Chapter 19: Chapter 19

“Za. Kronous’ beasts are gathering on the western flank. We have no information about why, or the specific amounts that are mustering, but the forces are there. And they have a Greater Hellhound at their head, so we need some reinforcements there” Kiko was, all of a sudden, thrust into this man’s head, and he was being spoken to by a surprisingly familiar person. Though she was speaking to Kiko, it was not Kiko who responded, instead a man with a deep, and commanding voice.

“Mmm, I’ll send them something. Tell the Maiden to expect a Sending” he replied, before drawing the Crystal Talon. Her Crystal Talon. Thief! Vagabond! Bandit! She wanted to claw his eyes out, but the man didn’t seem to be bothered about the ghost who was spitting venom at him. He cut his palm with the blade, and then held it up and began to speak. While speaking she got a feeling resonating through him, something of great power and of great elegance.

 

“This silence offends me. I desire the vibrancy of noise. Reaching my hand across the Ether, I extend it to you, for the beautiful cacophony you offer unto me. Take my hand, and bring joy; Talai Zahai!” the elegant power shuddered from the very core of her – or his? – being, ran up the sword, and then swelled and vanished. A few seconds later, a thunderous roar erupted from the west, followed by the man smiling. “That should handle the greater, if nothing else. How’s front, front, Sagi?” The man asked. Sagi looked back, and her eyes…were different. It was Yellow when Kiko saw it, but here, a soft, light blue, barely even blue, and the crimson red eye was a much softer colour as well, more pink than red.

“Not great. Pyric victory has taken back Astor City, just to fuckin’ lose it again when a reprisal came. We are spinning our bloody wheels here, where the hell is Sean in all this?” Sagi was not the regal and calm woman that Kiko had met, but one of blunt words and vulgar tongue.

 

“The Universe is a big place, Sagi. And there are creatures far beyond our ken that would be to us as we are to ants. He cannot be everywhere at once, and he can not appear in every battlefield to sweep away the ants that invest the picnic of Creation. That is our job” the Kitsune – Za, he had been called – was one of sound mind and firm convictions, to pacify Sagi as he did.

“Tsk, I get that, alright. I do have a fragment of him in me. It’s just, seeing so many people die, knowing he could take this entire planet by himself and not even notice there were forces arrayed against him…It’s frustrating. So! I am going to take my Bloodmoons and frustrations, and head over to Astor. Ruins of Astor at this point, but there will be things to kill” Sagi nodded, and then left him to his Kitsuning.

 

Kiko watched Za take a seat and then, look to the bright blue sword.

“Though I am sad, Ka’za’lie. Knowing you are in fights so far beyond us does not help the despair of knowing that you could still end this inside a day” Za spoke to the sword, and sighed softly, before entering a meditating pose. Kiko, between astonished thoughts of what kind of being could be so powerful to get this kind of admiration and respect, felt what he was doing instantly, as if it was her own body. Every deep breath in flushed new power into her body, and every exhale released exhausted power from her body. She could feel something, separate from her own body, flux and grow with each breath, until an extrasensory alert pinged in her mind, and her eyes flew open. She had become melded with him, his words were her words, his actions were her actions. She was Him.

“Goetia” Za’s gentle whisper sent a shudder through his body, and from there he stood. A few gently spoken orders were given to Tvk. Black wings and black armour, the man was one of Lucy’s soldiers. Not anyone of note in the galaxy, but Za respected the man’s skill and discipline. and then he set off, at a great pace, releasing some half-visible light from his feet with every step and granting him exceptional speed from that. Eventually, he was in range of the oncoming horde. A Goetia would not move alone. Za grasped the sword firmly, the energy he had been inhaling filtered into the blade, and it turned from a deep crystal blue to a strong yellow colour, identical to Sagi’s modern eye.

 

The horde rushing towards them was made up mostly of Hellhounds and Squawks, covering air and ground, but there was a giant creature lumbering at the front. As if someone had made a gorilla from drunken memory, it lurched with abnormal movements, seeming more a puppet or machine being piloted than a natural, living creature. Seeing this, Za exhaled and swung his sword. The words resonated in his soul, and Kiko heard them though they were not spoken. Solaris Paragon Artarius. The slash of the blade hissed, water boiling and air turning to plasma for a moment as the incredible heat raged through the air, and cut through anything in it’s way, creatures exploding in gouts of steam. The gorilla fared no different, and revealed a woman sat inside. Either she was missed by the burning slash, or it did nothing to her. The second was liable. 

“What’s one of the Zian Goetia doing here?” Za asked, pointing his sword to the elegant woman with toned muscles who had just stepped out. She was mostly humanoid, and of normal height. Surprisingly humble for a being of magic, but the Zian clan never bothered with such trivialities. It was fighting they wanted.

 

“I do love being recognized. It makes all the effort I put into this so worthwhile” the woman flicked a hand and the horde of monsters charging towards Za stopped in their tracks. Howling, baying and slavering, but stopped in their tracks. “But if you know who I am then you know why I am here. It’s a huge fight, of course the Zian clan are going to be represented. Besides” the Zian woman pulled out a wooden tablet, and on it, strange symbols were carved. “I’ve already been paid”.

“The Oracle of Delphi” there was surprise in Za’s voice. A touch of avarice – because that was a hundred king’s ransoms – and a touch of relegation. “Then I shall speak no longer” Za nodded, and set into a stance, the yellow colour growing deeper. The Zian woman, for her part, spawned a pair of greatswords from bursts of flame from her hands. While most supernatural warriors enjoyed the drawing-slice action of the katana – sometimes even being necessary to compete due to the first-strike advantage it had over others – the Zian clan made weapons already drawn, and so they focused on size and crushing force to best use their overwhelming might against the enemy.

 

And then it began, the Zian Woman moved with preternatural speed, the first greatsword swinging and hitting Za’s parry. Though the force was too great and after an attempt to keep his footing, he was blown back, the second blade coming swinging to slice him in half. It never got there, however, as three of his tails moved in to intercept. The fur of the tails flattened against the tail and clashed against the greatsword, stopping its movement. Kitsunes were so hard to fight because the elders had many tricks for combat surrounding their tails, and so you had to fight five to nine ‘people’ for every Kitsune you went up against. She came up against the second lot of tricks as three more tails rushed in, the Fox Fire held at the tip and fur focused into a point that jabbed at her while Za regained his footing, and then slipped through the window that opened in her guard and cut a surprisingly small gash in her side. All the Ars were strong magic users, but the Zian were the best at physical enhancement, and so had skin to rival a Deimos.

 

Seeing that this man was a special man, beyond the normal, horns sprouted from her head, feet morphing into hooves and her whole body swelling out. With a new swing, she blew Za clean off his feet and up into the air. While he tried to roll and recover his form, the Zian was there, right in front of him. Void Step made this fight so very difficult, and the kick to the sternum that shot him back into the ground and blew away some of the smaller beasts was also not really a good thing. A luminescent flash of blue light exploded from the impact point. The Zian woman stepped down gently and smiled at the Kitsune, who was standing surprisingly upright given the blow he had just taken. 

 

“A Magician as well as a Cultivator. How rare~” The Zian complimented Za, grinning to herself most enthusiastically.

“I am Za, protector of Algaza. Herald of Vannet, Lord of the Kitsunes. So having several different tricks up my sleeve does make sense, no?” he replied, flourishing his sword and casting a spell into its depths to be used later.

“Mmm~ Trick or two of my own left yet. Never managed the inner calm you need to be a Cultivator though” The Zian shrugged softly. She didn’t know why, but there was a culture between warriors to have polite chat between trying to murder each other. Probably to keep the fight in polite, civilized grounds. A proper fight should be done for personal reasons, but not out of hate or anger or rage, which a proper conversation helped to ensure.

 

“It takes some work, to be sure. But, if you are laying claim to titles like Herald of Vannet, Lord of the Kitsunes and all that, you need to make sure you are the best. When you are competing with Bloodmoons-” he would flick his sword and bisect a Shriek that tried to dive bomb him “-You gotta be good” he finished. Eight tails blossomed and gathered into form, charging a burst of energy between them. Not wanting to let him get such a thing off, The Zian exploded towards Za with a speed one would not expect from a woman of her size and girth. In return, Za acted, spontaneously casting the spell stored in the blade and ripping flesh from the bone as the Fulgar Ultima exploded from it. It caused some severe damage, and then he released the Fox Fire. The Zian threw both swords at the blaze and then belched a gout of raging inferno, but both were overwhelmed by the Fox Fire.

 

The catacylsm that followed was enough to take Za off his feet, were he not to cast a barrier of wind around him to spiral the explosion and direct it away from him. That kind of blow would definitely lay the woman low, and half the horde with it. Though, it was a funny thing. Young Kitsunes could fire off their full tailed fire a lot before exhaustion took them, but as a Kitsune got stronger, their tails outstripped their mana, and they could easily exhaust themselves by overusing the tails. Eight-strike along with a Paragon, an Ultima, and charging the blade...He was glad for his training. Taking heavy breaths and reaching his hand out, he’d pull the sword back to his hand.

 

Though it wasn’t to be, as the Goetia crawled out of the crater, coughing and spluttering, glowing with a blazing crimson flame but disarmed. 

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“Damn, were you trying to kill me?” she asked, shaking her head and letting the flame fade away. Woman wasn’t kidding about having a trick or two of her own left…

“Mmm. Let me try harder this time!” Za would then launch off, an explosion of semi-visible light throwing himself at the woman. But, then suddenly she was right there and smashing his skull in with a palm strike, using the momentum of Za against him and slamming him into the ground, burying him some thirty foot in the floor. 

“I’d appreciate it if you tried...weaker? Is that even a word?” she confused herself towards the end and frowned. She didn’t get a reply, and instead the ground exploded around her, Za rising up from the earth and launching the sediment at her. It didn’t work, the woman just weathered the storm with fury and passion, and then moved into close range again, her greatsword flashing into her hands and smashing into Za’s sword. It was a very heavy handed disarm, but a disarm all the same. 

“I prefer” she exclaimed, the greatsword vanishing where it came after ripping the sword out of Za’s hand “My fists!”

 

Rolling her body down and then stepping forward to throw her entire bodyweight into a gut punch, Za reflexive cast the “Mirror Of Yami'' esoteric spell and reflected the blow into the woman’s gut. From there, he grabbed her head as she rolled from the blow and smashed her knee into it, using localized Stutter to smash into her face a dozen times in the same moment. Then as the woman rolled up from the blow, he’d step forward and thrust his fists out into her gut, punching as if to punch through the woman, and sending her off so he could have a moment’s rest.

 

And by the gods he needed it. This fight had dragged on longer than most. People of the relatively same level didn’t fight long because their equal attack potency often outstripped their durability. But, the Goetia was just so damned durable he could barely break her hide except with the most powerful of attacks, and then she just recovered from those with a flourish. It was truly vexing. And just to prove his point, the woman returned saundering up to him and shaking her hair to get the debris out.

“Ohh, I would love to have a hundred children with you, dear. But you look pooped already. Need a nap?” she teased, grinning broadly and biting her lip. The implication of the nap being located in the woman’s bed did not escape him.

‘Vanaet, give me an hour from tomorrow’ Za spoke to his deity.

‘It’s not a healthy thing to do, you know’ she replied, sliding into his consciousness like a perfectly fitting glove.

‘It’s not healthy to get my face stoved in by a Goetia either’ he retorted. Vanaet sniggered at that and slid her hands into Za’s temporal existence, pulling tomorrow into today and revitalizing him to the brim.

“As a Cultivator, I must thank you a thousand times for showing me the power of a Goetia. It is not custom to do such a thing with the intent to harm another, but I shall respect your overwhelming capabilities” Za spoke, giving her a light nod and then sliding a foot back. His shadow seemed to get up and wrap around him, covering him so that he was no longer a Kitsune but instead some vaguely humanoid blob of blackness.

 

Then he moved, appearing instantly and slammed into the Zian woman, shoulder and elbow ramming into her torso at the same time, and then the blow coming again immediately from his shadow. Void Step was great but it had no momentum like an actual rush, and couldn’t be used to drive into a person. But in this universe, nothing was impossible if one had desire. Driving the Zian back with the force of the blow, he would sweep around her back and leave tiny cuts with his claws all across her body using the second of the nine profound techniques; Circling Nine Cranes, moving with her as she was forced back from the Void Strike. When she finally got her footing back and won against the inertia, Za threw her off balance again with the fifth of the nine profound techniques; Shrieking Mountain Wind. His palm slammed into her face, and the namesake wind would strike at her a hundred times over.

 

The Zian woman threw off Za’s flurry and launched a punch at him, which he countered with the sixth of the nine profound techniques; Soul-Crushing Strike. His two fingers were like a caress against the knuckle that they hit, but that did nothing to stop it from cracking under the force. The Zian woman would let out a raging snarl and lash a kick at him, which was countered again when Za leaned back and threw a kick in return, cracking her shinbone with the eighth of the nine profound techniques; Splitting The Sky. Having set up well, he would dip low, touch his fingers to the ground and activate the Earth-Defying Array. Four shining lines would spread out from the point of contact, each one in a cardinal direction and each representing the profound techniques utilized against the Goetia. 

 

She tried to back away, the Array sealing her Void Step but not her natural movements. However, it was useless, as Za went through the motions and threw his punch anyway. Though she was on the cusp of the northern line, she took the blow to her sternum as if she was right in front of him. The wispy form of one hundred and eight Dragons crashed into her chest - probably where the name “One Hundred and Eight Crashing Dragons” came from, martial arts could be very self-explanatory at times - and she crumpled on the spot, winded and with a broken sternum. 

 

Wasting no time, Za drew out a lustrous golden chain and threw it at the woman, quickly wrapping her up in a harness tie and binding her arms securely behind her back.

“Gah...kinky~ Seems you took my offer of a bedroom fling seriously” the Zian woman coughed up some blood and then grinned and flexed her muscles. Though, it did nothing and the chains wrapped tighter around her muscular form, ripping into the clothes and places and extenuating her physical assets far more than she liked. “W-wait...I can’t…?” she was stunned at the fact that these chains wouldn’t break from her strength. She took a deep breath and forced her muscles to strain, but the chain held tight and even added a crotch strap for added support, pulling tightly as she exerted herself. “Hey! Get out of there you damned perverted chain!” 

 

Glaring at Za, who had recovered his sword and put it away, allowing his shadow to melt off him and return to it’s natural position. She tried to point but her hands were really well tied up.

“What the hell is this, ya damned fox?” She demanded, baring her teeth at Za.

“No idea” He replied casually, to the shrieking fury of the woman. “There was a tale a long time ago of a guy tying up a giant bull so his friend and possible lover could cut the thing’s head off. But old tales have a way of getting lost in time. Bits added, bits removed, bits from other bits brought in to spice stuff up, bits changed to back up your claims about what this God can do to your God if you don’t follow him. This could be the chain he used to bind the bull, could be a chain made while inspired by the tale. Could just be a chain. What is known is that it has a special enchantment on it that makes the chain grow stronger and tighter the more the captive writhes and thrashes against it. So, loose up a little and it might give you a bit of slack down there” Zarh would flick his eyes down to the woman’s crotch, and she blushed at it, knowing the damned chain had ripped through her clothes down there. The glorious fox man had deflated some, no doubt suffering the backlash of his flurry. She’d have been able to counter such a rush to begin with, and leave him helpless, but he had adapted to her well before releasing that. 

‘Tsk, Mother mother always did say I relied too much on being a Goetia and not enough on skill and reading the opponent…’ she thought before shaking her head.

 

“Fine. You have defeated me, Talia’Zian. You can...who’s that coming up behind you?” Talia asked, frowning. Za, confident in the chain, would look over there and see a Tengu flying in, probably drawn by the carnage.

“Akaka. What news from the front?” Za asked, waving him down. Though the Tengu was not in a chatty mood and just stepped up to Za. His arm shifted forward, and KIko’s vision ended there and then, waking up abruptly in a cold sweat.

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