Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm regurgitating my own blood...

Vahn's remaining normal eye widened even somewhere inside the 'Other's eyes narrowed. The shift in power could be felt even by those with zero spiritual or sixth sense aptitude.

My vision is fading...

My ears feel to numb, I can't hear anything anymore...

This was the kind of moment people called gamebreakers.

The taste of metal is flooding my mouth... the smell of searing flesh is filling my nose...

As for the tendrils... if the entire endeavor had been fruitless.. then why would it have been done in the first place? At best they were meant for minimal damage, but the true purpose they served would reveal itself to Vahn even as the scene unfolded before his eyes.

He now knew what the 'Other' had meant by watching. While the edges that made contact with Viper were continualy destroyed, it never meant the entire link was severed; like when he had begun harnessing the destructive energy, so too had the extensions of Efreet's Hand been dogged in keeping pace.

My body...

I can't tell if I'm alive or dead anymore.

Another form of the destructive energy that Efreet had just harnessed would surface. This form would be gained by the perpetual destruction and creation of energy within that arm. When Vahn had used it to absorb Viper's attack it threatened to devour his body, and if he absorbed too much of it, he would have surely been killed. However, making use of Ymir's energy, and through forceible measures from the 'Other' in boosting it with Vahn's own soul*, the backflow of destructive energy would be stopped from hurting him and allowing him to properly use this form of the attack. The arm wouldn't permanently absorb this energy as it would last only long enough to be used by Vahn against his opponents. The only exception to this is Ymir's tainted energy because it was placed directly into the body of his right arm rather than just a blast of energy that was directed at him.

I can't feel...

anything...

The taint from Ymir had long imbued Vahn with the ability to sense and attack a person's "source", considering that Ymir himself was the source of Vahn's rejuvenation it was an odd bit of quirk as well, the 'centers' that channel the powers of a person. Most people had one source, but Viper had many 'centers' due to the amount of sheer power held within his being. To destroy a person's source is to ruin an opponent's ability to channel energy, or in some cases utterly destroy them. This was potentially one of the most effective techniques that Vahn could hope to muster as it can totally disempower his opponent.

Well enough of the background story... back to the action at hand.

Viper's swing was already underway and the amount of heat his blade released seemed to be nearly on par with that of the Fang itself. Not that he was worried about becoming actually incenerated... well.. ok.. perhaps he was.

"I won't..."

However, the moment Viper's attack was laucnhed, so began Vahn's counter-offensive. All the raging heat and energy travelled forward and then began funneling into a whirlwind-esque manner, being concentrated directly to the see-through orb of crimson that Vahn had been holding within the maws of his right arm. There was not going to be much of an arena let alone a stradium left after this--- even as the very ground both fighters were on would be ripped and sent into the air.

Viper's attack would be absorbed, and then re-distrubited right back at him, nearly tenfold as Vahn added his own energy to it as well the destructive energy he had just refined and harnessed due to Ymir's energy; creating a 'Dark Void'.

...die that easily.

Basicaly Viper's attack would be reflected back on him in a reversely negative manner, causing instead a torrent of cold energy to spiral out and engulf him, even as the sphere of mixed energy pulsed and formed into a whole blade of fragmented crystals. Pushing his entire body into the attack, many shards of spear-like crystals shot out, with the same property as the reality distorting sphere; the result would be a total nullifaction and cancellation of everything that made up Viper once they stabbed into his body, specifically penetrating each one of his innumerable 'centers'.

"We won't die that easily."

Viper may have truly bee the epitome of indestructable.. probaly the greatest opponent someone like Vahn could have ever hoped to run into... or dreaded going against.

Yet no matter how you look at it, even the impossible had it's limits.

There was still one spot Vahn could aim for... to shoot for.

His power.

We will survive...

To put it bluntly, power exists in two two different types. There's power that it gives off, and power that it takes away. If these two powers are thrown into each other, they should cancel each other out.

Vahn had aimed to channel that power, that way no matter what kind of advantage Viper had, even if he started to win, a small chance of victory existed--- the fact that it remained would have been enough for this devil of a man.

"Through anything!"




*

Two extreme opposite sides of nature faced off in the singular moment, but neither was truly cancelled out. Whatever the consequences of having them clash-- one thing that was certain was that the entire region would never be the same.

By now, one would have to wonder if precautions had been taken to ensure that the saftey of the spectators that were left would be assured and that the area itself could survive having a hole blown into it.

The amount of 'cold' being given off against Viper, having taken the energy he had fire out at Vahn, and 'returning to sender' tendfold, would be beyond -128 F, havign go so far to make the very air into liquid itself-- going past -321 F, which was when Vahn had first taken in all the mabient heat from the atmosphere and attempted to flash freeze Viper.

There was nothing "magic" about it-- all a reaction in the atmosphere due to the lack of heat energy, which had been taken in with Viper's attack through the Void energy. In that small arena, it might as well have been a portion of the surface of pluto (which isn't a planet anymore, boohoo) itself, as the temperature was somewhere near -378 to -396 F (-228 to -238 C, 35 to 45 K).

Viper's final attack itself, was a testament to all the fearsome power that a body like that had hidden within. Dragon's breath, to nature's wrath and heat that could melt the face of a tank in an instant... however the mistake Viper made was in condensing it all into a singular beam. Powerful though it was to pierce straight into Vahn himself, a searing pain that struck the left side of his body, even as the beam itself began to freeze in place, and cool down, a spire of ice that extended from its point of origin all the way to where it impaled and fire through Vahn.

Science vs magic, oh my.

The cone of flame fire out would have parted a clean swath through to Vahn, but it wouldn't have dispersed the reversal attack thrown unto Viper. This time there would be no escaping the icy clutches of retribution, as his opponent's power finally seemed to be waning.

Viper's "insane reflexes" would be halted and subdued, Viper's range of movement and motion hampered if not completely locked down by the extreme enviroment now created, so there shouldn't have been too much of a "stunning display" of anything, on both ends of the playing field.

Now onto the second act of this play...

Viper had come out with a full tilt advantage over one such as Vahn, but once Vahn had gotten a taste of what Viper had, he never let go, so dogged in his determination to reach the same plateua as the man... If it hadn't been apparent throughout the match then it would be now-- all the while Vahn's own strength had been resonating with Viper's, rising to ine a bid to match or outgrow limitations of a human psiology.

To be honest, even if the writer felt any "fear" of what was to come, there was no way he coudl suddenly create "brakes" on the attack that had just been unleashed one post ago. Quite a bit of Viper's essence would be stolen as the spears bit into him, and they would not stop coming. If the spears were strong enough to break through such a strength inhibiting seal, then so be it. Maybe a crack, maybe a seam, maybe a tear-- the crystalinne attack would happen and they would do what they were made to do-- a negation of one power against another.

A power that takes against a power that gives.



And whatever they managed to take away, Viper was sure to have access enough to sustain himself... but then again... where was all that displaced energy going to?

Viper was the epitome of a great ocean, filled to the brim already and simply dammed up at certain points so as to regulate the flow and currents of his power.

Vahn... was comparitevely a small lake.

A lake that had burst at the seams once bits of that ocean flooded in.

A lake that had expanded and destroyed everything in the surrounding area, to accomodate the waters of energy.

A lake that was now turning into it's own ocean.

And now the landscape was forever changed.

In a way you could say it was because of Viper, that Vahn's power had grown so exponetially in such a short degree of time... as if these two were meant to meet.

An ultimate showdown of awesome destiny.

"History abhors a paradox."

- Raziel

There was no noise as the destruction took place, none for those that were within, and directly affected. Nothing save a brief flash of searing light, before the end came.

The atmosphere itself warped and distorted, the heavens literally divided in twain as the planet itself was grievously wounded. From space itself, the blast could be seen, so large and so awesome in might, yet all that watched could only wonder.. why?

Why had it come to this...

Before yellowed eyes, that monstrous right arm shattered, leaving nothing but flesh and bone. The greaves resonate.. along with the gauntlet... and finally the sword still sheathed at his back. It started out slowly as a light pulse, only intesenfying as the power that eruped from Viper spread.

The shattering of the arm released the trapped Destruction energy sphere, unstabilized due to the nature in which it had been used, and reacting with the pure undilluted energy outpouring from Viper, caused a localized temporal distortion, allowing Vahn to view various scenes in history, of what has come to past, what may come to pass and what is (similarly allowing him to relive his heritage).

As well as his inheritance.

Through this epiphany, Vahn, thanks in part to Viper as well, learns what may well prove to break his mind.

The items of Efreet, it is revealed, were not forged to be the tools of Efreet at all. The items are Efreet, in body and soul. Not at all created millenia past by smiths of old, as the legend would have others believe-- the items, kept for so long by Walter within the Shadow Realm, were anachronisms, items placed out of their proper time. It was at that point in time when the paradox slowly began to build...

The prochronism of the items, assigned too early for the appearance of the anachronisms and given to Vahn-- when they would not be created and forged from the body of Efreet itself several hundred millenia later.

This is where the paradox underwent full swing-- at the exact point that Vahn faced utter annihilation by Viper.

The fact that Vahn would die wearing the very items he himself had yet to create in the future are what created the paradox, which is the cause for the spatial distortion right now. The apparently sentient items were faced with a dilemma: allow Vahn to live and submit to fate, or establish their own free will by refusing. If Vahn had only known the full truth... and not just the glimpses.. he would have forced them to refuse. But they do not, choosing instead to keep the future and past unaltered, allowing Vahn to ponder on the very exposition on the nature of causality. The items, at the last instant, pull forth all the energy from within their grasp in order to save their maker, once again thanks in part to what was taken from Viper.

Vahn had not been destroying Viper's energy, but converting it. Coherent energy had been reverse-osmotically split through the Hand itself. Rather, it was designed like a water filter to break energy up, emulating some of life's vital processes. One could say it was rather fitting for Vahn to have such an artificial construct emulating nature.

For one of the many brief glimpses Vahn is allowed is that of his own fate, his outlined destiny.

This 'Godchild'... ever-burning flame of fate, since the moment of his conception, to all the trials and tribulations he would be faced with: Images of a screaming baby... a lonesome winter night studying...training in dimly lit chambers, the breeze of death across the battlefield, and the cry of surprise from a woman's last breath.

Never recognized as the Scion of Efreet, the only one able to wield the burning Fang, able to withstand the avatar's own blood--- because they had all been rightfully his, and his alone.

Vahn WAS Efreet. Efreet IS Vahn.

In the end, it is at his own hands does he finaly meet his end, and through himself that he continues to live on, repeating the endless cycle through time itself.

And so, as the balance of nature in of itself depended on the stature of the terrastrial avatars themselves, to have the embodiment of flame itself wiped out before it can exist would be a literal time paradox bullet to the head of all existence itself, thus causing a collaspe in the time-space continum itself (and possibly causing a 'Fry-Hole').

As the intensity of the attack goes on all around Vahn, he realizes that this has not rewritten his apparently inevitable destiny, merely postponed it.

He was not meant to die this day. Yet, he would die today.

Since there were essentially two versions of Vahn existence at the same moment and time-- Vahn himself, and the created 'essence' forged of Vahn/Efreet, the items themselves chose to be sacrificed instead of Vahn, so a paradox could be averted and they would still become created and Efreet would not be destroyed.

Time itself was working to ensure that nothing was altered, nothing changed-- that nothing re-shuffled, and with a groan, the world itself shifted to accomodate this momentous brush with 'change'.

All around Vahn, nothing but carnage would reign, but he would remain protected. When all was said and done, all fourteen blackened wings of energy folded out and expanded above the source of destruction, all extending from Vahn's body: arms, legs and back; exactly where the items of flame were located. The wings were cracked and worn out, just about the energy he had left used in order to shield himself as he remained aloft in the air. His entire body was covered in blood, and he was exhausted beyond belief.

Well damn, this was a problem.

Viper was clearly alive, though anyone with any sort of mystical sense would take a moment to find where he was. To see a being such as Viper completely and utterly out of gas was... startling to say the least. Most of all to Viper himself, who hadn't felt this way for a long... long time. He couldn't stand this feeling. Its why he had fought...

No, none of that mattered. What did matter was something that irritated Viper even more than being powerless. He was losing gods dammit!

Sure, he was higher up than Vahn. He had ridden the blastwave as far up as he could without risking a ringout, but it was a risky thing without a connection to the lava flows below the earth. He could only go so high, but he had been sure it was enough.

Of course, he hadn't counted on his opponent sprouting wings. This was the very definition of bad. He couldn't stop his descent and he had next to no time to even think of doing anything. Not that he could, he couldn't fly, he couldn't levitate, he couldn't even air-walk in this state. And that was saying something.

Unlike Vahn, Viper had no great epiphany. He knew the score. He knew what waited for him around every turn and in every corner. His choices were his own, and his future his, until the end of days.

And dammit, hadn't he shown this pitiful world enough mercy and compassion? Every day he told the Red God exactly where he could stick it was another favor existence owned him, wasn't it!?!?

No, that wasn't it at all was it.

He had been watching his opponent, Vahn, Efreet, this whole time. Had he known on some level exactly what his opponent represented? Yes, even without having a name for it he knew that this wasn't someone to be taken lightly. It helped to know exactly who and what he faced though, it made the decision easier.

In truth, he didn't mind losing to Vahn. Somehow, he felt it was better that way. There were some things he had to mull over after this. Perhaps... some of his humanity to regain. It had been a long, long time since he had a real reason to do anything. A reason that he didn't debate in the back of his mind. Something that didn't involve his immediate satisfaction, didn't involve his own entertainment at the expense of others.

And there it was, mocking him. How had he known dammit? The blade that had been Jormungandr plummeted next to him, one stage away from enough power to compensate for anything he lacked. It was a straight, unadorned blade, with metal that simply shined of polish and bore a servicable cross-guard. Imbedded in the metal of the blade were words in gold, a name.

Coup de grâce, the blow of mercy. The finishing blow, the killer.

How had he known gods dammit!!!

The sword was nothing, a step away from power and he could do nothing to get it. Coup de grâce wasn't his opponent's end, it was his. He would have ended up in this state eventually, but he hadn't...

No, there was no point in debating could haves, would haves, and should haves. No point at all. Just accept the reality that he was going to lose and all he had was a useless sword. Even his wide and varied wardrobe was gone, shifted out of existence a moment before they could be destroyed along with everything else. He was naked as the day he was born, and slowly getting red from shame.

Wait, no, that was wrong. It was his light-grey hair that was slowly becoming more crimson. Now THAT was insulting. He was going to lose this fight and then have nothing to kill. Nothing he wanted to kill. And he accepted that, he was at peace with that, he could... could...

!!!

What the ******** was he thinking? He may have some things to think about, but he was VIPER FOR SAKE!

And he was not going to

Viper blinks.

Well, that was unexpected.

As the sword rams into Viper's gut and punches through the other side his arms snap closed around his opponent's shoulders. For the first time in the span of the fight, Viper knew exactly where his opponent was going to be. Sure, it meant taking a large sword-blade through the torso but he was willing to take that in stride.

"You know, you would have won this if you'd just let me fall."


When it came right down to it, even without his powers Viper still wasn't human. Even if Vahn wasn't as worn out as Viper suspected, there was no way in hell he was going to be letting go before Vahn went down.

Even with the sword in his stomach Viper could throw strikes with his knees, and attempt to crush the other man with his constrictor-like grasp. Powerless didn't mean defenseless.

A fact likely missed by both fighters, a small fragment of what looks like red glass bursts out of Viper's back from the stab wound.

Viper doesn't explode, that was a given especially seeing as his insides were made largely of the same things his outsides were. But he does jerk his head backwards violently and begin to hack. That had ******** HURT! Which was... new, considering nothing usually got to this level of, well, damn, ow.

But nothing motivates quiet like self-preservation, Vahn had shown that. Being damn impossible to kill had many benefits, but a fight-for-your-life instinct wasn't one of them. One way or another, he'd survive this.

He drags his head down to stare at Vahn, still coughing like he was trying to spit up a lung. He meets the other man's eyes for a moment and grins madly. He was pretty out of it from that last attack...

At least, until his final cough flips a droplet of blood at Vahn's face. Then Viper freaks.

Whip-crack fast he lets go of Vahn and ducks his knees up to his chest, between himself and Vahn. He leans back precariously, and fires one of his hands into the gap created. Not to strike the other man, but to catch the drop of blood. Taking only an instant to make sure he had it, he uses the other man as a springboard and lauches off Vahn's chest horizontally and slightly upwards. With a bit vertical lift he could Air Walk now, and does so firing himself up and away at about a 45 degree angle. It didn't matter to Viper if he got higher than his opponent at this point, just that he got away.

(Air Walk: Think double jump from Super Smash Brothers.)

Right now, it was pretty much all Viper could do to keep what little insides he had... well, inside.

He drops, one hand clutched of the massive wound in his chest and the other clapped over his mouth.