Once upon— he was a ruler, a King of men. He wielded his halberd oppressing the million souls that served under his banner. They lined up as far as the eye could see, filling the encroaching darkness with a speck of life, a meager remedy for the hopelessness. He sat atop a throne of skulls and bones of his fallen foes. With a wave of his halberd all would kneel before him, for he was their eternity.
Now— he finds himself, nothing but a beast among men.
The woman's resistance, it irks him, it festers within him. He dislikes it— he dislikes the woman.
The woman thinks similarly. To her the beast must fall, her final stepping stone to return to life. The final task Rin gave her, and the moment where she proves all her misfortune was meaningful.
The two face off in silent anger as the palace ground lay in ruin. Buildings demolished and debris wasted all over the place. The Tyrant King's three faces share the solidarity of a seething wrath, veins throbbing across its monstrously large body, a frightening contrast compared to the small woman's serious face rife with determination. He howled, his aura spreading as it stirred the foggy surroundings. He thrusted his halberd in a rabid ferocity, striking at the woman with wanton abandonment. Every time she dodged with her lithe movements he'd follow with his mace, crashing it into the earth where he assumed she'd be. Its poisonous goop splattering across the landscape, giving it a pop of dangerous colour.
The woman herself was by no means a slouch either, as they battled and the beast's wrath and ferocity riled up, so too did her own emotions. With them her powers surged just the same, her emotions fueling them as the flames burned hotter against his flesh, as too did the biting chill of her ice as it gnawed at him. She was agile and graceful as she ran circles around him, avoiding his powerful strikes with the skill of a dancer. Yet despite it all, his resistance seemed to agitate her in the same way her own resistance agitated him. She wanted to be done with him, to slice his heads off right off his neck and go back. She cursed his efforts, a ghost manifested from the past dared to get in her way and it fueled her anger causing her to turn restless. It was rather ironic, the more he struggled to slow her down, the more he fueled her powers, hastening his own demise.
Priscilla wielded earthen daggers, enhanced with the most vile chill she could muster, she used the wind to slide across the ground, gliding a hair's breadth away from it, as she approached the beast's heel. She dug her dagger into it, lifting the blade up, slicing a vertical slash that reached the backside of his knee. The beast grimaced, kicking back with his other leg. It caught the woman off guard as her body bounced off the earth repeatedly, before she slammed against the broken down wall of a building they'd previously wrecked. She kicked off it, manifesting a tempest of wind and water surging around her like a deluge as she clashed once more with the Tyrant King, she was unstoppable and undeterred. The man recoiled, he thrust with all his might with his halberds. The two titans clashed in their reckless assault, in an unforgiving abandonment with no regard to anything or anyone. The beast in his fury threw his weapons down, flexing his six arms. His speed skyrocketed as he began pelting her with a barrage of punches. Priscilla flicked her wrist, forming an intricate pattern of illuminated markings on her arm as a thickly woven barrier of flame halted the rampaging beast.
As he clashed against it, she lunged through the flames, feeling their warm embrace as she thrust her ice imbued dagger at the man's face. She caught him off guard, unsuspecting of a counterattack, as her blade stabbed into his eye. With a swift flick she drove it upwards ripping the eyeball out and scarring one of his faces.
The man's eyes bulged, in that moment he snapped, his palpable desire for her flesh seethed the air around him as the hairs on his body stood erect. His aura surged— intensifying and transforming. His neck snapped, detaching from his torso in an absurd way. His heads began to rotate— they gyrated around his torso in a bizarre phenomenon as the blood poured heavily down his wounded eye.
''I. AM. AZZI. DAHKA.'' the beast's heads roared unanimously. ''I RULED THE ELEVENTH HELL FOR AEONS. I RULED THE DAMNED FOR ETERNITY. I WILL NOT BOW TO MORTALITY.''
His torso began to contort, the sound of cracking bones and snapping ligaments echoed through the air. He squirmed like an octopus as his body changed, it became something— strange. His limbs grew like pustulant growths, enlarging numerous times over, swelling into an abomination to the sight. His once man-like figure personified the bestial side now more than anything. There he stood with his disfigured four limbed bottom, atop a growth of flesh that formed his torso, connected to a singular spinal bone that ran tall as his neck rotated violently on it.
''YOU SHALL KNOW FEAR, KNAVE.'' the creature spat, its voice horribly grating to the ears. ''NONE SHALL DEFY AZZI DAHKA!''
As the beast changed, so too did the city itself. The etched carvings of the city's people began to shimmer with dazzling light, it raised the banner in opposition of the beast. Through space— through time. Through fiction— through reality. Their beliefs manifested in an ethereal glow that illuminated the foggy palace grounds, the rays of light bouncing off the translucent gemstones irradiating the palace grounds in vibrancy. Priscilla's own heart seemed to stir as well— a direct opposition to the beast's grotesqueness, her emotions fluctuated— her eyes glowed with power, her piercing cerulean gaze brimming with powerful vitality as she gazed coldly at the monstrous creature in front of her.
Priscilla's heart thumped with a sonorous melody that fueled the rings of power around it, they orbited her heart with an intense speed that made them dissolve into a blur of indecipherable energy.
''And I am Priscilla Valentine, the girl who slayed the ruler of the Eleventh Hell.'' she replied with a sinister reverb in her voice. The markings on her back glowed with fanatical vibrancy as they manifested patterns of wings that stretched across her back embracing her shoulders and arms. She jumped into the air seemingly hovering in space as the skies above trembled. A storm brewed billowing overhead as the land and sky flipped in contrast, lightning crackled and thunder roared, agitating the Tyrant King and his bestial senses. The danger electrified the air causing his disfigured body to writhe in fury. From his eyes a crimson red mist seeped out forming five tangible blood pearls in front of each— he swallowed them into his body, with a roar pillars of blood twisted out of the earth, frenzied cyclones of devastation that pulled towards Priscilla.
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The woman slapped her hand down, a bolt of lightning, thick as a serpent heard her call as it struck the creature, but it gnashed its teeth, howling into the void as the bloody cyclones crashed into Priscilla. They wanted to submerge her— to bury her in a path that leads nowhere, but in this moment she was too proud— too cold-blooded to allow them to succeed. She would never allow herself to lose it all— to give in and to break. She had the courage to fight back— to endure, and to defy. She manifested a swirling pillar of flames that surrounded her body, it boiled the bloody cyclones— a sanguine nightmare for the creature who howled in pain.
The blood was formed of its essence, of its vision— it could feel the searing heat coursing through its body, weakening it with every passing moment. It bit into one of its own heads, the sound of crunching causing Priscilla to momentarily pause— as the beast swallowed it, his body writhed once more as large wings emerged from his back, formed of muscle and flesh. The Tyrant King flew up into the sky— matching up to Priscilla's own display of levitating there seemingly unbothered. A crown of blood formed around the creature's neck, its eyes rolled into the back of its faces— the pale whites now on full display as blood seeped out of his eye sockets. The creature spat as a crimson beam of energy lacerated the air, striking at Priscilla's head. She waved her arm upwards, striking the beam with a push of wind that sent her body reeling downwards, avoiding the bloody attack.
Their battle was truly reminiscent of the carvings Priscilla had seen throughout the city— maybe there weren't any horses to ride into battle, but despite that the clash between righteousness and evil shook the very nation beneath their feet. A clash of titans that changed the landscape and brought upon calamitous consequences. The creature seeped in its own blood, driven mad by hate. Priscilla too struck it with the elements time and time again. Neither giving in to the other, neither willing to bow down. As they pushed against each other they separated, Priscilla roared with hysteria— provoked and angered, her body illuminated like the very Star itself in the heavens— glowing with perverse intensity. She lifted her hands up towards the heavens, a guttural howl escaping through grit teeth as the skies themselves came ablaze. A blade manifested penetrating into the heart of the cosmos as it blotted out the skies and creation— she flicked her hand down sending the blade crashing to the creature's dismay, before it could react— before it could do anything, the blade sliced down, onto it and into the distance. The creature burst into ash as its body and mind turned to dust— the landscape severed as a valley formed stretching into the depths of the world. An ungodly crack in the earth that defied logic, spanning across countless nations.
Priscilla's body shimmered and dulled— the glow that covered her flickered like a firefly at the end of its path, the glow in her eyes fading as her body swiftly descended to the ground. She knelt once more in the sandy embrace— panting violently for air as her fingers clenched the grains of sand. As she felt the warm grains and the starlight dangling overhead, she couldn't help but laugh loudly. She had done it, was it enough for Rin? She didn't know, but she felt amazing. In the end there she felt such a tremendous power, something akin to harnessing the world around her. It was frightening and exciting. Genuinely overwhelming in the best way possible. A tangible force that she could wield for the sake of her desires.
''Rin! I did it!'' she shouted happily. The nation around her crumbled in sparks, streaks of light illuminating in a dazzling array, before she found her back in Rin's garden. She sat among the flowers as they enveloped her in softness Zae-Rin sat indulgently while looking the girl over with a smile.
''Excellent, child. That battle was spectacular! How did it feel? What have you learned from it?'' Zae-Rin asked.
''At the end... my emotions became unsuppressed, I felt the resonance grow countless times as it connected to something beyond my understanding. I could see the world, I could see the limits of the sky and surpass them. I... don't know. It felt surreal.'' Priscilla replied honestly.
''Yes, that is correct, child. This is what a perfect resonance truly means, the laws of creation you have the potential to wield. The elements which weave the world desire to answer your call, but the boundaries of the worlds block them. In that moment you felt the limitless potential truly surge and connect, through the reality, through the manifestation, it came to be. The nation's desires aligned with your own strong emotions in that moment, forcing a gap in the boundary and letting you truly manifest the power in your heart.'' Zae-Rin said, before standing up and walking out of her gazebo. ''This is the one thing I truly wanted you to experience before you return. So you can know the limitations of your heart that don't exist. The living realm may be stricter when it comes to the boundaries, you might feel the uncomfortable sensation and weakness of being detached from that connection, but you must persist to make this moment, a reality that you can bring forth at all times.'' she added.
''Will the difference really be so drastic if I return?'' Priscilla asked somewhat warily. She wanted revenge, she wanted to be strong and to live a life without being always contained by others. If she lost this power— could she survive?
''It will be a challenge, definitely. The worlds are simply too different, even the Deities could hardly break the rules— let alone remnants of their will and power. You'll find it to be the tiniest thread of power that you can still manifest, you can train it and broaden it, but it will take time. It took me countless years before I reached a level I was happy with... how long it'll take you, I cannot say. But as long as you can endure, you'll find yourself wielding the power before you can even yearn for it.''
''Honestly, you won't need to worry about it, child. No matter how estranged your resonance becomes, your body is far stronger now than most mortals could ever dream of. You've been put through so much tempering that they would never understand the difficulties. As long as you use your wits and never get too arrogant, they will find it hard to ever catch you— ever stop you.'' she added with a smile.
''For now... you should just rest, child. You've done well for yourself in all this time. I— couldn't be prouder of what you've accomplished, and I hope you'll do tremendous things once you return. Soon... I'll send you on your way, back to the realm of life— back to the Empire— back to where your heart and your desires lie.'' Zae-Rin added with a tinge of melancholy in her voice.
The woman waved her hand forming a tender cabin around Priscilla, letting her body and mind recover for her journey. Meanwhile she sighed with a heavy heart. The girl had done it— part of her hoped she would fail, to remain a tad longer, but unfortunately even in a place without time... time must go on. It had to happen eventually where she'd need to leave. She truly had met all of her expectations, now would she remember her promise in the end. Would she be willing to go through with it. This she couldn't know, not right now at least. No matter how much she hoped, nor how high her confidence was, one could never tell the fate of the future.