Post by Dracula on Aug 21, 2021 16:40:02 GMT -8
"What're doing here Marius?" When one enters Hueco Mundo, if they don't know where they're going in the Dangai, they come to a barren wasteland of white quartz sand. The moon in the sky and tiny protrusions of crystalline structures are the only features. Tiny, common hollow can be found and every once in a while you'll come across a stronger hollow. On the truly rare occasion, you may find yourself face to face with an adjuchas. This is the world of Hollow. But, if you know where to go and know the secrets of this world, you can find a different location; the forest of menos. Beneath the sand is a vast cavernous area. The crystalline structures above are just the tips of giant crystal trees that cover the land below. In great abundance you can find common hollow, menos, and adjuchas looking to feed and evolve. Marius had brought them to this special place. A place of great danger to the uninitiated.
"This was your idea. You told me that I should look at things the way they are, not as they had been. I don't have my old powers to work with, it's one of the reasons we failed as 'Dracula.' I have your powers and you are more similar to a hollow than a Quincy. If we are going to discover how to reach our next level, we need this information."
Marius remained hidden in the plentiful shadows of the forest until he discovered a Gillian menos isolated from the pack. It's mask was different. The other Gillian were avoiding it because of its abnormal behavior. This Gillian was looking to evolve.
"We Quincy called this entire species Hollow because of the holes in their chest. Just like you put a hole in me by eating my soul, they've lost their original selves to hunger. When a Hollow has consumed enough, they lose individuality and turn into these things- Gillian. It was mostly rumor with few accounts that could be relied on but they said that these things could go further. If one soul in the collection gained control, they could continue to evolve and become an adjuchas- a powerful menos that no Quincy in my time could defeat."
"Do not."
"I let you eat ten people to get us ready for this fight and I'll let you eat ten more afterwards we are going to discover out limit today. We will find out if we can defeat shinigami."
Like a bat out of hell Marius shot from his perch in the quartz trees. He tore through the menos's black cloak like skin like a bullet made of knives. A chunk of the menos was in his mouth while trails of it hung to his nails. He turned with a snarl to launch himself again only to come face to face with a charging cero at the creature's mouth. Its crimson light filled the air and highlighted the Bount's blood shot eyes.
"Marius, you damn fool!" From the mouth of the Gillian came a bright red beam. It's force divided the air with a ragged metal like base noise. From the man's body ripped out a figure made of blood that took on Marius's image. It opened itself to the blast to reveal a black core inside. The beam was drawn within and though the red body of blood took damage from the cero, it absorbed a vast amount of its energy harmlessly.
"This is why you are called Doll, though you puppet my corpse. This was the form we have yet to take. We have been two-in-one and now we can be one-in-two."
The gillian attempted a kick to try and break through the energy absorbing body. The red went left while Marius went right, each expressed their own agency and independence without hindering the other. The Doll looks over with an amount of concern visible on its face. Concern that its Bount had finally tricked it into releasing control. The Bount was calm and confident as he looked back at his Doll. He held up a finger to it, took hold of the finger, and snapped it. The Bount, somehow, felt the damage and it the reality of their situation was more apparent to it.
"Two-in-One." Though separate physical entities, the two shared the same existence. The Bount was the body and the Doll was the soul. They could not be divided. From opposite sides of the Gillian, they began a physical assault of thrashes, bites, and cuts. In a helix pattern they ran up the screaming body with claws raking through its flesh. At the mask, they both converged back into one entity and plunged their collective strength right through the bone like material. With a titanic roar, the Gillian fell and began dissolved away into ash. Settled on the ground, the Doll separated from Marius once again. The two sides of this creature finally stood face to face with each other for the first time.
"What are you doing Marius? I didn't think anything of it because we've been feeding more than usual. But you've been exploring the human world since we woke up. Then the dangai and hueco mundo. Now this."
"The shinigami name their swords, did you know that?" The Doll visibly didn't care for his question being evaded. "Names offer the means to power. I name you Rotes Selbst." A paradigm shift was occurring within them. They could both feel it and they could feel each others feelings towards it. A new power was stirring within them. The Doll was concerned over changed but Marius had a calmness inside him- like he was completing a jigsaw puzzle.
"Answer me Marius! Or I'll bury you so far down it'll take you fifty years to get back up to the surface." It wasn't a threat; he could do it. This had happened before when they were still young and new to this arrangement. Still, Marius remained unflinchingly calm in the situation. He brought a memory to the front of his mind for them both to witness. It was the night when they met. The night Rotes Selbst was born. The night Marius became a Bount.
"You remember this night? As I laid dying from battle, you entered my soul. As a Quincy, I should've expunged your infection but I was too weak. You fought to take over my body and I fought to maintain it. It cost me every once of what made me a Quincy. I've learned that this was a mistake. If I had succumb to wounds with my Quincy heritage intact, we would have both died that night."
"I remember. When your filthy Quincy reishi was gone, your soul was left defenseless. I curled into it like a nest. Hollowed it out and took root in it. I became your soul and took your body as my instrument."
"Yet, my ego remains. I remained because of one desire. I want the sons of bitches that killed my family dead. I lost track of this 500 years ago because of our shift. In this age, I've reclaimed my focus. I want to wage war on the shinigami!"
"That doesn't do us any good Marius. We can't eat shinigami, just like we can't eat these hollow. Their powers would disrupt the nest I reside in and kill us. We only need to feed and we can only feed on humans.
"That is true but imagine the difficulty we face. We can only feed on a few humans at a time before a shinigami begins investigating for a hollow in the area. We have to leave before they figure out it's us. And then you're hungry again. A world without shinigami is a world where you can eat freely." The Doll almost drools at the thought and they both can feel their hunger spike in response.
"You wouldn't. You care too much for them."
"Things change Rotes Selbst. I've changed. The world has changed. There's no trace of what I had in the past. Not a single member of my family ever came forward. I have no love or hope left. I only have revenge on my mind. I want the shinigami dead. What do you say? Let's kill the world so you don't have to be hungry anymore." A sinister smile stretched on the Doll's face. Had he ever felt joy before? It almost disgusted Marius that his own face could make such an expression. Joy in the absolute genocide that had once befallen his own people. Maybe this was as close as Marius could get to joy this time around. The two merged back into one being, their agrement having been maintained. Let's kill them all and not be hungry any longer.
"This was your idea. You told me that I should look at things the way they are, not as they had been. I don't have my old powers to work with, it's one of the reasons we failed as 'Dracula.' I have your powers and you are more similar to a hollow than a Quincy. If we are going to discover how to reach our next level, we need this information."
Marius remained hidden in the plentiful shadows of the forest until he discovered a Gillian menos isolated from the pack. It's mask was different. The other Gillian were avoiding it because of its abnormal behavior. This Gillian was looking to evolve.
"We Quincy called this entire species Hollow because of the holes in their chest. Just like you put a hole in me by eating my soul, they've lost their original selves to hunger. When a Hollow has consumed enough, they lose individuality and turn into these things- Gillian. It was mostly rumor with few accounts that could be relied on but they said that these things could go further. If one soul in the collection gained control, they could continue to evolve and become an adjuchas- a powerful menos that no Quincy in my time could defeat."
"Do not."
"I let you eat ten people to get us ready for this fight and I'll let you eat ten more afterwards we are going to discover out limit today. We will find out if we can defeat shinigami."
Like a bat out of hell Marius shot from his perch in the quartz trees. He tore through the menos's black cloak like skin like a bullet made of knives. A chunk of the menos was in his mouth while trails of it hung to his nails. He turned with a snarl to launch himself again only to come face to face with a charging cero at the creature's mouth. Its crimson light filled the air and highlighted the Bount's blood shot eyes.
"Marius, you damn fool!" From the mouth of the Gillian came a bright red beam. It's force divided the air with a ragged metal like base noise. From the man's body ripped out a figure made of blood that took on Marius's image. It opened itself to the blast to reveal a black core inside. The beam was drawn within and though the red body of blood took damage from the cero, it absorbed a vast amount of its energy harmlessly.
"This is why you are called Doll, though you puppet my corpse. This was the form we have yet to take. We have been two-in-one and now we can be one-in-two."
The gillian attempted a kick to try and break through the energy absorbing body. The red went left while Marius went right, each expressed their own agency and independence without hindering the other. The Doll looks over with an amount of concern visible on its face. Concern that its Bount had finally tricked it into releasing control. The Bount was calm and confident as he looked back at his Doll. He held up a finger to it, took hold of the finger, and snapped it. The Bount, somehow, felt the damage and it the reality of their situation was more apparent to it.
"Two-in-One." Though separate physical entities, the two shared the same existence. The Bount was the body and the Doll was the soul. They could not be divided. From opposite sides of the Gillian, they began a physical assault of thrashes, bites, and cuts. In a helix pattern they ran up the screaming body with claws raking through its flesh. At the mask, they both converged back into one entity and plunged their collective strength right through the bone like material. With a titanic roar, the Gillian fell and began dissolved away into ash. Settled on the ground, the Doll separated from Marius once again. The two sides of this creature finally stood face to face with each other for the first time.
"What are you doing Marius? I didn't think anything of it because we've been feeding more than usual. But you've been exploring the human world since we woke up. Then the dangai and hueco mundo. Now this."
"The shinigami name their swords, did you know that?" The Doll visibly didn't care for his question being evaded. "Names offer the means to power. I name you Rotes Selbst." A paradigm shift was occurring within them. They could both feel it and they could feel each others feelings towards it. A new power was stirring within them. The Doll was concerned over changed but Marius had a calmness inside him- like he was completing a jigsaw puzzle.
"Answer me Marius! Or I'll bury you so far down it'll take you fifty years to get back up to the surface." It wasn't a threat; he could do it. This had happened before when they were still young and new to this arrangement. Still, Marius remained unflinchingly calm in the situation. He brought a memory to the front of his mind for them both to witness. It was the night when they met. The night Rotes Selbst was born. The night Marius became a Bount.
"You remember this night? As I laid dying from battle, you entered my soul. As a Quincy, I should've expunged your infection but I was too weak. You fought to take over my body and I fought to maintain it. It cost me every once of what made me a Quincy. I've learned that this was a mistake. If I had succumb to wounds with my Quincy heritage intact, we would have both died that night."
"I remember. When your filthy Quincy reishi was gone, your soul was left defenseless. I curled into it like a nest. Hollowed it out and took root in it. I became your soul and took your body as my instrument."
"Yet, my ego remains. I remained because of one desire. I want the sons of bitches that killed my family dead. I lost track of this 500 years ago because of our shift. In this age, I've reclaimed my focus. I want to wage war on the shinigami!"
"That doesn't do us any good Marius. We can't eat shinigami, just like we can't eat these hollow. Their powers would disrupt the nest I reside in and kill us. We only need to feed and we can only feed on humans.
"That is true but imagine the difficulty we face. We can only feed on a few humans at a time before a shinigami begins investigating for a hollow in the area. We have to leave before they figure out it's us. And then you're hungry again. A world without shinigami is a world where you can eat freely." The Doll almost drools at the thought and they both can feel their hunger spike in response.
"You wouldn't. You care too much for them."
"Things change Rotes Selbst. I've changed. The world has changed. There's no trace of what I had in the past. Not a single member of my family ever came forward. I have no love or hope left. I only have revenge on my mind. I want the shinigami dead. What do you say? Let's kill the world so you don't have to be hungry anymore." A sinister smile stretched on the Doll's face. Had he ever felt joy before? It almost disgusted Marius that his own face could make such an expression. Joy in the absolute genocide that had once befallen his own people. Maybe this was as close as Marius could get to joy this time around. The two merged back into one being, their agrement having been maintained. Let's kill them all and not be hungry any longer.