The Evrensel Conflict -- Prologue: Chapter 2A -- Brave New World

[Snowtwo]

As the gigantic creature attacked and tried to swipe at Alistia the catgirl suddenly sprung upwards and, in a display of agility that would not be found in a white mage, flipped gracefully backwards and away from the monster. Yet, as her feet touched the ground, the fact that she was no longer a white mage but, in fact, a red mage was made exceedingly appearent as she dashed forwards in a thrust towards the beast with her rapier. The blade was guided not just by skilled swordsmanship but by magic as well to strike. As it did so she quickly whipped the blade backwards and into an entirely different position as an array of astral swords appeared behind her body and arched overhead towards the beast followed a second later by a second volley, this one wider-spread out so as to strike an area. She wasn't done though as she focused and a jolt of magic, mixed white and blade, shot forth from her blade and focus followed near-instantly by a blast of white magical wind, then a repeat with black magical lightning. A tempo was almost immediately struck as white and black magic, wind, earth, lightning, and fire, mixed together in a violent and aggressive assault that built and built. Then she suddenly whipped her blade around and set it alight with the glow of magic as she launched into a blinding salvo of rapid strikes at the beast only to be topped off as she fired off a pillar of pure, holy, energy at the monster followed by a shattering blast of the arcane. Then she flipped backwards to get away from the monster again with similar grace and landed and took a sudden sharp and deep breath.

To those familiar with such things, it was clear that the entire assault, violent, destructive, and intricate, had been done purely on reflex. To those attuned to magic it was also clear she had plenty more in the tank. She quickly resumed her proper dueling stance. "Are we even hurting it?"

----

Lavaetain grimaced as she saw the beast flying about. She had just discovered that this technique was even possible and now she had a beast on her tail? That was no good! She couldn't summon Lavaetain while doing this or spare a hand for casting or anything. Unless she spontaniously discovered how to shoot fireballs out her ass on a whim she couldn't hope to fight the thing in the air at all. Instead she quickly looked for the rest of her allies hoping that her unstable rookie flight would make her more than unpredictable enough to not get immediately roasted.

 

[littlekreen]

Sunny radiance grows from inside Reegan as she regains some of her composure at Rory's words. Pain rocked her body as Rory shifted his grip on her to inspect Alex though less lolling head she inspected Alec on her own. Green shoots slowly recompose the flesh about her throat as Reegan looks past Zhen down to the disease of unfit spirits now after them. Elsewhere she felt the creatures split from her body endlessly dividing in the twisted passages below. Gone to earth to find fertile soil in as much mindless persuit of flesh as the citizens that had come to destroy.

Her voice had every bit of a dry rasp from baked flesh, "I can... fight back. The dreamsleeve has somewhere to stand."

Zhen started to fire into the target-rich environment of advancing torches. Lancing blasts of purple-black catching the bodies of citizens aflame. Though through the screams the crackle of purifying fire left their limbs an angry red. Though the mutation of the soul now partly burnt away.

"There is no time to stand, only to move," Said the fellow with a pale skull and shrinking ammo supply.

Replied a small voice as she tore some of her head-seeds free to scatter them on cracked stone, "Okay! Follow the green! I can hear her! I can hear Haassethur's box!"

Reegan reached into the diseased stream of life and its fungal flotsam a plant bonded as much to life as what deathless things refused. Her hands cupped together sprung a riot of writhing fungal hyphae, roots, and grass as she forced her will into the Dreamsleeve. Weaker things of these strange aeons that refuse the cycle tilled under by force with the will of a Reaper. The fuzz and mushroom grew black and diseased as it the riotous ball between her hands spilled over to roots and gave way to green shoots.

A green carpet shot from the cracks beneath, holding the stone together, as it raced them onward toward the Tardis. A force that crawled with the benefit of Reegan's perspective of one outside the twists and turns of this maze. Occasionally it forked off as her will sought out the other tarnished but unbroken souls within the dreamsleeve here. Though the green carpet could not reach the two doctors and Tsunade it certainly tried. A furious trail of meadow racing and backtracking as they passed overhead. An unseen wind whipping in undulations of the path toward the Tardis as she willed it about the incongruent strange angles that lead forward even when the addled eyes said the direction lay elsewhere. Though not quite able to get to the Tardis yet though the small meadow network finds replacement paths toward each of the disparate souls as they advance. Occasionally, a curious lumpy riot of flowers in a clearing as patchworks of red and green grass consumes humanoid-shaped lumps underneath.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

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Dusk
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Dusk's shoulder was still stinging, despite Alista's previous attempt to heal him. The heat from the fire crawled under his skin like a tick and slowly ate at him, it would take a considerable bit more effort than the equivalent of a band-aid to help him. At least Dusk was able to calm down as John tried to calm down Amy. Shirou wasn't in much better shape, as his vision seemed to be affected in the same manner as everyone else's. The guy looked to have it worse off though, as his pupils were nearly split compared to the others.

There was suddenly a change in the noises that came from the walls, previously it had been eerily silent, now there was a quiet chanting that gradually gained volume. A new enemy had appeared with these new sounds, people clad in burgundy robes and armed with electrified swords. The lightning that bounced around them was red in color, and let out a loud shriek as it jolted in different directions. John mentioned trying to go back out the way they had come, but that option was no longer viable as the door had disappeared. Dusk had to look for a way out, to try and keep everyone safe. An idea suddenly popped into his head as the lightning began to zip across the room. Dusk was able to get out of the way of the ones aimed at him, but that didn't mean that it would be easier for everyone else. Anger slowly filled Dusk like a hot oil. What good was he if he couldn't defend those around him. That was when he turned back towards the wall behind the group and stuck his blade into it. Chunks of concrete fell down from it, some large pieces Dusk decided to throw at the group of robed figures. The rocks fell, causing several splashes of blood as the figures were crushed by the weight. 'I have to get them out' Dusk thought to himself, kicking and slashing at the wall. Occasionally he let out a shout of frustration, and continued hitting the solid surface.

The wall was impenetrable, barely making a dent from any slash of his sword or kick of his leg. Shirou's barrier was able to deflect the red lightning being shot at them, but the bolts would ricochet into the ceiling, making sparks that flew down to the ground. John kept them back as best he could, firing at each headless monk that came out the shadows, but when one body fell, two more would take its place. They were growing in numbers, and they would eventually try overwhelming them. But, that's when Dusk's last slash at the wall did something... odd.

From that strike, the walls and room dissolved away into such colorful butterflies. The outside world was no longer the city, but a bright landscape covered with a grove of large mushroom trees. As sunlight engulfed them, the headless monks disappeared into a fog of darkness. The ground they stood, once metal, now old stone decades old. John's cover vanished and he was out in the open, aiming at the horizon. He looked around in complete confusion as to what just happened, as one hallucination became another perhaps? He stood up, still ready to fire his weapon again. Amy also stood back up, staring around at their new scenery.

"This isn't someone's nightmare world too, right?" She asked everyone, just in case.

"Not mine." John quickly spoke up.

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Meanwhile, Samuel quickly scrambled out of the way of the giant tentacle that tried to crush them, avoiding the earth-rending crash. But as he tried to rush for stable ground, the ground literally fell away beneath his feat, and he found himself instinctively screaming as he began to fall.

Then his training kicked in, despite the sheer terror he was experiencing. He remembered there were certain actions that could be taken during a freefall that could maximize the chances of survival. So the first thing he did was to try and reorient himself and get eyes on where he was falling toward. The sight of the massive, alien abomination below was enough to make him want to void his bowels, but he quickly focused on just trying to survive the fall.

He oriented his body to try and catch the air, giving him greater directional control over his fall. By some insane stroke of luck, he found that he was heading toward a particularly downward-sloped section of the monster's body. He might just be able to survive that.

But as if things weren't bad enough, another one of the winged fire-breathers was now trying to roast him alive. A flash of terror-fueled rage took over, and Samuel quickly brought up his bullpup assault rifle, switched to full-auto, and began firing right at the creature's face and throat.

Sam's rapid fire took out at least two of the flying creatures, and Trigger's attack hit the tentacle monster... to no effect. Barely a stretch on it. And it turned around to face Trigger to smack him back down into the abyss below. Another flying creature flanked Sam from the side to smash into him, and as that happened, one of the creature's larger tentacles came flying at him. There would be no way to dodge both attacks in time. The four of them would find themselves falling into the abyss below, but like with the others, fate had different plans. As they all fell, a few multi colored dots began to form like a shimmer of light; growing in size into lines. They began twisting around into a circular tunnel, and before they all knew it, the endless abyss transformed.

The lights grew bright and changed shape, flying past them even faster.

The speed of their fall went so fast, it was as if they were once again in that flash of light that brought them into this chaos in the first place. Although, in that case, the tunnel didn't turn into this.

They colors then got so bright, it was blinded, and the speed continued going crazier and crazier.

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a-blowing

Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing

YES, THE DANGER MUST BR GROWING
FOR THE ROWERS KEEP ON ROWING
AND THEY'RE CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING
ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

And then everything got wet.

The end of the tunnel was a fall into the water. One which would hurt if anything of them landed face first. But, they would all be fine. When they would surface again for air, they would find that shore was closeby. But the scenery was very different.

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The 13th Doctor - Character Sheet

"It's working!" Thirteen announces triumphantly as even the large creature is repelled by the ingenious use of two sonic screwdrivers to literally turn the tide. The smile falters as it becomes clear this would not be quite adequate.

"Triple strength!" Thirteen says to Eleven forgoing any other avenue of communication as she stares into the monstrous face of a priest intent on slicing her to pieces. As the priests come nearer they run into a counter-frequency at a higher intensity than the one which had partially dispelled their own.

Tsunade Senju-Character Sheet

The quick thinking of the Doctors spares Tsunade from a beheading, and for a few moments it looks like she would be able to snatch them both back up to make a quick escape without need to fight these strange beings. That was not to be as they all prove more resilient. Tsunade releases Thirteen to raise both fists and engage the largest obstacle first.

She is surprised, aghast really, to find her hands are not her hands as she has always known them. They are not as mighty with their jelly-like consistency. Moving them to test how real they are she sees they bend farther out than they should and back more than possible. Asking aloud "What is going on?" Yields another horror as she finds her tongue far longer and more flexible.

How was this possible? Was this an effect from everything else going on around her?

These questions do not occur to her to cause a pause. She was a veteran of two wars that had assaulted her mind with genjutsu too many times to count, and the dead of those wars were those who had hesitated.

The flexibility of her hands allow them to move faster and smoother than before to form three Shadow Clones. One for each of the priests to allow the original to charge the large beast. Her fists may or may not be softer than usual, but with chakra augmentation they have proven to shatter energy constructs in top form; physical beings should not prove much an obstacle when aimed at their heads at a speed that exceeds human perception. And if that was not sufficient? A spinning kick from legs that had not mutated should prove a killing blow for the priests.

The kick to the beast's head made it fall back into the fog by how powerful such a kick was, and the priests, try as they might, were of no match for Tsunade's superior martial arts background. They were beaten to a pulp and retreated back into the fog from whence they came. But, more shadows was approaching them, outnumbering the three. But, before Tsunade could get on the offensive, when the shadowy figures showed, they were friendlies. It was Alec! And baby Reegan, along with Rory and a newly refound Ramna. "AH!" Alec shouted out in fear, not recognizing Tsunade at first. Took a moment before he realized it.

"Tsunade?" He asked. "Why are you a weird jellyfish?" Before Tsunade could answer a rather stupid question in this situation of cosmic gods and him having two irises, the ground below them all collapsed and like before, they began to fall into the abyss with the same results as before with the other four.

They were about five feet away from Trigger, Sam, Alistia and Jacket

​

 

[Yoru]

It didn't take long for them to find themselves face to face with another group. He took a defensive stance against the jellyfish human creature. However Alec seemed to know the creature and the others seemed humans. He lowered his guard and suddenly the ground gave way!

Colored light were spiralling around him as he was falling in a neverending hole. As always he was thrown into events outta his control. And as he was falling, he was screaming his lungs out. One could certainly wonder why people were screaming when falling to their impending doom, even more so when they were in a rainbow colored seizure inducing tunnel of light. Ranma wasn't one to ask themselves such a philosophical question. The impending doom was enough to fill his mind.

Splash

Lights were replaced by blue, dark blue, and darkness. Air was replaced by water. It toom him some seconds to realize air was missing. Reacting to this sudden change of scenery, she started paddling to the surface.

-Gasp!

Precious air was filling her lungs, as she was processing her new environnement. Gone was the creepy cavern instead it was daylight in something like a lake. She could see some green from afar.

-Where on Earth am I now!

 

[Wiggin]

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Dusk
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Panic was starting to settle in now. The robes figures kept appearing from seemingly nowhere and showed no sign of stopping their advance. So far, the group's defense had been working but it wasn't going to last forever. Dusk's own attempts didn't seem to being doing much either, as the wall looked to be endless also. On one of his slices, Dusk chipped into something. It was mushy and it made a loud squishing noise. As soon as he ripped the blade out of the wall, butterflies spawned from the whole which eventually overtook the wall and the room. Behind him, the many figures disappeared into a black fog with small whispers. What was left after the attack of the crimson butterflies was a land that stretched onwards that was unlike the one they were in before. Fungal trees reached into the green and yellow sky and the ground was made of an old stone pathway. It reminded Dusk of home in a weird way, but that didn't distract him from the oddness of the events that transpired. He looked around and prepared for another attack.

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Trigger
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Trigger's own attacks had little effect to the large creature. It was treating the group like flies, swatting at them as they barraged it with different attacks. Trigger could see some of the group being swatted downwards into the dark void. "Fuck…" he muttered under his breath. At this point, he might be the only one left. That hope was soon shattered by an unseen tentacle which batted him off the creature's strange spike which protruded from one of its many limbs. The wind was knocked out of Trigger, and he was flipped so he would fall face first into the darkness. There was no way he could teleport out of this predicament and back onto a spike. This was it, this was how he was going to die.
A few minutes passed as the hole of light disappeared, only leaving him in darkness. It was good that it was dark, that meant the impact would be quick and unknowing. There would be no pain, and there would be no flinching. Lights began to fill the tunnel, blinding Trigger. A colorful display laid out before him as he fell. Was this it? Did he hit the floor and die? Probably. A few more minutes passed as the colors warped into different shapes. Some turned into hearts, others turned into squares. It was mesmerising. Trigger had little time to admire the display, as a hole of light was rapidly approaching. "Woah woah woah, this isn't how this is supposed to go!" Trigger shouted, bracing for impact. He straightened out, preparing his head to hit first and end it fast.
Splash.
He had dived into water. This was a nice death, diving into the great beyond.
When he resurfaced, Trigger's face stung. It was probably residual pain from when he had died. In front of him were different structures made out of trees. Different mushrooms grew out of the large trunks and created an amusing scene. Trigger felt like he was at peace, that was, until he heard loud splashes to his sides. Around him were several other people in the group. "For fucks sake, WHY ARE YOU GUYS HERE?!" He shouted, which then transitioned into a sigh. It was fine, he was just going to float on his back and let the tide take him.

 

[Wade Von Doom]

Alec surfaced next, completely disoriented. "AHHHHH--AHH-HHAAA-Ahhhh.... What in the...." Alec muttered as he bobbed in the water, gaining his breath back. Great, he's insane now. First he saw his dead father, then he ran away from a mob of squid people, now he's in Wonderland. Swear to god, if there's a Cheshire cat to greet them...

Rory came up quickly, coughing up water they swallowed once they got into the water. "AMY!" Rory shouted out.

"Rory!" Amy shouted back. Rory looked over to the shoreline, seeing his wife come around the hills with John and Dusk. John was lading Shirou by keeping an arm over his shoulder.

"Amy!" Rory shouted back, swimming to shore. The two quickly embraced in a hug, with Rory squeezing her so tightly, the water absorbed into his shirt soaked out onto her. "Oh my god, I thought I lost you again!" Rory told her, getting teary eyed. "What is it with life threatening death and our marriage?" Rory asked, with Amy laughing.

"Keeps it interesting." She retorted.

Alec crawled onto the beach and just laid there was small waves crashed up his legs. He was so tired from all that running and being messed with mentally. The 11th doctor was quick to join him, walking along the shallow water, before falling onto his back besides him, breathing heavily from exhaustion. "..... I wish I stayed on the ship." He regretted not doing what Abby was doing now. Enjoying some relaxation. Probably getting drunk.

"Oh, it's all bad... We met an elder god!" 11 tried his best to cheer up Alec. "Not everyday you see one... Though, not everyday you wake one up too."

"What?" Alec asked, putting his head up.

"Well... Nux brought us down to meet this great elder he was talking about. He showed us a vision of who's responsible for all this nonsense with multiverse traveling. Some fake god or the like. Turns out, he's dressed like a Roman centurion."

"But, wake it?"

"Oh, yeah... We thought our blood might keep Xog asleep... Might've been tricked though the more we think about it, because his followers started changing. Getting bigger with more tentacles."

"So... you woke a cosmic god of madness?"

"...... Pretty much, yeah." 11 admitted.

Alec sighed, and put his head back down. "That's gonna bite us in the ass."

"It will do more than that." An unfamiliar voice spoke up, which alarmed both men, who jumped up to see who it was. It was certainly someone they didn't recognize, but he certainly wasn't another one of Xog's cultists.

"Good evening." He said calmly, like a servant would to a guest.

"What the hell..." Alec muttered, with the stranger replying with,

"You seem to use those words quite often. Might you consider growing your vocabulary so as not to have such repetition in your questions of your predicament?" Alec had said 'what the hell' a lot recently.

11 pulled out his screwdriver and scanned him, only to find he certainly wasn't human. In fact, the screwdriver didn't pick up anything on the guy. He was just thin air. "Take it you're not working with Xog?"

"I've never met him." The stranger clarified. "I am Haskill. Chamberlain to the Daedric Lord Sheogorath."

"And why might he save us?" Another voice asked from over the hill. It was the knight of the nine himself, Callintus, followed by Ayana who was back in her regular form.

"Calli!" Alec shouted, cheerful to see the old man with them again. "You know this Sheogarath?"

"Sheogorath." Callintus clarified. "I have had dealings with the Prince of Madness before."

"Prince of madness?" Rory asked. "Oh no, are we gonna go even madder now?" Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"We're safer here than we are back in the city. But, it doesn't mean we should let our guards down." Callintus answered.

"Mr. Cadorna. A pleasure to meet with you again." Haskill said to the knight.

"Haskill." Calli greeted back. "Why has Sheo brought us here? I would have figured he would enjoy seeing more madness spread through the realms."

"Regrettably, his lordship found it wasteful to leave you all in the hands of another competing god. He believes this new 'competition' to his reign over Mania and Dementia should be stopped."

"How.... reasonable."

"A rarity, I know. But, my lord believes this 'Xog' character is more harmful than good. Along with others who wish to see harm done to realms beyond his."

"Then he knows about what is happening?"

"Only slightly more than you all. But, where are my manners, you are all hungry from such a busy day, I'm sure. If you would care to follow me."

"Waitwaitwait, where exactly are we?" Alec wanted to ask before they continued following this guy.

"A plane of Oblivion that was created under the vision and guidance of my lord. The Shivering Isles."

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TO BE CONTINUED.​