horrible - the laugh of a man many years dead in soul. "It could be so much worse! Or so very much more..." Johnny rubs the scratch on his face and stares confused at the man as the feelings of recognition begin to wash over him. Quickly jerking his head around he glances about the room. It all seems so familiar and yet...? Stepping closer to the man he swallows hard and tries to sound confident. "Yeah... I know... I've seen Hell. It ain't shit. But where ARE we? Just what do you want with me?" As he stares he finaly recognises the man, and it dawns on him just how many mistakes he's made over the past few days. However, these could all be just more dreams, so he quickly dismisses them... Seraph just smirks at Johnny and slowly lifts his arms upward, fingers curling up to reach for the darkness above. After the fiend has intoned a few low syllables in his own tongue, suddenly three shadowy creatures break off from the seemingly infinite blackness, taking on vaguely humanoid form as they swoop in towards Johnny.. so quickly and yet at the same so very slowly, and the closer they get the worse the associated feeling of fear. But.. they never seem to reach the boy, just get closer and closer... nearing him infinitely. Another dark chuckle and Seraph turns to spring halfway up towards the throne, spinning in mid-air and landing with one leg set higher than the other, leaning back with both hands clasped around an imaginary sword's hilt as he locks his hideous verminous gaze upon the boy below. "I want nothing... my master desires a great deal." Suddenly his organic blade is in his hands, that eerie black no-dachi slipping into life, pulsing darkly and - together with the abomination's natural essence - flooding the room with an aura of pure, untainted evil. "You are to be tested." Johnny takes a step back nervously, unsure of how to react. As the shadow beasts seem to converge on him he again instinctivly goes for his weapons. Cursing at himself he begins to fill with an emotion unfamilar to him: fear. Glancing around for something - ANYTHING - that could be used to defend himself his skin goes white. He then looks up at the sword in Seraph's hand. THAT sword. Despiratly desiring something to relieve him of these horrid feelings of panic, he closes his eyes and focuses on the energy being pumped into the air by the blade. Embracing these waves of evil intent he hopes to somehow regain the energies he constantly seems to struggle against. Loss of control and better judgement or not, it'd be better than being helpless... Seraph laughs suddenly, this time filled with genuine humour. For just a moment he almost sounds sane... almost, and shifting grip on his dark blade he lifts one hand from the throbbing hilt, extending his palm out towards Johnny. The three shadow figures promptly fly together and forge into a black void, darker than any other point in this room of shadows, which then flows into two familiar bladed shapes as it settles down on the cold marble floor halfway between the two abominations. "So alone, so lost.. allow me to help." Seraph slurs, before resuming his two-handed grip and lifting the blade up over his right shoulder... a cold wind begins to blow, shifting the white-skinned beast's ashen hair and his shimmering silken garments. On ground level the wind is fiercer, and Johnny might have trouble standing up for a moment as it reaches a crescendo - a fearsome howling echoing off the pillars and the distant walls. Johnny forces himself to hold his ground as the vortex of wind whips about him. The floor, being as smooth as it is, slides under his feet as he begins to be pushed away from the force. Glaring up at Seraph he screams incohernetly struggling to be heard over the harsh winds. The cold air sucking the breath from him as it blasts him in the face, Johnny turns his head away and struggles to breathe holding his arms up over his face to block the force of the wind... With a flick of his head, Seraph sends the winds into a funnel, shoving Johnny closer should he not find a way out or somehow resist the forces. Halfway towards the plinth - assuming it gets that far - the abomination smiles and lets the unholy gust fade to a mere light breeze on ground level also, neatly depositing the young maniac in front of his weapons... so similar to his daggers, but forged entirely from that eerie living black metal, so cold to the touch and yet so embracing.. like holding death itself between your fingers. "Take them, demon child.. take them and duel with me. There are few weapons that can defeat me but..." a soft shiver runs up his spine, fear seeming to creep into his voice.. what are these things? "Those are some that can. This is a rare chance, boy, a chance to become more powerful than the gods themselves." Johnny glances down at these weapons with a momentary look of glee. However, it nags in his mind that something is wrong. Looking up at Seraph with a smirk on his face he calmly asks, "What's the catch? Nothing is this easy..." Seraph smirks in return, and brings his doom-laden blade around in a horribly fast slash... the shadows lengthen around the alien metal and it seems to stretch out towards Johnny, crossing the distance between them and coming within a whisker of beheading him. Without pause, Seraph follows through and whips off another slash as he leaps down from the steps, landing in a crouch with the Blade held to the floor, this second slash cutting past Johnny's right shoulder the merest flicker of a second after the first brushed his neck. "Catch?" The abomination asks, his stainless lower lip curling derisively. "The catch is that you.. a mortal... become the reaper itself." He stands, moving back to his samurai fighter's stance, the two-handed katana up at his shoulder. "Is that not a dream you've had?" Johnny stands unimpressed with the show of energies from the blade. He's seen it all before. But hearing the man's words, he looks down at the weapons again. The reaper... the angel of death... yes, this was indeed something he desired until meeting the fighter in Neo Tokyo. Things may have changed dramaticly in his life but that urdge is still there, burning deep inside him. The urdge to teach the people that created him the value of life, even at the cost of their own. So many people out there, ignoring the basics of humanity and mocking and murdering the innocent. So many that need to be taught his lesson... He begins to reach down to grab the weapons but then thinks back to the girl he tried to kill the night before. Remembering seeing her lying in the street with tears in her eyes. How could he just do that again? But then he thinks to her words as she told everyone that he couldn't be trusted. That he shouldn't be allowed to go free. Then the taunts from the people in the room as they laughed at him. No longer hesitating, Johnny reaches down and grabs these black daggers and twirls them, feeling the cold dark power inside of them. Looking up at Seraph again he smirks, "Whenever your ready..." Seraph shifts back a pace and executes a quick bow, his hair falling down around his shoulders, and then falls back... a mocking smirk twisted onto his lips. "Oh no, I insist.. you first, I wish to test you - I have been instructed to test you." His blade begins to flow and shift, no true shape discernable as it molds itself and re-molds itself constantly. The evil aura in the room is now almost crushingly powerful, a vice grip on the senses. Johnny chuckles darkly as he feels the weapons in his hands seem to focus the energies in the room into him. Immediatly he feels that empty hole in his soul begin to channel the onslaught of energy into his waste lock. From deep within it he feels the darkness feed into his vains and, welcoming it, he begins to undergo his dark change again. His body becomes as dark as night and his eyes begin to burn with an unseen red light. Crouching down, preparing to strike, he looks down at these new weapons and smirks. Unlike his own weapons, and even the ones that he created in madness the night before, these new daggers don't change shape. They seem to exist only to help him feed on the negative energies around him. Suddenly he realises how such weapons pose a threat to his foe. With a smile he looks up into Seraph's eyes and stares trying to read the emotions behind them. Then, without any sign or warning, Johnny charges forward, fulled by the darkness in his soul, leaping into the air to drive the daggers into the man's black heart... Seraph's eyes flare and he moves back with Johnny's leap, that nightmare sword coming up to knock away the two daggers. He shifts aside at the same time, the black length of metal changing shape so he can flow with it, moving to Johnny's side. And if the boy hadn't noticed, his speed and reaction time have increased insanely... he and Seraph are on a par as the white-skinned abomination's weapon shifts back into its regular shape, moving away from the twin dread daggers and back to a horizontal grip at the fiend's side. This is over in the blink of an eye, and the very moment the blade has set into its no-dachi form, a white-clad knee is thrust up in towards Johnny's right side, the strike powerful and accurate. Johnny uses the momemtum of the deflected attack to spin right along with Seraph. Pulling the weapons back and away from the white man, he twists his upper body as he swings the daggers around into the man's side as the knee comes up to connect. As the inevitable force of the strike knocks him back and away (whether the daggers hit home or not), Johnny twists himself to face his opponent again and charges forwards once more. Now with his sholder outwards he goes to slam into the man as he swings the daggers around once more to slice into him. If the force of the kick to the side had caused any damage, he's not showing it - already too into the heat of the battle to acknowledge such things... Moving as if of its own will, the black blade twists and forks into two, one liquid-metal tip blocking each dagger. Seraph remains with his knee thrust out, perfectly balanced despite his awkward position, and lifts a hand from the Blade's hilt as Johnny comes screaming towards him. Two words are barked out, one syllable apiece and dripping with hatred... and suddenly the air shimmers and shifts, the darkness folding in from all around and enveloping the abomination as his opponent reaches him. And there is nothing there but shadow, nothing to strike, nothing to see or hear, only darkness... for three full seconds, then the familiar voice hisses out from Johnny's left side. "So amusing you seek to defeat me, so amusing you think to replace me.. replace your power with mine. I cannot deny you interest me, but.. you must die, as all must die soon enough... at my hand." Johnny hears none of this as he stands in the momentary darkness, driven only by the impluses that rage through him. Realising the man to have moved to his side, his temper flares once again. Now, a visible change goes through him. With the daggers of dread in his hands his waste lock becomes so focused that it allows the shadows wrapped around him to become more a part of him than ever before. The darkness surrounding him is suddenly absorbed into the boy and he stands huntched over with his wicked eyes glaring directly at the abomination. Johnny screams in rage, the form around his face twisting, making him look almost demonic in appearance momentarialy. Then the boy's face resumes it's normal shape and he growls, "Never agin... I am not dying again." The shadows swirling around him, NNY lifts up into the air and hangs there watching Seraph a moment before adding, "Especialy at the hands of filth like you..." With a dark gutteral scream he attacks, the shadows around him traveling with him, blocking the view of his attack as he tries again to impale the heart of the man... Seraph staggers back in alarm as his cloak of shadows is pulled away from him by the young maniac, the usurper before him, and with a rageful cry tearing from his twisted throat the white-skinned abomination meets the headlong rush with his own counter-attack; a vicious thrust from his blade of living metal, aimed directly into the center of the onrushing darkness. "BENEDICT!" He screams to the skies, red-black blood flecking his lips as the pair of daggers are thrust to the hilt in his heart, "Aid me! Give me a chance to destroy this fool and I'll do it!" He coughs, spattering more blood up in an arc over his skull, the stuff spaying out as it comes back down, burning like acid rain. Meanwhile the two cursed knives suck at his energies, drawing them up and into Johnny.. not to merge the power with his own, but almost like a meal - providing sustenance to the boy, a feast of the soul... an feast of pure evil, further corrupting whatever darkness lies within him. All around them, in the vast pillared hallway, more shadows begin to blossom, these not sucked into Johnny... far too powerful, far too evil as of yet to be contained.. possessing a life, a conscious mind of their own, and they shift and spiral around, the entire area changing shape. Strangely, Seraph too seems to morph and twist, though it could be a trick of the intoxicating energies rushing into your head... Johnny begins to laugh despite all that is going on around him. His cloak momentairaly dissapating around him, he floats just above Seraph, his daggers deep into the man's heart and ironicly Seraph's blade deep within his own. Caught up in a momentary feed back from the two blades and the two equaly dark hearts the shadows around Johnny swirl around the two men until forcibly, the two are thrust apart. The maniac being air borne, he has no means of holding his ground and is thrown back and into one of the stone pillars in the room. Hitting the ground hard the his shadows hang in the air a while before coming back to him as he regains his footing. Wiping blood from his own mouth with the back of one of his hands he smirks. oO(Well.... now that was intresting...) What's even more interesting is as Johnny stands the room, the huge vaulted chamber, completes its metamorphosis... the deep, undeniable shadows retreating as swiftly as they initially blossomed out and plunging the boy into a new reality.. somewhere entirely unexpected. Underfoot the grass is soft, fresh and green.. luscious treetops surround the forest glade he now stands in, his back to a delicate shrub where once there was a harsh stone pillar. Flowers bloom prettily as far as the eye can see - which is not far, the forest-line heralding the start of a soft, caressing darkness outside of the clearing on every side. In the far distance to the north looms a snow-capped mountain, but apart from that not a single thing is visible but the peace of the clearing, not a sound is heard but the gentle chirupping of birds and the occasional rustle as a small animal moves through the undergrowth nearby. Seraph? Nowhere to be found, not a trace remains in this place void of shadows.. that evil aura is gone with him, but... something pulls Johnny towards that distant mountain, a feeling of kinship perhaps, a voice crying out to him to join it in its purpose, a soulmate... but a dark one indeed. Johnny glances around confused. Unsure of what to do he glances around expecting an attack from some unseen force. As he notices the small animals and the flowers he blinks and stares speachless. Feeling the pull of the distant mountain he puts away his new weapons in the sheaths his own daggers normaly rest in. Looking around one more time he mutters under his breath, "When the fuck did this turn into a Disney movie?" As Johnny's confusion grows the dark shadows around him begin to disapate, leaving his body open and vulnerable. Looking around the area for some sort of explanation, a frown spreads accross his face. "Come on... this is bullshit..." Staring up at the mountain again he growls. "DAMNIT! I know that was real..." Pulling out the two daggers again, he instantly grows black once more. "Well.... that proves it." Twirling the daggers around he resheaths them, becoming normal again. "Fuck... I don't wanna walk all that way..." Looking around him again he sighs and reluctantly heads towards the mountain in the distance... Our hero is going to find himself walking through a perfectly normal forest... or at least, normal in that magical European fashion, all sweeping majestic boughs and tangled roots set over graceful beds of wildflowers and soft, bark-scattered soil. There are no signs of pain, death or suffering.. just life in its purest and most luscious form. Just off to the north comes the soft tinkle of a stream winding through the green depths... Johnny growls as he walks, putting his hands in his pockets. As he reaches the stream he kicks the soil and curses, "YOU CHEAP ASS BASTARD!!!! Fucking running away... SOME BIG FUCKING MONSTER YOU TURNED OUT TO BE!!!" Growling again he stomps off on his quest once more... The smattering of kicked-up soil falls into the tinkling waters with a series of rapid, soft splashes. Perfectly ordinary way for it to behave, you might think... but when Johnny takes a few steps away a sudden low moan develops - like the moan of a forsaken soul, and it heightens in volume and pitch to a horrible scream, rattling off the treetrunks and seeming to fill the whole forest with its dread song. Birds can be heard taking to flight in every direction.... and from the pale blue waters something starts to emerge, a humanoid figure forming from the liquid. Johnny instinctivly pulls out his daggers as the birds fly away. Once more going dark and spinning around, he sees the figure appearing and laughs. "Oh come on now... what the fuck is that supposed to be? ARE YOU EVEN TRYING??" Croutching down in a defensive stance he holds onto his weapons tightly and waits to assess this new threat... The figure slides away to the left, and circles around Johnny... shaped like a rather average man, but from the groin down tailing down to a single watery tendril, something a cross between a mermaid and a cyclone. It starts to close in, ever so slowly, arms out-stretching gradually towards the maniac... and there's that familiar evil aura, flooding the area and letting Johnny feed from its undeniable power. "Prove yourself..." a voice hisses on the winds, not Seraph's.. similar in nature but vastly more fearful. Johnny stares in confusion as the figure manuvers around him. Hearing the familair phrase echo out he glares. "Prove myself? To what? A few gallons of spring water?" As the energies begin to flood outward again Johnny quickly takes advantage of them, his cloak of shadows pouring outwards bluring his form from sight once again. With a dark growl he screams, "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT!!!" Seeming to move as one giant dark cloud, the boy takes off at a full charge towards the water-based entity. Within the cloud he goes to strike with his shoulder again - hoping to use the momentum to drive the daggers into the assumed location of the creature's heart as it reals from his attack... But there is no heart... nor is there truly a creature in the conventional sense. As Johnny's daggers come in for contact with the circling water elemental it flows around them, losing some of its fluid which falls to the floor, staining the soil a darker brown. "Fool.. it is a thing unlike you... convention does not dictate its mortality...." that horrible, patronisingly evil voice hisses out once more, echoing off the treetops. Leaving Johnny behind the watery humanoid shifts away and raises its arms, turning its 'face' heavenward and seeming to wait for something... and deep within the boy energies stir, those he has only just discovered - not his usual darkness, but the heightened powers of Benedict boiling up inside him.. seeming to hint at something. Johnny stares in confusion. Not even bothering to put his hands down from where they stoped. Hearing the strange voice echo out he finaly puts his hands down and glances around him. As the creature stares upwards the cloak around him vanishes leaving just the boy and his dark skin. Scratching the back of his head he lets out a sigh. "Alright.... what the hell is going on?" The figure begins to circle again, arms going through a strange dance-like motioning around its formed mockery of flesh. Suddenly in Johnny's head he receives a brief clip, no more than a second, a small memory surfacing.. forced to surface by those foul energies... of Seraph stirring the winds and buffeting his opponent back in that strange vaulted hall... Johnny puts a hand to his head as this image is forced into him. "Damnit.... STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" Shaking his head he glares at the dancing water and tries to process this information. Was it a warning? Instructions? Something to annoy him? Johnny growls in frustraion. Looing at the seemingly useless daggers again he tries to figure the connection between these knives and Seraph's sword... Ducking down into a defensive stance again he tries to plan his next move while he waits to see what kind of attack he should expect from this threat... Attack? No.. nothing of the sort, it just keeps circling around you, arms shifting about each other in a slow steady rhythm. Something seems to be highlighted now within the realms of your vision, the realisation probably dawning that.. as the water licks around constantly, circling about a hollow interior the inner curve of each spiralling torrent is backed by shadow - however faint, however subtle it may be. There is shadow in everything, now you come to look.. all but the brightest and purest of light sources are shrouded in the darkness one way or another.... Johnny stares. Yes, with his hightened sensces he can indeed see that everything has shadows. But what does this new information imply? In confusion he growls and kicks the ground again. If Nailbunny where here he could figure this out. He was never good at puzzles alone. All those years of listening to the Doughboys just because he couldn't wrap his head around the concept that they where controling him. Damnit, what was this thing trying to make him realise? Getting frustrated he gives up trying. There's always more than one way around everything. Watching the creature twirl around, watching the shadows move around, he realises that this creature, this beast, was being controled by this darkness. It was so obvious that it screamed at him from the depths of his soul. Deciding to go on a whim he attempts once more to do what he had done to Seraph only an hour before. Throwing his arms to the side he begins to channel those shadows, trying to break the bond between this creature and it's master by absorbing the shadows contained deep within it... The shadows masking the inside of the humanoid tunnel of spinning waters suddenly begin to warp and twist before they fly off through the air towards Johnny at a lightning pace, the liquid attempting to flow with them but by the time it has travelled halfway every last drop has hit the floor, scattering smaller droplets around and staining a long strip of the forest floor... the human shape is there no longer, just a few last licks of pale blue water soaking into the leaf-strewn ground. A low chuckle breaks out from the air all around, and that hiss emerges again - eerily enough the chuckles continuing, "Good.. good... he learns fast, this demon child. Faster than many... but can he survive and make it to the final challenge? He should ask himself.. does he truly deserve this power? Or is he as weak as those he would judge?" Johnny spins around and screams in rage at his surroundings, "GODDAMNIT!!! QUIT PLAYING AROUND!!!! WHAT IS THIS, SOME FUCKING GAME TO YOU??" Enraged he lifts up into the air and tears off towards the mountain at full speed, both daggers ready at his sides as he prepares to slaughter whatever he may find in his path... That low chuckling comes to a halt, leaving just the voice to ring out in a final sibilant mutter, "Yes, indeed..." and out of nowhere looms a vast canyon, suddenly the forest falling away around the dashing maniac and turning to a craggy wasteland leading up towards the mountain - which still seems impossibly distant. If Johnny does not manage to stop of his own accord it seems like he has a drop of several hundred feet to deal with, particularly as the earth at the canyon's edge is crumbling dangerously... but.. should it go that far something stops you, like invisible hands shoving gently backward and preventing a fall. Strange. "Now can he pass the other tests?" This from a more familiar voice behind the young maniac, that of Seraph.. his fled opponent... Johnny screams as the surroundings pass by him unnoticed. Using the full force of his new found abilities he rips through the air in the direction of the mountain that all his attention is focused upon. That is, until he suddenly stops. The shock being enough that his rage induced leviation breaks and he begins to drop deep down into the canyon below him. That's when he feels something grab him from behind. Quickly he is pulled back onto the edge of the cliff, just inches from falling to his death. Confused he turns around and sees Seraph as he asks his question. "YOU AGAIN! WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS?" As he yells he waves the daggers in the air franticly trying to emphasise his words, "I hope your getting a kick out of this because I AM GONNA RIP YOU A NEW ASS IF THIS SHIT DOESN'T STOP RIGHT NOW!!!! You want a fight, you FUCKING fight me. I'm tired of these FUCKING GAMES!!!!" Seraph gives a cold, calculating smirk. He is clad once more in his shifting black cloak, and leans back, folding one arm across his chest as the other flies up, hurling a sharp gust of wind out towards Johnny... likely not quite enough to send him over the edge again however. "Quiet, demon child.." the abomination says with a small grin on his grotesque lips, "If we were to duel now my powers would surpass yours... first you must learn, observe and make decisions - we are brothers now, the same, yet you are untapped." He folds his other arm with the other, appearing quite casual, though his yellow eyes flare with simmering hatred, "You shall take these tests, and we'll fight, abominable human boy, but I'll succeed! I was made to serve Benedict, he is -my- master and I his slave... I shall not lose to one such as you." Johnny raises one dagger out to point at the white man, "A FUCKING SLAVE? Well, at least you ADMIT it unlike the rest of the FUCKS in this world... I'm a slave to NO ONE! DO YOU HEAR ME? NOBODY TELLS ME WHAT TO DO!! You fucking boot-licking shit flinging COWARD!!!! I don't need your fucking tests!! I don't need your fucking power!! I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING DIE AT ANYONE'S HANDS!!" With a manic grin he adds, "...and by proccess of elimnation, that means your FUCKED!" Tearing after him his shadows pour off him in waves echoing his movements. As he stops just at the feet of Seraph the shadows catch up and blanket the man in a pool of darkness and cold. Once more the maniac strikes, this time aiming to jab a blade into either side of the hulking figure just under his ribs... Seraph calmly tosses his head back as the shadows begin to coalesce on his form, and a tiny line of space.. the breadth of a cat's whisker.. stops them from doing so, hovering just away from his body. As Johnny's strike comes in, the white-skinned fiend inches forward and flows into the shadows just off from his body, disappearing completely from view.. but of course... now logically he should be directly in front of his opponent, and no shock of pain comes, no attack springing from Johnny's own aura towards him. Johnny lets out a victorious scream as his daggers hit-absolutly nothing. Caught completly off guard he takes a step back and pulls inside his shadows trying to figure out what just happened. Finding nothing he scans the area as his rage continues to boil, "AGAIN??? YOU FUCKING CHEAP ASS BASTARD!!!" "You find that cheap, little one?" The voice croons out from back by the tree-line, where Seraph now leans in the deep green shadows of a majestic oak, his organic blade held almost casually in one hand.. the dark tip resting in the soul, as he reaches up with his other hand to toss back his lank white hair. He smirks, that cold, patronising expression he can be so fond of. "Funny.. an ability you yourself seek to use and suddenly it's 'cheap'... hmph." His hand shifts to the hilt of the sword and in a blur he shifts up in a vicious slash at the air between him and Johnny, a bladed curtain of shadow screaming towards the boy, slicing a narrow black gash in the floor as it travels. Johnny stares blankly as the attack comes towards him at blinding speed. Perhaps he is learning, perhaps he wasn't thinking, perhaps someone has too many movies, but reguadless Johnny throws his daggers up infront of him in defence and focuses on absorbing the shadows that make up the strike. Sure, it probably won't work, but it was worth a try, right? As Johnny attempts to absorb the shadows, he'll find himself experiencing an effect somewhat the reverse of that desired... he is becoming so familiar to this energy, perhaps more than it is to him, that the darkness absorbs -him-. Clearly it can be resisted, but.. if he chooses not to he'll find himself on a plane composed only of shadows. Not entirely of shadows, but.. nothing else is visible, just the shadow that surrounds and marks every solid object, and steps are taken as if between these shadows... the feeling is strange, like jumping around from object to object, rather than in coherent steps. Johnny feels the impact and struggles to keep his footing. Closing his eyes from the intensity of the attack he continues to try to pull them inside him, until suddenly he becomes filled with the sensation of choking. Opening his eyes he stares at this weird new landscape and growls oO(Now what...?) Well.. that's about it, the outlines of certain shapes are visible thanks to the coherency of their shadows, others less so - appearing just dark streaks of black against a background of... nothing. Not darkness, just absolutely nothing, a void so empty it transcends definition, but suffice to say the shadows stand out against it with great intensity. There is one shadow shifting around, shade laced into the outline of a familiar humanoid figure as Seraph strides away from his tree - also visible from its outline - and heads off away from Johnny. No sounds are audible, incidentally.. not even those made by your movements. Johnny wipes a hand over his eyes as if trying to clear the sight from his vision. Trying to run towards Seraph he stumbles, as if moving through some kind of thick syrup. On a chance he leaps towards the dark shadow of a nearby tree and is rather surprised to find that the motion comes quite easily. Scanning around for Seraph again he counts the number of shadows between himself and his pray and waits for an opportunity to leap... Seraph continues striding away, though soon enough he comes to a stop... his shape shifting to a combat stance, not facing Johnny but something else entirely, in an entirely opposite direction, it's clear from the shaping of the selective silhouette that he has his back to his would-be opponent. Johnny stares at what he assumes is Serahp's back for quite some time. This is the chance he's waited for, but something strikes him as odd. Instead of attacking, he readies his weapons and waits to see what happens next... On this plane of shadows very little is truly visible - half-silhouettes at best for the most part, trickles of what could be and what are.. to an untrained eye such as Johnny's particularly, there is little to significantly comprehend in the heaving mass of nothing. Seraph himself however is a man wreathed in shadow, so absorbed into their very being is he that he stands out against them, in their ranks not even as one of their own but as one among the very best of them. As he assumes his stance near the edge of the canyon, something can be seen crouched at the edge - a humanoid shape, but blurred and strange.. indiscernable almost, but with a certain familiarity none the less. Johnny watches for a good while, trying to decide the best course of action. Realising the shear number of shadows around him, he decides to try an experiment. Stabbing the ground with one of the knives, he tries to channel the shadow he stands upon. No real intent behind his actions, he mearly wants to test the boundries of his surroundings... Seraph shifts back towards Johnny suddenly, blade extended and angled in front of him to catch a vague wisp of shadow hurled from the equally vague and uncertain figure. Which follows through, dashing in on the silhouetted abomination and making a few movements.. it becomes clear the two are duelling to judge by Seraph's motions, and as they do his form flickers and blurs, the darkness becoming closer to nothing where it nears the rival figure. And should Johnny keep trying to channel those shadows, he'll find no power to control, no demands he can make, but on an insistent willing something starts to give and the world will begin to flow back into full technicolour, all senses returning slowly and smoothly the more force is applied. On release however, even for a milisecond, everything will fade back to shadow. Johnny blinks as things begin to shift back to normal as his attempt to absorb the stray shadow fails. Standing and surrendring his experiement the world fades into darkness once more. oO(Well now.. THAT was intresting....) With a grin he 'skips stones' towards Seraph and tries to stab as his silouhette, trying to absorb the shadows around him at the same time both to weaken him and to brake free of this world... As Johnny's blade comes in for Seraph's back, the two shadowy silhouettes do nothing so much as verge... the abomination continuing his silent duel with the wispy figure in front of him. Though said figure is even less visible now, blocked as it is by the white-skinned humanoid's back, the light seeming to flow off it feels like a hot fire burning near your flesh, searing away at the shadows currently masking your form. Suddenly Seraph stops, alerted at last - the alert prolonged by the delays between planes - to the daggers impaled inside his form. This hesitation allows the figure in front to jam something directly into the silhouetted fiend's heart and his shadows are sprayed out in a fine mist, his form no longer coherent though a slight thickness of movement around your hand suggests the daggers are still embedded in something... which becomes clear as in a rush everything returns to normal, a dull pop sounding in your ears as all sound and light are restored. Seraph stands impaled on two opponents, the one beyond still mostly unseen.. but if you were to peer left or right over the abomination a glimpse might be caught of a rhythmically flicking tail.. over his shoulder a pair of catlike ears. As the world returns around him Johnny grins at the sight of his daggers hitting their target. Twisting the dagger in his right hand, he pulls out the one in his left and shoves it up underneath Seraph's ribs. At the same time he continues to pull in the shadows from the man trying to drain him of everything he can. Focusing only on the kill, he pays no attention to anything else save for the feeling of energies being absorbed... Seraph's body twists alarmingly with the motion of Johnny's dagger, a spray of foul smelling red-black blood soaring out past the wrenched blade. This becomes a rapid stream, which sizzles gently on reaching the soil, as one dagger comes free - another spray marking its entrance up underneath Seraph's ribs. Meanwhile from the front you feel that other opponent yanking their blade free from the fiend's evil heart, another nasty squelch coupled with an attempt by the victim to double over, yet pinned in place by two daggers he only succeeds in worsening his wounds, doubling over with his pale lips wrenching in a pained grimace, more disgusting ichor pouring from his mouth and nose. "I knew it'd come to this..." murmurs a familiar voice from the other side, or two familiar voices as Cassandra's tone flows smoothly into Sammy's. Were Johnny to look up again, she is visible now standing straight at the edge of the canyon, her shining mithril blade held towards the ground in front of her and slowly leaking red-black fluid. And with the continual torment of Seraph comes his energy... pouring into Johnny and merging with his own, shadows twining with darker shadows and forming a lattice of pure power that envelops you and reaches out.. desperate to be taken in, to be used against the light.... Johnny smiles devilishly as he places his foot on the back of the fallen Seraph to worsen the blow from his daggers still more as he continues to try to drain him. Feeling the energies flow and merge within him he cackles, "NOW WHO IS KILLING WHO, BITCH!?" Applying even more pressure with his foot he leans down and twists his left hand dagger now. Briefly he glances up, something odd catching his eye and spots the form of someone standing against the cliff. oO(Sammy?) The skies darken, night descending in a rush as you further increase the intensity of the pain rocking Seraph.. pain clearly more even than he should be feeling, dark energies now coursing up and around his limbs, lashing across ashen flesh and drawing yet more blood, a thousand soft red-black sprays whipping out into the night air. His eyes bulge, flaring bright yellow and then dimming to a dull yellow sheen.. the abomination's body continuing to convulse as his power becomes one with Johnny's, the boost incredible - like being at the height of drunknness a hundred times over, but the feeling will pass when absorption is complete and leave you with just the greatest feeling of dominance, the greatest confidence possible in a mere mortal form. In front of the dying dark fiend, Samantha's eyes harden to steel, slitting as she watches, "Johnny.. stop it..." she commands, but quietly, as she lifts her blade to run the length of metal across her right bracer, wiping off the thick ichor there, turning her hardened sapphire gaze to watch as the moonlight begins to glint off a once more clean and smooth surface. Johnny continues his actions as he stares at his friend, his whole mind shifting into newer, darker forms as the energies pollute his body and draw him deeper into madness. "FUCK YOU! Fucking bitch... YOU WHERE READY TO CONDEM ME! Why the FUCK should I listen to YOU????" Samantha nods slowly, and looks down to the floor for a moment before flowing up into a stance.. left foot in front of the right with her right arm outflung, the sword's blade angled slightly forward and to the left in her grip. Her right hand is held out in a fashion she has come to adopt a great deal of late - fingers curled around that imaginary ball. Her expression is set and serious as she quietly continues to murmur over the death gurgle of Seraph, whose blood now soaks the soil in almost a one-metre diameter around him and Johnny. "Y'have to fight this, NNY.. I... I won't let it control you." She swallows, almost failing to keep up her strong demeanor but struggling back there somehow, appearing the calm and confident avenger once more.. "If that takes me killin' you, then.. I'll do it. But I'll getcha back again, I promise..." Johnny RIPS the 'dread daggers' out of Seraph's back, deliberatly ripping as much flesh as he can in the process. Flinging the weapons off to his sides to spray blood carelessly around him, he kneels on the corpse once more. "FUCK YOU! I'm not your fucking TOY! I'm sick of the fucking mind games! I'm sick with your taking advantage of me for your kicks! Ever since I met you you've been holding the memory of your father over me making me sit and stay like a fucking DOG. WELL, YOU HEAR ME? NO MORE! I'M NO ONE'S FUCKING PET! I'M NO ONE'S FUCKING SLAVE!!!!" Kicking the body forward he ducks into a fighting stance, channeling his energies to cloak himself in shadow once more, only his dark red eyes visible in the darkness. "You probably killed Terry before you came here, didn't you? Fucking whore... you'll die for that..." After listening to this tirade quietly, suppressing the pain she still feels on hearing a friend manipulated to say such things.. Samantha jerks visibly at the last, the ki starting to flicker over her left hand diminishing with a pathetic electric fizzle. "Johnny.. don't..." she stops, voice quivering and catching, and reaffirms her stance, "You're finished, Eff! After tonight there's no more! I.. don't.. have.. to TAKE THIS!" The last cry rips from her throat with the first of her tears as her feet shift and she rips forward in a blur, flickering into visibility onto the other side of Seraph's corpse. With a rage-filled shout - providing a momentary pause - she slings her blade around, ki soaring down the shining length as it comes in towards your left shoulder. Her left hand is slung out backwards now to keep her balanced as her feet slip and slide in the blood-slick soil. Johnny watches the neko-girl move at her top speed, and smirks as for the first time he sees it all to clearly. Stepping back as she goes to swing at him he easily avoids her attack. At the same time he increases the darkness around him as he spins around to her side, kicking her over onto Seraph's corpse... Samantha is already stumbling as her slash misses, and the kick slams into her side. Grunting slightly she lets her sword fall and twists her body lithely around, suppressing the pain with a silent mantra as she tucks into a ball and comes out of the aerial roll with her left leg aimed in a bone-breaking kick to Johnny's left right arm... seems like she's not going for a kill. Her right leg tucks back, with her right fingers braced to the floor behind Seraph's still form the girl is ready to flick up into a tail-spinning somersault the moment her kick connects.... Johnny grins in amusement at the girl's physical attack. Ducking down as she kicks, he slashes outwards with his left hand dagger at the bottoms of her shins. Laughing he flicks the blood off the blade onto her, assuming his counter attack works.... Samantha feels the pain, and a wince crosses her expression, but she has already felt the impact too and acted accordingly.. twirling neatly into a spinning flip up and to the left. Since this doesn't involve the use of her left leg, aside from tucking it in, she barely notices the injury - suppressed as the pain is by her mantra - until she comes into contact with the floor and attempts to spin effortlessly around to face you. The sliced muscle gives way and she drops to one knee, a crack sounding as some unidentified bone snaps in her left leg... the limb lying in an uncomfortable position on the sodden floor. Eyes widen and fearful suddenly, tears streaming down her cheeks, she looks up at you, "Th-this is stupid... I never.... I never knew they were this strong." Her head lolls as she tries to remain conscious, channelling energy into her right hand.. which courses with blue-white ki, the stuff promptly coalescing at the tips of her fingers into fiery 'claws', "F-Faia-neko-te..." she gasps out in a rush, keeping her glazed gaze fixed upon you. Johnny grins and stands up straight. Looking down at the wounded girl as she charges her next attack he begins to chuckle, "That's because things have changed, Sammy... things have changed." Reaching into the cloud of shadows that continues to surround him a loud crunch is head. The sound of styrofoam braking. Lifting up his right hand from the darkness he begins to chuckle again. In the palm of his hand is the head of Mr Eff. "Oh! ...and by the way... Mr Fuck is dead..." Laughing he throws the display stand's head at the girl while still making no attempt to block her charging attack... Those pale blue claws shimmer and blaze at Samantha's fingertips as she listens, her tears continuing to fall, her bottom lip aquiver. As the head is slung towards her she gasps and hops aside, half-falling and throwing out her left hand to steady herself. Her tears start to fall more quickly, scattering down to soak with Seraph's pooled blood, "Shut up!" She exclaims desperately, and almost falls again, this time from a deep feeling of utter helplessness. Shaking her head fiercely she throws herself forward off the ground and blurs, possibly faster than she's ever been seen to be before, crossing the distance all but instantly and aiming a clawed slash for your chest before throwing forward her left hand - drawn back during the leap - with a ki-charged punch aimed directly for your right cheek if and when you stagger back from the first vicious blow, "BURNING!" Johnny is undergoing a moment of over confidence and is rather shocked at the sudden slash accross his chest. However, this moment has already ended as he catches a glimpse of her left hand just before it strikes his face. In a single fluid motion he tosses the left hand dagger into the air and catches her wrist just before the fist connects. Meanwhile he resheaths the one in his right hand and catches the falling dagger as it falls. Leaning into her face he smirks, "Why should I? Does it make you nervous to see your pet strike up against it's master?" Disgusted he kicks her in the stomach to push her away.... Samantha's eyes widen further as Johnny leans in, the ki around her fist dissipating harmlessly as it is stopped before reaching its intended point of impact. "Johnny, I-nngh!" The last a grunt as his blow meets her stomach and she flies back, still in the air from her ki-charged flight. With the flying back her instincts kick in to lower her legs to the floor, and the left promptly twists and buckles, another snap sounding before the nekogirl slumps onto her side. The claws around her right hand finally fizzle away to nothing too, a few vague milky blue-white wisps working away into the night's gloom. "Please..." Sammy whimpers out, looking up at from you from where she lies in the blood, her unbound hair lying around her and shining with the foul ichor of Seraph's demise. "I.. I just wanted to... to help you...." Johnny resheaths the other dagger as he throws his hands to the side, the shadows forming into the now familiar double bladed scythe once more. "HELP ME? IS THAT WHAT YOU WHERE DOING WHEN YOU TOLD THAT WINGED PERVERT TO KEEP ME LOCKED UP? WHERE YOU HELPING ME WHEN HE NEARLY SLICED MY ARM OFF?? FUCK YOUR HELP!!!" Johnny begins to twirl the weapon around with both hands, the shadows swirling around the scythe mocking Seraph's wind attack. "You KILLED Terry... You USED me... YOU TURNED THEM ALL AGAINST ME!!! FUCK YOU!!!!" Increasing the speed of the weapon's rotation and thus the strength of the attack. But unlike Seraph's strike, Johnny begins to walk towards Sammy, forcing her and the corpse back towards the edge of the cliff. "FUCK YOUR INTENTIONS! FUCK YOUR HELP!!! FUCK THIS WORLD, AND FUCK ALL THESE SELF RITEOUS BASTARDS WHO LET PEOPLE LIKE ME GO FREE!!!! This world needs to join the fate of the last..." Even if she could resist the power of the winds, Samantha is not doing so... she merely keeps whimpering as she listens, her ears flattening back across her head, her tail vainly struggling to keep some semblances of balance as she is sent half-scrambling backwards. The corpse meets the edge first, and hearing the first spray of dirt tumbling down into the vast canyon the nekogirl cries out desperately and throws up her hand, trying to see past the raging winds whipping her hair in front of her eyes for long enough to focus on Johnny. She fails miserably, but floods her hand with energy anyway and sends off a violent burst of ki, this flickering somehow with a variation on your own newfound shadow energies, blazing blue-white streaked through with blackness - framed and strengthened by shadows... Johnny stops abruptly as the the strange energies rocket back towards him. His concentration broken, the weapon and the cloud of shadows vanish into the air from the strike leaving only the disfigured silohette of the black boy standing against the skyline. His eyes wide with surprise, "Just what the hell was that?" His guard completly down he simply stares in shock trying to understand where such an attack could have come from... Samantha pushes herself up on one hand, and begins to laugh.. that more mature sound she so rarely allows to escape, and this time it contains a dark edge, the kind of nasty humour one would never expect from the perky nekogirl - malicious, mocking. Her wounds begin to heal over, the leg making a few sickening crunches as it repairs, and she straightens up to stand facing you. With a harsh grin she turns and pushes Seraph's bloody and broken corpse over the edge, using one foot.. after watching it fall she turns again and gives a thumbs up, "Weren't expectin' that, huh?" Johnny stares blankly at the girl as she gives her thumbs up. All his rage and lust for her blood momentairaly forgotten. "Yeah... where'd you learn that one from?" Samantha flashes a grin, more playful this time.. and throws both her hands forward - palms out and fingers locked together. Energy flares between the slender digits, "Where? I've always been able to do this stuff... just.. never had to before." She gives a faint shrug and lets the shadow energy flare too, black and blue sparks and bolts flying from her hands. "Seeya, Johnny!" And with that the energies coalesce and almost instantly form a gigantic ball of pure power, twice again the height of the girl by the time it covers half the distance to Johnny, blue sparks lighting up the area even as the black deepends the shadows. The juxtaposition of energy types gives a strange effect both visually and upon the other, deeper senses too... the girl keeps her hands out-thrust, focused on the sphere of power. Johnny shakes his head in confusion of his own actions. With a smirk he watches her slowly build her powers and then decides it's past time he did something about it. Remembering what he had done not even an hour before, he pulls out the daggers once more. Instantly the shadows begin to spread out from him blackening out the sky behind him. Concentrating on the dark places around him he tries to force himself into that shadow world once more... Samantha's eyes widen as her monstrous attack sails through the air where Johnny stood a mere split-second before. Hurriedly she reaches back for her tanto and pulls it free with a dull *shing* before falling into her more regular stance, looking around with wild eyes as she searches for the source of the next attack. "Get back here! I.. I have to end this before you hurt anyone else, Johnny!" Johnny appears just behind the girl, standing in the shadow that formed when her attack lit up the area around it. With his hands already above his head he mutters, "The only one I'm gonna hurt is you..." Then, if she doesn't react fast enough, he brings the blades down into her shoulder blades reopening the long healed over wounds that he had once before inflicted... As Johnny speaks, Samantha spins around to lash out with her blade, ready to knock him back and follow through with an incapacitating kick... simultaneously trying to bite down the pain his words tear within her... when all this intent is hurled away as both blades hammer down into her, cracking bone and ripping flesh, twin sprays of blood letting out into the night and across her would-be killer. "W-why...?" She gasps out, before biting down on her lip, eyes closing as she falls to her knees in front of you, half-turned to the side after the momentum of her spin. Her tanto clatters to the dirt below as her fingers fall suddenly nerveless, her body failing to respond to her demands... Johnny knealing down beside her he pushes the hair out her her face and smirks, "Because Sammy... some lessons have to be taught at the loss of someone's life. This world is too precious to flaunt, and that is something you seem to do on a daily basis. It comes so easy to you to just manipulate people to get your way. Whether that be for some greater purpose or simply to revel in the enjoyment of watching others suffer humiliation by your actions. You've even admited to such actions openly torturing people who are shy to women by flaunting yourself infront of them like a two-bit whore. Don't you understand? Imagine the horrors you've caused on other people! Imagine the humiliations you've done to others... Did you think about the other person's feelings? Did ever take a moment to put yourself in their shoes? Bad enough that your so ready to cast people off because of their upbrining, but to manipulate people like that? This world is filled with filth like you... But since you look like you might understand this, I'll let you go... and watch you... but keep in mind, I will be there... waiting... there are others that need my attention, dear Sammy. But I'll always keep my eyes on you..." Standing he chuckles, "I guess I do owe your father that much..." With a shifting of his shadows he vanishes into the darkness leaving the girl to find her own way back... And there's that chuckle again... horrible dry, malicious sound resounding out from the direction of that still-distant mountain. "Good.." the foul voice hisses out, seeming to aim directly into Johnny's skull, "But can you afford to let her live? The only one who might rid you of power...? Are you really so weak to spare a foul creature like that, when so many others die in her place? She could strip you, destroy you.. this needs to be finished, and now. Else why bother? Why have such a quest as yours if you fail by dearth of your pathetic.. human.. compassion?" Meanwhile, still on the floor, Samantha remains breathing heavily after Johnny's tirade.. her eyes totally glazed and dead, her entire form quivering. Slowly she slumps down, letting her hair cover her face, and heaving a horrible wracking sob as she breaks down for the fourth time... Johnny turns and screams at the darkness. "FUCK YOU! I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING SLAVE! She's learned her lesson... So FUCK HER! If she comes after me again, I can easily rip her apart... she's nothing but a burned out wreck. Why bother killing her? It's not compassion, it's logic. Why waste my effort?" "Learned her lesson? Demon child... I might have overestimated you..." the voice breaks down into a fierce chuckle once more and behind Johnny Samantha's form twists and fades into the blood-soaked floor, becoming nothing.. the blood too then fades away, followed by the landscape slowly starting to shimmer - everything but Johnny himself becoming nothingness. There is no forest, no distant mountain, no trace of Seraph and.. no shadow plane. That unholy power flows from your limbs and leaves you once more what you were before dying... possibly even less, as every trace of the influence is removed. "See what I can do? Without my power you're as pathetic as the rest of them.. a 'burnt-out wreck' yourself.... you need me to reap the chaff from this world, and I need you to execute such a task for me. That girl.. the one you -think- you killed, little one, truly must die... or we are all doomed. That foul tailed creature could lay evil to waste given a chance.. she could ruin the balance... would you have us all a gaggle of raving hypocrites? Make this world a haven for fools? Is that truly your desire, Johnny?" Johnny wobbles as he tries to stand. His right arm hanging on by mere tendrals. The bones and muscles in his face exposed beneath flaps of dangling skin. Blood once more flowing freely from the wizard's attack. Dropping to his knees he stares up at the surrounding darkness and screams, "YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF FOR ALL I CARE!" Dropping down, and barely managing to catch himself with his one good hand he coughs up a lung full of blood and chuckles weakly. "If your looking for a dog you can look somewhere else... I don't need to make a deal with you... At least if I die, this shit'll end. Now the real question is, where the hell are YOU going to find someone to feed you? I bet your just like that fucking wall beast. I FELT it when Seraph used his energy. I SAW it when that stupid water thing danced around me... You know what I'm capable of... you know what I can do. If I live, I'm gonna find a way to show these fucks wheather you get to feed from that or not... You gonna give that chance up? ARE YOU REALLY THAT FUCKING STUPID?" Grimicing in pain he drops down to the ground under his own weight. His right arm nearly snapping free of the few muscle fibers that still hold it on.... "Interesting.." the voice increases in intensity, hammering into your skull.. the chuckle becoming constant as it did within in the forest before, creating a disorientating effect with the words laid over a bed of malicious laughter. "It seems the broken wreck of a boy here thinks he can bluff... but yes. Yes, Johnny.. of course I know what you're capable of... you might even surpass me, your intent is strong, your will to kill is almost.. succulent. But that is -nothing-." This one word is hissed by four voices all at once, all a slightly different pitch and echoing around each other, "Nothing when contained within a puny human form.. my power can elevate you above that, give you what you need to succeed in this world of chaff. We are the wheat Johnny, we must be harvested and retained to rule over what remains - this field is ripe bed of corruption, hypocritical oafs who consider themselves better because they are greater in number and far lesser in intelligence.... this has to end! This has to end and you want -you- to do it... Seraph aided me for many years, but he was too servile, too pathetic, too willing to become my slave.. you have confidence, you would surpass me given time and you have such a desire - I FEEL IT." Again with the echoing, and now something appears knelt in front of Johnny, not of great size but at the same time impossibly huge, the aura of evil accompanying it more powerful than it has ever been, enough in this one void of nothing to level an entire world, it is almost palpable even on normal senses. But what the form consists of is indiscernable, humanoid and beastly, something and nothing, just the evil is certain. And the power. "Or would you suppress your urges and be made their lapdog? Pander to the tailed one and become her whipping boy?" Johnny forcibly lifts his head up to stare in the direction of such wicked power. "Read what's left of my lips. FUCK OFF... I'd rather die than be a servant to anyone... you, that cat-whore... anyone... You want someone to kill off the scum of this world, I'm your man. But I'll be damned if I give myself over to you... So, it's going to be your call..." Dropping back down to the ground again, he spits out more blood and smirks, "you gonna sit here and watch me die and all your hopes and dreams with it, or you you gonna get off your ass and help me?" The dark and indiscernable figure chuckles as it straightens up, and there is now no doubt that this.. thing.. this corrupt icon of evil power is far, far larger than life. Looming in front of you in this infinite void of nothing is a dread creature whose aura likely surpasses anything the young maniac has felt before - even Satan himself. For a more recent reference, the flood of power licking at your body is at least five times greater than that felt when Cassandra surfaced only a few days before to slay that horrible inner demon. This is power, dark and evil, and unstoppable. "You have the spirit I need... and don't fear, my servant you'll only become if that's the way your idiotic mortal form sways. I'll not force your actions beyond suggestion." A smirk enters the tone, though nothing changes about the looming form. "I don't need to..." A hand becomes visible now, either gauntleted, clawed.. or both... and on a scale as huge as the rest of Benedict's mass as he reaches out towards Johnny, palm opening and sending a burst of darkness forward, which centres upon you before flooding the void - purity of nothing becoming something, but something dark, as dark as the souls inhabiting it. "Take your power back.. take my gift and use it. Fail to impress me, however, and Seraph shall not be the only to perish under my leadership...." Another hand raises and the demon-god's voice slips into that strange alien tongue, a chant beginning and filling everything as the voice multiplies and increases in intensity, a thousand booming, evil voices lifted together to work whatever sinister magick they work. Johnny grins as his form becomes restored. Climbing to his feet again he pops a few of his joints and checks himself over as the energy within him increases. He is especialy impressed to find the two daggers once more at his sides. Listening to the voices chant out their magics Johnny's skin grows dark once more as the dark shadows within him surge alive once more. Growing completly black as the shadows envelop the rest of him and change his form into that demonic silohette once more the homacidal maniac begins to laugh aloud. "...then this world is truly about to suffer for it's actions..." The chanting stops abruptly and the dark figure of Benedict is suddenly far less imposing, similar in height and stature to Johnny himself.. a slender man clad in dark black chainmail, a strange greatsword slung across his back. Or.. not man, rather a particularly slender and lithe example of the creatures encountered in the Badlands, green-skinned and slightly neanderthal in appearance. The voice is the same however.. "I.. could not agree more, Johnny..." heaving a soft, satisfied sigh he lifts a hand and displays, held between thumb and forefinger, a small gem, like a diamond but black and surrounded by a strange dark aura that slowly diminishes as the surface of the forged gem cools. "This will protect you always.. in this world, it shall not be found. I will still be playing by the rules but... this ruined city shall be my host, and you shall live as long as I see fit." He flashes a sly grin, dark blue eyes flashing with triumphant amusement, and flings the gem out to one side.. the thing accelerating and becoming not even a blur as it whips away into the blackness, quickly disappearing. This done, Benedict chuckles and steps up to Johnny, offering a mailed hand in a grip for Johnny's own. "Together we shall make these fools pay. Agreed?" Benedict smiles and withdraws his hand, lifting it to fold with the other across his chest. "Good.." he purrs darkly, and inclines his head in a bow of sorts, "Then I bid you farewell. We'll speak again soon... until then, do what you will." There is the softest clink of mail, and then the demon-god is gone, nothing remaining in his place.. except that blackness, which in a rush swoops in on Johnny and hammers him with a disorientating wave of power - attempting to overload his just-recovered body and also add to its power, restoring it to what it was before, shortly after slaying Seraph, and more again... Johnny turns his head away from the onslaught of energies that blast upon him from out of nowhere. However his eyes soon open again as he realises that even more had been forced into him. Laughing histericly from the over abundance of energies surging through him he fails to notice that the darkness is fading away until it is already gone. Going silent and blinking his eyes he glances around the wrecked abandend room in confusion and several minutes go by before he realises where he is. Running from room to room in complete disbeilief he wonders the extent of what he had missed during his time in that other world, but upon looking out the large window in the empty living room, he realises that he no longer cares. With his friend gone, there's nothing to keep him from his goals. The time had finaly come for this town, and his vengence would be swift and sweet... | |