Participants:
| Scene Title | Breaking Yggdrasil |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Another epic showdown! Haldor v Kamui! Maia and Haldor later learn that the fight broke Yggdrasil and it will require one of them to sacrifice their lives to save it. |
Haldor has had a single goal in his mind the entire time that he has been stalking his way out of the Dark Forest. One name has been pulsing in the back of his mind, easily visualized as the image of a word that bleeds terrible acid and hideous evil ichor, just barely invisible to his actual sight. Murder is on Haldor's mind, helping to guide him toward fixating on 'Not KAMUI' for hours and hours as he sourly marches through the vast, all encompassing depths of the Dark Forest.
If getting lost is the only way to get out, then by Odin's beard, Haldor will get himself inexcuseably lost as he attempts to "flee" Kamui in order to escape the Dark Forest. The Viking will get himself so inextricably lost that he erupts from the forest and directly into Kamui's face, VIKING FIST-first. Haldor smolders with fury as he moves with slow, efficient, purposeful steps into the "wrong" direction.
About three minutes before Jason first encounters Sinmore and her hordes of Mespelheim, Haldor emerges into the shadows at the very edge of the Dark Forest. There Haldor waits, hidden within the dangerous shadows cast by the enormous and ancient trees that have overtaken Vanaheim. Haldor waits, glaring toward the roots of Yggdrasil, grinding his teeth much as he wishes he could grind his weapons against one another, murderous fury building up inside of the Viking as he waits. As he plots. As he observes.
Only when the last soldier of Muspelheim vanishes into the treeline does Haldor erupt from the shadows with all of his vast and deadly speed, a handful of leaves floating along in his wake.
While Haldor is the embodiment of rage and murder, Kamui,ironically enough is not. He knows what he must do and as such, he currently sits in the lotus position in the shade of the leaves and branches of Yggdrasil itself. There he ohms, a similar looking kokurri board in front of his as he starts moving a coin around with the tip of his finger, trying to find out the mysteries of the universe.
Behind him is a very familiar figure, at least one that should be to Haldor. It seems that even though Kamui isn't Christian, he does like Judeo-Christian iconography in his rituals as Thor is there crucified St. Peter style at the base of the World Tree itself. His divine ichor flows into a cup that drips down as his divine energies slowly leech into the onmyouji itself as he's surrounded by five rather large looking spirits.
Kamui's abilities themselves are what Maia hopes to one day to obtain. Several large forms of just pure ichor surround him as he sits in the middle of a pentagram as a spirit of fire, wood, earth, water and air remain ever vigilant in protecting their master.
Only when Haldor arrives does Kamui's eyes open, a wry and almost predatory grin curling onto his lips. He eases on up and takes the cup, drinking in Thor-essence as he coos softly and chuckles before placing the cup back down. Yeah, he wants to piss off the Viking.
Embodiment of rage and murder? Maybe a little bit, though Haldor is certainly not trying to be the embodiment of that. Honestly he's trying to be the embodiment of the good son just this moment; although Haldor will admit to being a bit miffed that the Corrupted Scions are pulling a Dr. Wily on him. Right this moment though, Haldor is veritably brimming with rage and murder - he'll cop to that, it's only written on his face - in spite of his best efforts.
Haldor twists his body, thrusting his feet slightly forward and his body slightly backward as he starts power-sliding across the ground toward Kamui, his guardian spirits, and Thor. Lightning starts sizzling, popping, and crackling around Haldor in a corruscating nimbus of energy, the bolts jagged and thin, much more restrained than when he summoned such power against Bruce Lee. Perhaps Haldor isn't so full of fury, hate, and murder that he's putting all of his eggs in one basket. Or, perhaps, Haldor's still a bit tired from fighting Bruce Lee. I mean, it was Bruce freaking Lee.
No matter the reason, Haldor finally comes to a halt, no more than four arm lengths from the guardian spirits. All around him lightning pops and snaps, the stink of ozone starting to fill the air as Haldor's frigid gaze fixes on Kamui, watching the dark onmyouji chugging Thor's essence. Slowly the edges of Haldor's mouth twitch upward, a viciously playful smile spreading as Haldor regards Kamui.
"What? No chilled beverage for me? Here I thought you were expecting me, Cam-EEE. I'm hurt."
"My blood is your blood. My body, your body. I never thought I would ever be saying those words,but I find it delightly apropos for the moment, don't you think?"
Kamui turns and faces Haldor, snickering softly under his breath. He's dressed in the typical robes for an onmyouji, long sleeves going down past his hands and a tall large almost papal looking hat sitting on his head while the robe goes down to his feet. There's a long series of Buddha beads in his hands as he cants his head to the side, peering towards the Viking curiously.
"You came alone. That's rather foolish of you. I have my five guardian spirits around me. I took down your father, Haldor, do you honestly think you can hurt me?" he asks curiously. "I was hoping to at least see my cousin again, I know how she wishes to attain these spirits as well. Tell me how is she doing in the onmyouji competition. Has she at least acquired a spirit yet? And I heard she murdered one of her brothers, must be interesting that. The darkness grows inside her, like it does in all us shamans. We hear nature and eventually she too will hate humanity as much as I do."
"Did I come alone? Huh. That's funny, I could have sworn I had my friend the mambo right behind m- Oh wait. That's right. I gave her the blood I cleaned off of my drumsticks after I killed you. She could be watching me, listening to us, sensing all that you sense through your very own senses right this moment."
Haldor's viciously playful smile doesn't diminish in the least. The Viking stands his ground, lightning crackling and popping all around him while he stares Kamui dead in the eyes. Slowly Haldor produces his drumsticks from the pockets of his black silksteel hoody, spinning them slowly without changing their form. All the while he smiles that awful, predatory smile as he pointedly ignores Kamui's taunts and baits. Certainly they look enticing to Haldor, but the Viking is not yet so far consumed by his rage that he can't see them for what they are.
On the other hand, can Kamui see Haldor's feint for what it is?
"Even if that were the case, I know about sympathetic magics, Haldor. Do you mind if I call you Haldor? It means we're familiar afterall, and we should be since your father's ichor runs through my body now, which.." and he pauses for a few moments, tapping at his lips with his fingers for a few moments. "Makes me your father in away, doesn't it? Luuuke I am your father.." he says with a clearly amused chuckle under his breath.
"And please. You are a Viking. Do not tell me you have the foresight to do such a thing. We both know you Haldor. We both know that you wouldn't be intelligent enough to think of something that far ahead. And even if you did, do you really think I am the same person from before? I am an onmyouji, we speak with the spirits. We all experience death, but when we come back we come back more powerful. Did I tell you I died once already prior to that? And I came back. And when I died again at your hands. I came back again. You cannot get rid of me, Haldor."
The ST sure does like villain monologues, and this is no exception. still, Kamui sits back down in the middle of the pentagram as he hrmms and looks towards the Viking. "You are simply beneath me now. Deal with my guardians first.." he says, making a dismissive wave towards him.
"So, which of my guardian spirits will consume your very soul? I'll let you pick."
Haldor just had a Japanese quasi-shaman demigod quote Empire Strikes Back at him. There's… There's got to be some sort of law against that. As a result, Haldor stares at Kamui for several moments before blinking in disbelief. Slowly Haldor shakes his head, spikey hair faintly twitching from the vigor of the motion, and several of his joints pop and crack back into proper position.
All the while his lightning aura continues to crackle and pop, sizzling in the air as he stands his ground. Villainous monologuing, like heroic monologuing and/or internal dialogues, are key to Viking Legend. Kamui might well have no choice in the matter, Haldor and Thor's very natures demand that Kamui monologue like a pompous bastard straight out of a Bond flick.
"Well then, Kamui," Haldor spits the name out as though cursing the very land upon which they stand, "I guess I'll just have to start with that fire elemental of yours. Because clearly I haven't changed since we first met."
Slowly Haldor smiles in amusement as he pauses to regard the onmyouji.
"I'm still the motherfucking Juggernaut."
"And like the Juggernaut, you're just as stupid."
Kamui gives the Viking a cheery smile as he chuckles softly, giving Haldor just what he wants. The Spirit of Fire. It's a rather large creature, with a powerful frame. There are horns seeming to stick up on it's head as it bows in front of it's master before heading on over towards Haldor.
The Spirit of Fire, now known as SoF stares at the Viking for quite a bit of time. It seems it's waiting for Haldor to make the first move.
Yeah. Haldor's just as stupid as Cain Marko. Oh wait, what's that? Juggy is actually pretty damned smart, if kind of a jagoff? Shh, don't tell Kamui, we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.
Haldor just smiles right back at Kamui. The Viking keeps the Spirit of Fire between himself and Kamui as his hands turn bluish, Haldor channelling bone shattering cold into his hands and through his drumsticks when they abruptly stop being drumsticks and start being nunchakus once more. Faint wisps of chilling mist wash off of the nunchakus as Haldor whirls them around rapidly, building momentum and his own power.
Lightning cracks and sizzles more loudly as he assumes an offensive posture, both nunchakus making the air scream in pain before the Viking makes his move. One pair whirls around his neck while Haldor whips the second pair out at the entity of flame, lashing wildly at its midsection. Suddenly Haldor whips a hand up and snags the nunchakus still whirling about his neck and swings it at the being's head, attempting to club it solidly in the face.
Nunchakus lashing to the midsection gets the Spirit of Fire's attention like you would not believe, leaving it wide open to Haldor's nunchakus uppercut. Ice warps over the flames, momentarily freezing the Spirit of Fire's head, flames and all, as lightning explodes at the tip of the nunchakus. The frozen head flies off of the spirit's body, rolling across the ground as it and its battered body slowly dissipate into puffs of ethereal smoke and flame.
Haldor bounces backward, whirling his nunchakus around as he assumes something like Bruce Lee's infamous Jeet Kune Do pose with his weapons whirling almost nonchalantly at his sides fast enough to generate a decisive breeze. The Viking lets out a Bruce Lee style kiai, grinning all the while as he bounces on the balls of his feet.
"Who's next on the Viking Express? Be sure to hold still so I can, ah-heh, /PUNCH/ your ticket."
As the ice warps over the flames, the spirit dissipates once it's decapitated. It really didn't have a corporeal form, and as it explodes, a small sheet of paper that is the cutout for a person floats to and fro until it's down onto the ground. If Haldor were to look, there's the kanji for FIRE embedded on it.
This seems to be a surprise for Kamui as he hrmms and chuckles softly, applauding the one shot hit as he remains calm and serene as he sits in the middle of the pentagram still. He sighs softly and takes a deep breath, shaking his head as he mutters, "Mada mada dane. So small. So insignificant that power of yours."
With another wave of his hand, the sheet of paper crumbles. "That was not a worthy shikigami. Perhaps I will take a strong spirit of fire next time.." he muses before looking back towards Haldor. There's a hearty laugh that escapes from his lips as he sees the infamous pose and snickers softly.
"So you defeated Tao Jun's Jiang-si of Bruce Lee. Curious. How were you able to defeat him? He should have been able to defeat you easily. I am curious."
"Psh. I've been training Kamui. I'm not the pushover you seem to think I am," replies Haldor. The Viking whirls his nunchakus around, trying to keep Yip Man from showing his face. Under his breath, Haldor whispers his apologies to Bruce Lee's sensei (sifu?) as he tries to outwit Kamui's lie detection abilities.
All the while, Haldor keeps bouncing on the balls of his feet, whirling his nunchakus about as fast and as furious as he can. If this keeps up, it might become impossible to see what all Haldor's doing with his nunchakus. The Viking, after all, is obscenely fast.
Haldor isn't exactly telling a lie either. He has improved a lot since training with Sojobo so this one gets even under Kamui's radar.
The dark onmyouji snickers softly as he ahhs and nods, shaking his head before putting up a finger towards Haldor. "You are not even close to me in power. You are still but a tricking stream where I am a strong river ready to wash away my foes. That is the difference between you and I. That is why I do not face you yet. If you were confident in your abilities, why did you not attack me already. I know you Haldor. You are afraid of me."
Kamui grins wryly as he looks next towards the spirit of earth. It's a large blocky spirit that starts heading towards the Viking. This time, there is no waiting for an attack. The spirit raises it's fists high in the air before slamming them in the ground, sending a shockwave through it directed towards Haldor. Spikes of raging earth start to move up at an incredible pace. Oh dears, what will happen?
Whirling nunchakus suddenly are replaced by some sort of multi-sectional staff that Haldor slams into the ground in front of him. Lightning pulses into the ground before the ground shatters and falls away from around Haldor. The Viking, however, does not fall.
Hoarfrost *CRACK*s into existence beneath Haldor's feet and within about a foot around him, the Spirit of Earth's terrible shockwave and spikes of earth being neatly deflected. Spikes of earth ripple past Haldor on either side, the ground shuddering and groaning as Haldor stands fast and strong. With a reluctant slowness, Haldor's aura of rippling lightning dies away and leaves the Viking standing by his lonesome, staring down a Spirit of Earth and Kamui.
Only when the ground has stopped rumbling does Haldor lift his staff from the ground. He brings it up and around with a single whirling motion, as though making a kendo cut. Instead the sectional staff's sections become aware that they shouldn't be rigid, but the Viking doesn't give them time to fall limp. As the sections of the staff start to succumb to gravity, Haldor starts moving his arms and his body in amazingly fluid, terrifyingly fast motions.
Sectional staff parts whirl around Haldor on both sides, whirring as loud as a hive of Legend-endowed bees. The Viking steps forward, twisting and spinning impossibly upon his hoarfrost shelf before suddenly whipping the raging flail outward, aiming to carve the Spirit of Earth in twain with the super-nunchakus.
EMPHASIZING SUPER-NUNCHAKUS FOR SUPER-POWER AND SUPER-LUCK ON THE ATTACK!
There's a crunch that can be heard with each step of Haldor's feet on the grass, as the plants die and quickly wither from the prostitutefrost. The movement is quick, the hits precise and fast, but when facing the power of earth, there's only so much a seven section staff can do, even if it's empowered with a kung fu master.
Chunks of rock start flying in the air, hitting the ground everywhere as it remains there, it's movements still quite slow. It's a big fricking rock afterall! At least the Viking is getting somewhere, but it's still not down.
You know what's a bitch about being a rock? If ice starts forming in your cracks or crags, you're boned so hard because ice is one of Nature's great erosive forces. Sure, it's not one of the ones that everyone thinks of when they think erosion, but it's there, subtly changing the landscape over winters and ice ages, with glaciers and snow.
Haldor seems to be one of those few who seek to master the ice and, with it, the earth. Or, at least, Haldor seeks to master /THIS/ Earth (elemental) with the ice that he has mastered. The Viking springs backward as his initial volley seems successful, not waiting to receive a return volley as he swings the seven sectional staff about his head until the air fairly roars from its tremendous momentum. With a terrific roar of his own, Haldor brings the staff down like a scorpion's tail, aiming to cleave cleanly through the Spirit of Earth just as he did its predecessor.
Regardless of how well that attack works, Haldor moves in close, wrenching his sectional staff free and whirling it about again. He grips the central most section and sets the other three sections on either side of it to whirling like buzzsaws that he bandies about with terrific speed and unfathomable accuracy, aiming to grind the Spirit of the Earth down to its core.
Let's just see how much murder those two attacks are before we continue onward, shall we?
The sounds of cracks can be heard propagating through the earth. There is a method to the madness in the choosing of the five guardian spirits. But still, after the hits, enough ice goes through the solid mass of the spirit to where it explodes into a fine powder, spreading throughout the area.
Once again, another piece of paper floats on down with the clear kanji of EARTH clearly written on it in fine calligraphy.
Once more, Kamui applauds as he grins wryly and just stares at Haldor the entire time. He has an intense gaze, cause come on Ken Hirai is known for his intense and deliciously sexy gazes that makes women swoon. Or in this case it might be intimidating or scary to an opponent like the Viking. Who knows?
"Mada mada dane. It took you three hits for that? These are all shikigami that I have bound to myself as my servants. I had to defeat them,and each one I defeated single handedly in one hit. Still not enough, Haldor. Still not enough. Who would you like to face next?"
As his whirling sectional staff spreads the exploding powder of the Spirit of Earth, Haldor whips himself backward and away from Kamui and his retinue. The Viking twirls once, striking a defensive pose with his sectional staff partially wrapped about his body and its ends carefully held in both hands.
When Kamui starts talking, static electricity starts to build. Soft crackles and pops start to build until sharp sizzles and loud cracks can be heard. Haldor seems to be charging up electricity once more, building up another corruscating field of lightning around his body and his seven sectional staff.
"You act like I'm taking your paper men seriously, Kamui. I'm just biding my time until you grow weary of sending ineffectual minions at me and fight me like the so-called god you claim to be."
"You think that's what I'm doing?"
Another hearty laugh escapes form the dark onmyouji as he shrugs her shoulders while still staring intensely towards the Viking. There is a method to his madness afterall, and with each minion that is destroyed, Haldor uses some of his own power. Power that slowly depletes over time, and eventually he will be weak and easy prey. At least that's what the plan is anyway.
"I am testing you Haldor. I'm pondering of turning your soul into one of my shikigami. You'd like that no? Me turning you into one of my spirit servants that I can send against Maia." he continues to taunt. "So yes, I may extract your soul after I kill you in the end. You would make a fine shikigami, nothing more, nothing less."
Haldor rolls his eyes at Kamui's continuing monologue. One can almost see the thought bubble forming over Haldor's head. It shows him tapping his foot impatiently and checking his watch every few words before ultimately stepping out to get drunk, play a Viking metal gig, get more drunk, get laid, sleep off the hangover, get laid again, and return without missing anything of importance in Kamui's monologue.
With a sigh, Haldor whips his sectional staff around a few times as the lightning crackling and sizzling around his body builds to a fever pitch. The Viking looks at Kamui inquisitively for a moment before, bringing his left hand up and around. Haldor smiles as he points a finger at Kamui, clucking his tongue slightly.
"YO, VADER, BETTER CHECK YOUR FUCKING WATCH! IT'S MOTHERFUCKING FORCE LIGHTNING TIME!"
It doesn't stop at "FORCE LIGHTNING TIME" though. Oh no. That would be too simple. Haldor allows himself to go fully and truly buck wild with power, amplifying the *CRACK* of lightning beyond the ability of mere text to convey.
You know what else? Haldor uses Storm Augmentation on his lightning bolt /AND/ his Divine Threnody just to be a dick.
Sure, the lightning strikes and the sound in the air is nullified completely. There's no even sound of thunder after the lightning. Everyone with the exception of the source is struck by the lightning bolts crackling from each spirit to Kamui himself. There's nothing really happening though. Are Kamui and the spirits really that strong?
Instead Kamui simply golf claps and starts to scribble something on a sheet of paper in front of him. He chuckles though no sound comes out and he soon peers back at the Viking with a curious look while putting up the paper.
It says: "Would you like to try again? That almost tickled."
Silence reigns and Haldor curses himself in the unforgiving silence. That is precisely /NOT/ what he wanted to happen. However the Viking is not so foolish as to try again. Clearly his amazing super combo is both too experimental and too underpowered by his own divine might still; Haldor will work on this for the future, because you know you want to see a battle end in a single cacophonous explosion of lightning, lightning, and sound.
Instead the Viking whips his seven sectional staff around his body as he builds up momentum once more. Evenly Haldor glares at Kamui before suddenly launching into motion once more. The Viking sails across the space between himself and the Spirit of Wood, sectional staff whipping and wailing impotently through the air before it meets some matter it can actually harm. Like Kamui, there is a method to Haldor's madness; sadly there might not be as much method as Kamui's version of madness.
On the other hand, perhaps the Spirit of Wood should be glad that Haldor isn't brandishing a pair of Relic Chainsaws at this point.
BLAM! The metal of the staff strikes the spirit of wood hard and fast. Typically, wood is weak to metal, considering you have axes chopping down trees (which angered the tree nymphs in the other scene). But the impact of the staff against the woody exterior of this spirit does nothing. This spirit is different from the others. While the others had more blocky textures, this one is like a wood nymph, her lithe athletic form pretty much naked as she raises her arm to block the hit.
There's a wince of pain at the creature, but she just smiles brightly and starts to look down at the ground. Quickly, the grass and weeds grow incredibly quickly starting to cover Haldor in foliage. The fungus spores that just happened to land on his skin start to grow quickly, using his dead skin cells first as nutrition before starting to work on living ones. It's a bit painful, as it starts as a burning rash.. an itchy feeling. But the nymph is starting to progress the growth faster. Soon in a minute, a year o growth would have passed, and that wouldn't be a good thing for the viking.
"… Seriously?"
Haldor sucks in a deep, deep breath as he feels the sizzle and burn on his exposed flesh from growing fungus. The rapidly growing foliage surrounding him is probably the greater threat though. Cold suffuses Haldor's body with terrible results as he steps into the shadows cast by the rapidly growing foliage.
The Viking emerges from the Wood Spirit's own shadow, scraping dead or dying fungus from his arms with one of the blades of the labrys that has replaced his seven section staff. Haldor suddenly whirls around, whipping his terrible axe toward the Spirit of Wood as he attempts to cleanly cleave her head from her body with a single, decisive blow filled with all of his Viking Might.
Haldor's enormous axe of death *FWHACK*s into the Spirit of Wood's neck with tremendous force. In less than a firing of a neuron, Haldor's blade cleaves cleanly through her neck, ice shooting up to her lips and down to her shoulders in a thin covering of frost. As Haldor completes his swing and turns his gaze toward Kamui, the Spirit of Wood gets an instant of consciousness to observe her own posterior before her head rolls away from her body before exploding in a spray of wood pulp and chlorophyll.
At her core is a piece of paper with WOOD written in kanji upon its surface. It sizzles away quickly now that its manifested spirit is no longer there. Haldor, however, moves past it and into the shadows of that patch of rapid growing flora that the Spirit of Wood conjured. Within an instant he explodes out of Kamui's own shadow and sails toward the Spirit of Water.
Frigid mist drips from every inch of exposed flesh on Haldor's body as the Viking attempts to drive his axe cleanly through the Water Elemental. Well, actually, to be precise about this maneuver: Haldor plans on driving his axe into the Water Elemental's liquid body and letting his frigid weapon freeze the creature solid before he whips around and smashes it into oblivion upon its Master's head.
That was a definite surprise! Kamui was all relaxed, and just moved away barely in time to have the spirit of water smash into a bajillion little pieces, causing a light snow fall upon the two men. Not too shortly afterwards, a little paper man with WATER in kanji floats on down as wellin the circle.
He hrmms and chuckles softly, looking back at his clothes. It's only a minor scratch, but his eyes widen, clearly surprised. Has Haldor figured out his secret? No way, things have been going according to plan thus far, but there's still one spirit left.
And so, the dark onmyouji pulls out his own sword as he dives.. not in the direction of the Viking. No! That's not what he's aiming for. Instead he goes to finish the ritual by beelining directly towards the last remaining spirit. The spirit of air. His sword strikes through the spirit as the sylph cries out in pain. Her head slowly schlurps off before the winds scatter in all directions as the last spirit is struck down! Once more, a paper man with the kanji for WIND slowly floats down. The ritual is complete. The five corners of the pentagram start to light up, the five kanji appearing once more glowing with their respective elements.
Thor screams in pain! His features become pale as the five phantasm kanji start to move in a circle around him before hitting his chest, burning a seal over his heart and soon he slumps down on the ground, the spell binding him to Yggdrasil being released.
The dark onmyouji laughs, even though there's no sound coming out. Instead he brings up a piece of paper and scribbles on it.
"Domo arigato, Mr. Englund. I couldnt of done it without you."
"… Did you just do what I think you just did, Kamui?"
Haldor watches the seals sear into his father's flesh, his head slowly swivelling to face Kamui. The Viking clenches his jaws as he whirls his axe around his body rapidly - there is a high percentage chance that Haldor just invented a new weapon. Cold continues pouring off of Haldor's body as he starts moving toward his father on the inverted crucifix, eyes fixed on Kamui the whole time.
Oh goodness. There's another hearty laugh, but there's no sound. Until Kamui makes direct mental contact with Haldor. He can hear the smug laughter of the dark onmyouji directly in his head as he's stared at once more.
"What did I do, Mr. Englund? Did you figure it out? That I used you to make the seals to seal for father's power? You never should let me call the shots. This is what happens when a brilliant mind like mine is pitted against a simpleton like you. You lose. You'll always lose. I never needed your father's power. Haven't you noticed there was no one else here trying to sap your father's powers away? But like I said, you are the motherfucking Juggernaut. Didn't you read the comics. He always lost when facing a smarter foe. I do hope you'll enjoy being a pariah amongst the Aesir for betraying your own father like that.."
And there's more laughter.
"Well I guess I just have to bow to your superior intelligence, Kamui… Just…"
Haldor purposefully trails off, watching Kamui with cold contemplation. The Viking's furious fires have long since died out, extinguished with the cold shock of realization that he failed his father without actually failing in his mission. Silently, solemnly, Haldor steps in close to his father and examines Thor quickly before looking toward Kamui.
Now the question is if Kamui cares to find out what Haldor's trailing off means.
Thor is still alive! That's a good thing at least. He breathes in and out very slowly and while most of his divine ichor is gone, he's roughly the level of Wesley at the moment, which may or may not be a good thing.
Kamui snickers softly, basking in his seeming victory as he hrmms, tapping his chin for a few moments. "So I guess I won't have you as one of my shikigami. I want one capable of independent thought afterall, but you would make a nice sacrifice. I think I'll make Maia one of my shikigami instead. Don't you think she'd be lovely as my spirit slave?"
Or Kamui could ignore the apparent bait. The Viking hides his smile at the relative power level of Thor at the moment, there's something inherently funny about this to Haldor. Even so, Haldor keeps his attention on Kamui, sparks of fury flying in his soul at the onmyouji's remark.
"You know who'd probably be more in your realm of possibility, Kamui? Helena. I hear she has some pretty nice digs these days to boot."
"Just as you do not chat with Helena, do not try to play games with me."
Kamui is getting annoyed now. Haldor is ignoring the bait, which is, rather surprising to say the least. He looks back towards the Viking and snickers.
"How is Maia? I heard she had killed someone in the competition. There will be more deaths. Do you think she has a possibility of winning. Or do you think she'll die like the rest of them?"
"Games? How would I play games with you? I thought we were both agreed that you were the superior intellect?"
Haldor thumps his axe's haft down against the ground and rests himself against the blades. Somehow he manages to avoid cutting himself while he quasi-lounges, watching Kamui with coldly appraising eyes. At the question, Haldor shrugs a little bit without any of his more characteristic predatory expressions.
"Maia was doing just fine after I killed you last. I think your resurrection may have upset her more than it upset me."
Pointedly the Viking speaks only in a tone of cool dispassion, doing his best to not betray his emotions.
"As for the competition? I really don't know, but I'll be rooting for her the whole way. Same as I have been since we met."
"Well good. She will need your help. Her sister is incredibly competitive and a bitch. I would rather Maia win instead of Aya." Kamui says matter of factly as he smiles brightly back towards Haldor. "Take care of your father. I needed nhim out of the way for our own plans."
With that he bows deeply, snickering all smuglike.
"Our plans? Now, Kamui, don't tell me you went and got yourself friends while you were dead. Wasn't I a good enough friend for you?"
Haldor remains stationary, eyes fixed on Kamui. When the others get done with the fire giants, Maia can heal Thor, maybe even fix him. For the moment, Haldor isn't worried about his father. Clearly there are more important things to worry about, like Kamui being a punk. A Green Goblin-style punk at that.
"Do your new friends kill you like I did? Am I at all special to you?"
The sarcasm is strong with Haldor, he was always more of a Spider-Man fan than an X-Men fan.
"Oh I never had friends, my dear Haldor. I am sure you were expecting me to be dressed in dark robes chanting as I drain your father's essence and receive it? Helena, Mordred, Colm, Preethi, Alexandros, the rest of them are foolish with their ambitions. They want to reign over the gods. I just want to destroy them all."
There's a soft chuckle that can be heard once more as Kamui shrugs his shoulder. He does represent Nihilism afterall, and it's this fatalistic attitude that suits him quite well for being a dark onmyouji.
"I would worry about your friends though. I have seen the future. Maia will die by the unmaking. I wonder. I did not see how you reacted after that. Tell me Haldor, how would you react to her death. I am curious."
The Viking can't help but peel his lips back in a slow, predatory smirk at Kamui's question. Haldor's eyes remain cold and distant, but that smirk is at least as murderous and terrible as Kamui's own; probably it'll send a shiver down the onmyouji's spine with the way Haldor looks at him. Slowly the Viking straightens himself up, idly twirling his axe in his hand.
"I imagine it wouldn't be very pretty, Kamui."
Haldor twitches his head to one side and then the other, popping and snapping the cricks out of his spine quite loudly. All the while he keeps spinning his axe as he starts moving away from his father, that cold, dead look in his eyes and that horrible smile on his lips. Once he's out of immediate reach of Thor, Haldor's axe splits apart again into a labrys mounted on a sectional staff. The roar of the blade cleaving through the air is much more terrible this time.
"Actually, I kind of expected you to be dressed up like a tranny showgirl with a great big black feather boa wrapped around your neck and arms. Maybe with you doing the can-can or something while arcs of electricity crackled from my father's body into yours. You always struck me as someone living in the closet… Or are you post-op already? Sometimes it's hard to tell."
Every few impossibly fast revolutions, Haldor's axe cleaves a rut through the ground, spraying gravel and dirt in all directions. Slowly the Viking continues to move, almost squaring off with Kamui now.
"Actually, I'm lying. You never struck me as the sort to want my Pop's power. No. I expected you to be after bigger game, somehow drawing power from the roots of Yggdrasil to feed your craving for power. You're not really the sort to want transitional power, you said it yourself. You don't want to take the power of others and reign over them. You want to destroy the gods. So far I can't say as you seem to have done anything particularly potent, but I suppose that's why I'm me and you're you. I can't see how this piece fits into your bigger picture."
There we go. Now it's getting serious. Kamui meets the Viking's gaze straight on and he starts laughing, his voice bellowing the entire time as he places his hands over his stomach.
"There we go, that's the Haldor I was expecting. Making big threats that he really can't back up. But no, the Black Feather Shroud really isn't me. It's Colm, most definitely. I wonder when that boy will step out of the closet, but oh well."
He lets out a soft sigh under his breath, starting to run his fingers through his long black hair as he looks at the transformation of the weapons. That's an interesting little weapon. Definitely intriguing. But he has to focus and so he looks back towards the murderous and intense gaze of the Viking.
"You think I haven't done anything with Yggdrasil yet? Well, I suppose that goes to show just how little your pea sized brain is. Look."
Kamui motions towards the various branches of the World Tree that connects the different realms apart. His lips curl into a predatory grin as he starts to explain where each branch leads.
"This leads to Vanaheim. This branch leads to Asgard, that one to Valhalla and that one to Muspelheim. Have you noticed other branches growing? This one leads to Terra. This one leads to Crom Cruach. And this one, leads to Hundun. Now notice. The branches are supposed to be separate, but I know you're quite perceptive.." And he just stops explaining there.
The branches of the World Tree are intertwined now. The branches leading to the Titan realms are now intertwined with Asgard and Valhalla itself. They are supposed to be separate, but with each connection, a new entry point from the Titan realms is made into the Overworlds. Oh dear.
"Oh. Well that'll do it then."
Haldor is impressed, though annoyed with himself. That is a pretty major alteration, how could he have missed it? Was he really that mindlessly focused on Kamui and Kamui's taunts. Silently the Viking surveys the damage before looking back toward Kamui with those cold, empty eyes. Even so, Haldor keeps his sectional axe whirling around him at blinding speeds - ruts keep forming on either side of him as the axe blades occasionally graze the ground.
It takes all of Haldor's willpower to keep from humming the lumberjack song from Monty Python as he regards his Dark Mirror. Kamui is the Dark Mirror, right? The Viking didn't really have this all straight the first time around and it's been a while since he had to contemplate the Corrupted Scions' relationships to him and the others. All the same, Haldor keeps his eyes on Kamui.
"Kind of an impressive plan. I suppose this is the part where you laugh diabolically, I ask you if you really expect to get away with this, and you tell me that you, in fact, expect me to die. Or is there more that you'd like to tell me before you kill me with your terrible power?"
"I don't want you to die. Killing you would give you more power. I don't want to break you physically, Haldor. I never have. You are strong as steel. However, I want to break your mind. I want you to realize that everything falls apart and there is nothing you can do about it."
Kamui snickers once more as he nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders before looking up towards the tree again before sighing softly. There's a curious, thoughtful look on his features before he turns to face the Viking once more.
"Have I broken you yet? Have you accepted that there is nothing you can do to stop the inevitable?"
Killing Haldor would give him more power? Haldor is intrigued, he will have to investigate why and how that could happen. Maybe it is The One Effect. Yes, Haldor just referenced a terrible Jet Li movie in his own inner monologue; he feels duly ashamed.
"You've complicated my day, Kamui. It's kind of aggravating, but it's not like I'm going to fall to my knees weeping and screaming like Charlton Heston."
Haldor cracks a wry smile at Kamui. It really doesn't look like Haldor believes Kamui's stated purpose. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being disbelief and 10 being belief, Haldor is easily at -9,000,001. Somewhere someone's scouter explodes.
"I'm a Viking with a whirling axe of death. Do you really think I can't just run up there and hack all those twisted limbs off? Please."
"Go ahead and hack those limbs off. Then face the spirit of Yggdrasil itself and the wrath of the Fates as well as the All-Father for doing so."
Kamui simply steps to the side and motions towards the World Tree itself while giving the Viking a bright smile. He seems serious about letting Haldor just go and play lumberjack.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go and stop my plan. You're committing suicide, but I suppose I am okay with that."
Well. That's unexpected and vaguely creepy. Haldor squints at Kamui as he catches the bluff, the tenor of false bravado in the onmyouji's voice, the slight twitch of muscles in his shoulders. Slowly Haldor considers his options, if Kamui is bluffing about caring he could pursue Haldor and attempt to battle him away from Yggdrasil.
Alternately, he could stand by and watch Haldor actually commit suicide by Fate, Yggdrasil spirit, and All-Father, but feel terribly inconvenienced by it. There are so many options for how this could play out and only a handful of them are actually useful to Haldor. Suddenly the Viking wishes he were better at this sort of thing; he doesn't really have time to stand here debating with himself.
Haldor is a bloody demigod of action, not detailed interrogation. This is why he's teamed up with Gene, Scott, and Rupert. David and Haldor are just supposed to blitz the enemy and obliterate their ranks in a blast of sweet, sweet justice. Jolie and Maia are the second wave that is just as powerful as the the first wave of blitzers, but take a smidgeon longer to kill things in their path.
Action. Action… Action? What in the Hel is he supposed to do here? How do you deal with this? Okay. First off, Haldor decides, continuing to move forward is key. Indecision cannot be shown, even if this is going to be even more off the cuff than usual. There is really only one good way to handle this, even if it keeps setting off his hackles and making him worry.
"Huh. The gears in your head turning or did they shut down? need a bit of oil there?"
Kamui lets out another hearty laugh as he just stands there, his arms crossed over his chest as he continues to look down at the Viking… even if said Viking is taller. Badum-ching!
Poor Haldor though. His counterpart is by far the most intelligent of the Dark Mirrors, and he grins, knowing that he's probably confusing the Viking.
"Just standing there. Hrmm. Perhaps I should just put you out of your misery now? Would you like that?"
Off in the distance, there's a familiar barkbarkyelpbark! It's Drake, in full battle mode as he rushes towards Yggdrasil. There's a little blood on his fur, but it's not his own. He had to get through a few of the fire jotun afterall to get here. And there's someone riding his back. Or someones rather.
One of them has really big balls. And they're holding something.
"HAAAAAALLLLLDOR!"
Haldor starts to snort a reply back at Kamui, but is cut off by someone screaming his name. The Viking turns to look at Drake and…
"Why are Cheech and Chong on my dog?"
It's not Cheech and Chong. It's Konchi and Ponchi, the two loveable perverted tanuki spirits. They ride Drake and soon arrive next to Haldor as they stare down Kamui. Konchi blinks a little and looks towards the dark onmyouji.
"Maia told us to give this to you.." and there's a scroll that's handed to the Viking.
Inside it reads: Kamui is a master illusionist.
"Uh. Thanks?"
Haldor takes the scroll and unfurls it. One red eyebrow arches sharply as he peers over the top of the scroll at Kamui. Slowly the Viking refurls - yes, refurls - the scroll and looks at Drake. The Viking breathes in deep and then slowly releases the air before he gestures toward Kamui.
"Drake. Ball-ball."
Drake should, promptly, lunge across the battlefield and attempt to bite Kamui in the crotch. Vikings and their murderdogs do not fuck around, neither should their victims.
That.. was a definitely an unexpected turn of events. Kamui barely has time to move before there's an eightfoot tall shiba trying to chomp on his manbits. Still, there's a cling of metal with the teeth, and he soon moves out of the way, keeping his distance from the pair as it seems for the first time, he's flustered.
"You would have your puppy fight your battles for you? Pathetic! I have broken you already if you resort to this!" he says with a triumphant hearty laugh as he snickers and shakes his head once more. "What a pathetic excuse of an Aesir. Even your father put up more of a fight than that. I broke you. I have done what I wanted to do. You are now just a pathetic piece of shit."
Haldor clenches the scroll in one hand and his axe in the other. While Kamui is gloating and doing his best to avoid being killed by Drake, the Viking is busily blowing all his damned Legend trying to suss out the weak spot in what he hopes is an illusion. The Viking looks around slowly, scanning through the electromagnetic spectrum and breathing in the air, trying to find an errant scent, listening for anomalies. Anything that might help him.
Kamui is quite the talented illusionist. So why would some of his illusions be faulty in some regards. Why? Could it be that he's testing Haldor as well? Who knows?
Still, the dark onmyouji is rather annoyed at the little puppy trying to bite him in the family jewels. It's not very nice afterall. He's distracted for now,just dodging two and fro from Drake's attacks. Sure he could smite the puppy in one hit, but that just wouldn't be nice, and as much of a bastard he is, he still believes in a fair fight.
And so, while the onmyouji is distracted, there are some obvious branches that are clearly not there. Unfortunately, there are some branches that are there. For instance, there is a new connection to Muspelheim directly to Asgard and Valhalla. That branch is real. So it the branch from Crom Cruch to Asgard and Valhalla. Another odd thing,but that too is real. However, there could never be a branch from Hundun to Asgard or Valhalla as the realm itself is undefined. How can you make a long lasting connection to something that has no definition, no meaning?
And so, on that branch, Haldor can see a flickering white piece of paper, which probably holds up the rest of the illusion.
Haldor darts forward, dropping into a baseball slide as he disappears into Kamui and Drake's conjoined shadows. It's just a second or two that their shadows are large enough for him to pull it off, but it is enough time. The Viking flails for a moment as he nearly slides off of one of Yggdrasil's branches as he emerges from a shadow way up there.
With a breath to calm himself, Haldor kips to his feet and re-orients himself with regard to that flickering white piece of paper. The Viking promptly bounds upward, attempting to reach it in a single bound. If not… Well. Haldor is more than a one trick pony.
And reach it in a single bound Haldor does! Kamui is too distracted by the pouncing eight foot tall puppy to really notice what's going on, and when he finally does, it's toolate.
The ofuda is exposed as are several other ofuda. It seems that there were only two real connections to Asgard and Valhalla and that's from Musepelheim. The dark onmyouji is certainly trying to start Ragnarok early it seems as there's still one more ofuda with a symbol that is a snake eating itself. Could that be a connection to Jormandur? Who knows?
Well it could be Jormungandr or it could be the Ouroboros of Greco-Roman theo-philosophy, spread throughout Europe by alchemists. Haldor, however, is much more familiar with Jormungandr and so he shall assume that Kamui is up to shennanigans involving not only the end of the gods, but the end of Midgard - Earth - as well.
The Viking rips the ofuda from the air before starting to bound about Yggdrasil's many branches, collecting Kamui's ofuda while Drake does his best to keep the onmyouji busy. Maybe, if Haldor's fast enough, he can collect them all before Kamui notices… And before Fate tries to turn this into an episode of Pokemon.
How will it become an episode of Pokemon? Oh wait, gotta catch 'em all! Still, Drake cannot be that much of a distraction even if he's a battlepup. There's a high pitched yelp from the puppy and whine before nthe eightfoot tall shiba is sent slamming into the base of Yggdrasil itself before turning back into a cute little furball, whining. Oh noes! Drake is hurt!
Fortunately for the pair, Kamui is not ruthless enough to kill a cute defenseless animal. Sure there was a blast of pure chaos that hit the poor pup and now paralyzed Drake with confusion, but he looks back up towards Haldor. Is that.. a pleased grin on his features? Why yes it is. He snickers once more and starts bounding after the Viking.
"So I see you figured some things out..still doesn't change what I've done."
"And what is it that you've done, Kamui?"
Haldor keeps springing about amidst the limbs, using his absurd speed to what little advantage there can be in a jumping race like this. The Viking keeps snagging ofuda, building up as large a retinue as he can while trying to keep track of Kamui with only occasional backward glances.
"It seems that again you've been blessed with pure dumb luck."
Yes, there's an emphasis on the dumb part. Kamui stops bounding after him as he rolls his eyes and takes a deep breath as he stands on one of the branches and just looks towards the Viking.
"I tire of this. Here I thought you would actually pose a threat, but it seems everyone else has overestimated your abilities."
Haldor swings over a limb of Yggdrasil as Kamui finally stops. The Viking, briefly, looks over the edge at him before using the limb as a shield.
"Oh. Before I forget, Kamui. You hurt my dog."
At which point Haldor erupts out of a shadow cast by limbs of Yggdrasil above the one Kamui stands on. The Viking is whipping his nunchakus around with terrible fury as he attempts to dropchakus Kamui in the back of the head with terrible fury.
"Don't hurt my dog. Don't threaten my girlfriend. Don't fuck with my family. And, most of all, when I fucking kill you, stay the fuck /DEAD/."
At least Haldor didn't say: Your daughter kick my dog. That just would've bad.
Still, there was a bit of surprise, but it wasn't surprise enough to catch Kamui off guard. He winces in pain as the dropped nunchaku smacks him at the back of the head with enough force to send him forward to slam into yet another part of the world tree.
Smoke forms from the dust rising and as it settles, there's Kamui once again standing with a wry grin on his features. He's enjoying things now for sure and chuckles softly under his breath as he pulls out another ofuda and puts it in front of him. The kanji that Haldor can see is definitely recognizable asit simply says GUARD and soon there's an invisible forceshield around him as he hrmms for a few moments.
"Now you're getting serious. This is the Haldor I didn't want to see. Show me what you can do, for I too have seen you future and there will be terrible trials ahead. I want to make sure you are ready for them." he quips, laughing heartily once more.
"Oh. Now you've seen my future? If I hit you again, will you think you're Fred Flintstone?"
Haldor whips his "fallen" nunchakus back and around, whirling it in a deadly circle at his side. The Viking watches as Kamui summons his forcefield to protect him, but Haldor looks less than impressed. For a moment, Haldor considers Kamui and his words thoughtfully. Ultimately, Haldor dismisses them as irrelevant.
Instead, Haldor surges forward, dust and leaves whirling about as though caught in a wind tunnel in the wake of his passing. The Viking whips his arms out to either side, nunchakus suddenly becoming his traditional Viking long swords. Perhaps he's falling back on tradition because of his location or, perhaps, because he hasn't yet fully assimilated how to wield nunchakus. Maybe Haldor just feels better about mauling Kamui with swords. Who knows?
With a flash of steel, Haldor executes a tremendous Y-cut on the front of Kamui's supposedly Unseen Shield. Both swords whip down toward a central point at 45 degree angles from purely vertical. At this imaginary center point, Haldor suddenly twists both blades and jerks them straight down with tremendous force. Put simply? Haldor's making sure Kamui can't hide behind that shield for long.
The shield is shattered instantly as the force of Haldor's hit cracks it and it shatters into a million pieces! The ofuda that was the main focus for the shield burns up instantly, sending Kamui off from the excess force into the tree once more with a loud woomph!
A soft chuckle escapes from his lips as he grins and takes his prayer beads and lets them out. He starts making a quick motion, muttering something under his breath as he draws out yet another pentagram in front of him. With each stroke of his fingers against the air, energy starts to focus until the kanji for CHAOS can be seen in the middle.
With a palm thrust forward, he focuses his might towards Haldor, and the kanji goes with it!
Haldor sees the pentagram forming and knows he has nowhere to go; though a glance around him tells him that he need not go anywhere at all. As the kanji forms, Haldor summons up his power and steels his resolve. With a groan of pain from the energies crackling and coursing about him, Haldor stoops to one knee, swords splayed at his sides for a split second.
And then Haldor is on his feet, moving again like a sprinter. The Viking whips his swords around as he draws near Kamui, eyes blazing with fury. He smiles thinly at his Dark Mirror, hacking and slashing to corral Kamui on the branch as Haldor presses his attack, forcing the onmyouji further back on the branch.
With a roar, Haldor whips himself around again. The Viking's swords swing around, though between instants they switch out into war hammers. At first Kamui may not realize why, Haldor is obviously up to something… But what, exactly, is obscure until Kamui can see what branch Haldor has engaged him upon.
Two war hammers become a single enormous war hammer just before the moment where impact should occur. Haldor's plan is quite simple: Squish Kamui and smash this twisted and snarled branch of Yggdrasil so hard it stops connecting to whatever place of the gods to which it has been snarled. Hopefully Yggdrasil, like so many other things in the multiverse, is subject to raw brute force as a solution. On the plus side, it's not like Haldor is trying to lop the branch off like he was yelling about.
CRAAAAAAAAACK! Crash! THUD!
The war hammer breaks the still budding branch connectnig the realms together like a hot knife through butter. The power of the Viking is not something to mess with and even Kamui looks impressed at this point. Hehrmms as he moves back, splinters of Yggdrasil flying through the air as he laughs heartily, seeming to enjoy the destruction.
Even Haldor can see cracks propagating from where he broke the branch. It's propagating through to the main branch which is where Asgard connects to Midgard. Oh dears.
"Nice job. YOu're breaking the Touchstone of the Aesir and their connection to Earth. I applaud you. I didn't think you were that stupid!" he says with a maniacal laugh.
Haldor can hear the wood of the Greatest (Ash) Tree of All Trees splintering and cracking above and behind him. For the moment, Haldor cannot worry about that; he can only hope that the connection between Midgard and Asgard does not completely fail from that single blow. Instead, Haldor has a much more dangerous situation to deal with: Kamui and this falling branch on which they are standing.
Of course, Haldor fears no fall. Kamui may be another story. The Viking whips his war hammer around, suddenly whirling his Viking swords again. Haldor surges forward like lightning, trying to get upon Kamui in a blaze of motion. Swords swing and hiss through the air as Haldor seeks to, once more, annihilate Kamui. It is the only choice Haldor has available at this moment.
"And here I thought you saw the future, dumb ass."
SLASH! Blood splatters from Kamui's right shoulder, the swords swinging and slicing past the immaculately white robe as it's soon stained with the onmyouji's blood. He winces in pain as he starts to move back, trying to give himself more distance from the Viking. He hisses softly, not having the healing talents of his counterparts, which is,not very good to say the least. But soon, he focuses, and the blood congeals, stopping him from at least losing more blood.
"You've improved. I'm glad to see that you have. But it's still not enough. Your power is still small, Haldor. It needs to grow. You move without discipline. So now, let me show you what real movements are."
He quickly draws out one of his swords, the ofuda forming one giant blade of paper. The kanji symbols on the blade start to glow. This was specially preparedfor the Viking afterall, and he snickers softly.
"I recommend training with Sojobo. He's a wonderful sifu." he says matter of factly as he starts to move from side to side, at speeds to where it's hard to find him. It's like he's just appearing and disappearing before raising his sword to try to slash on the Viking's chest!
Paper blade meets silksteel and ichor-steel as Haldor bends impossibly under the impact of the blade. He doesn't need to see it coming, only feel it and hear it; Hel, Haldor probably even smells it coming for him, it's made of paper. The Viking, at the apex of his bending to deaden the blow upon his chest has nearly bent himself in twain at the middle of his back, suddenly whirls himself out from under Kamui's blade.
All the while both Scions are falling, standing upon a lone and mangled branch from Yggdrasil. Haldor continues to exude numbing cold by his mere existence as he whips himself around and suddenly back upright again. The Viking whirls his blades in each hand, handling his swords like he would handle drumsticks, his eyes fixing on Kamui intently.
"Discipline? You fight like a warrior stagnant in his style. You lack improvisation, imagination, and the skill to execute their uses properly."
Speaking of improvisation, Haldor's blades have returned to that sectional axe state. He whips the weapon about his body, building speed and power with it as he starts bouncing around. Gashes and grooves are carved into the broken limb's surface as it sails toward the ground so far below before Haldor suddenly starts whirling the sectional axe even more eratically. Frankly, he's handling it like a master of the nunchakus or Kung Fu comet hammer.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this whirling and spinning and eratic trickery, Haldor's axe comes sailing at Kamui from around Haldor's hips like a striking serpent. He snags it by the tail and whips himself around again, completing the strike by causing the labrys' blades to wrench and torque to one side quite abruptly after a head-on blow.
Of course, that's assuming Haldor can even hit the slippery bastard.
Oh dear. If perhaps Kamui was a tree he'd be split in two by now, but unfortunately for Haldor, he isn't. A hearty laugh can be heard escaping from his lips as he laughs even as the axe tears and slices through his flesh. His eyes widen as he cackles with near insane glee before he bounds to and fro, trying to circle Haldor while running through the branches of Yggdrasil itself.
"Yes! That is the power you need! That is what I am expecting from you! Yes! But you know, it is /STILL NOT ENOUGH/."
How can he say that when he's the one getting beat? Who knows? Perhaps there's some trick up his sleeve as he snickers softly and just starts charging towards Haldor once more, the sword held up high befre suddenly sweeping down to try to knock him off his feet.
Haldor really cannot figure out what Kamui's deal is, but whatever it is doesn't seem very good at all. The Viking spots the sword swinging toward him and deftly twists and bends his body. By the time Kamui's sword has come to a complete stop, Haldor is posed rather impossibly with one leg in the air and his body bent over backward over starting at the knee of the leg upon which he is standing.
Around Haldor's one leg, however, is the sectional axe. Somehow, the Viking has managed to keep it whirling around his ankle at ridiculous speeds while he bent and twisted his steel coated, silksteel clothed frame into an impossible shape. He stands up straight again, kicking the whirling sectional axe into the air from the ankle around which it had been whirling. The Viking reaches up with one hand to brush some splinters and saw dust from the tips of his spikey hair which had been pressed against Yggdrasil's wood.
With a grunt, Haldor starts whipping his sectional axe around faster and faster still, making it whirl about a diagonal of his body like an impossible hula hoop. Suddenly he twists his body, letting the axe swing down from over head at Kamui like a stinging scorpion.
"TELL ME THE TRUTH!"
The swirling and twirling of the axe moves at incredible speed. There's a hearty laugh from Kamui as the axe strikes him square on, blood splurting out as it hits a critical artery. He laughs as he falls with a large thud onto the branch of Yggdrasil and coughs up blood, ruining what was once completely white, now is stained a bloody crimson. He continues to cough, though still laughing as he looks up towards Haldor.
"You. Can't. Handle. The. Truth. But you have improved. I look forward to our next bout. Perhaps I will reveal myself next time."
And there's another laugh as his body starts dissolving. Yes, it's dissolving, the energies that made up the form disappearing as all that's left is a strawdoll with a piece of white paper on it. On it in kanji is: ALL PLACES ARE ONE. Was this just a clone? Is the real Kamui truly that powerful? If so was he just playing with Haldor?
And since Haldor pay attention to lots of things at once, he notices a shadow flicker just behind him. Was this another distraction? The branches that were connecting other Titan realms to Asgard and Valhalla are gone. Only Muspelheim remains connected directly to those two realms. But Haldor might notice something else. The Realm of Crom Cruach is now directly connected to Muspelheim as well.
"Oh what the Hel, man? What are you, a damned Transformer?"
Haldor smolders with fury, backflipping off of the falling bough of Yggdrasil and into the air. There he floats as he takes in the sights and sounds of Yggdrasil, trying to figure out what in the world is going on here. By this point he's replaced his drumsticks in his hoody pockets and is also slowly un-levitating toward the ground, where Drake and Thor are.
Drake is next to the still unconscious Thor, whining. There's no blood on the little puppy as he just cuddles up and snuggles next to the big burly red head before letting out a series of barkbarkyelpbarks towards daddy. Konchi and Pinchi watch as they both hrmm, shaking their heads.
For once, the two spirits are rather serious as they watch the lowering Thorson. "It's as we feared.." they say at the same time.
"Oh? What did you fear?"
Haldor is as deadly serious as they come by this point. Silently he crouches down and picks up Drake, cuddling the pup in his arms as his attention shifts toward Konchi and Pinchi, who he could have sworn was Ponchi a few days ago. The Viking arches a red eyebrow, waiting for an answer - they have been annoyingly few and far between since he got out of the Dark Forest.
It's totally Konchi and Ponchi. That was just a typo on the ST's part there. The twin tanuki spirits wrinkle their nose as they looks back up towards the redhead and they take a deep breath.
"You just faced a god."
"I did what now?"
Haldor stares blankly at the duo of perverted tanuki spirits. There's a very good chance his eyeballs may fall out of his skull with the way he's staring at them.
"We can feel strong spirits around. Aren't you curious why he didn't sap out the power from your father and why instead he just chose to seal it? Look, there's a doll there. That was a clone of his. One whose power he lowered to face you. Kamui never is that overconfident. He has always been cautious. But this Kamui is different. Kamui didn't need to steal your father's powers because he already has the power of a god. Who do you think was in the shadows earlier?"
And that's Konchi asking as Ponchi just continues to play with his balls. Cause he's bored. Oh goodness, they're like a weirder Hugin and Munin.
Haldor rubs his face. Why, he wonders, can't supernatural creatures that aren't out to kill him bring him good news? Why can't they tell him 'Oh crap. You just killed that guy so hard he fell out of Fate's loom.' or 'Hey, some dude over in Jersey knocked the Titans out. You should go on a vacation.'? Would that be so horrible?
The Viking breathes slowly and deeply, trying to calm himself down from the frothing rage he can feel bubbling beneath the surface. Drake being adorable and licking at his chin and neck helps quite a lot, keeping the Viking focused on the reality of the moment. Even if it does feel particularly surreal.
"Well that's just Frigg 'n' wonderful, isn't it? Kamui has come back from the dead and seems to have completely skipped over being a demigod. What about Yggdrasil? Do you two have any ideas why he's got things connected like they are now?"
"We've known Kamui for a long time. He's different from most people.." And that's Ponchi, sighing softly as he takes a deep breath and hrmms, motioning for Konchi to continue the story.
"He can read minds. Or better yet, he can feel the emotions of those around nhim. He's never been able to block it out, and so he's been surrounded by the cynicism and self destructive urges of humanity his entire life. Look, he connected Crom Cruach, the Greater Titan of Earth.. that is, the diseased earth to Muspelfire, the Greater Titan of Fire. He wants them to destroy each other. But more so, he probably wants them to enter Asgard and destroy it as well. He's insane. He's snapped a long time ago. It makes sense that he became what he is now, a creature bent on destroying everything. Watch out for him. He probably just isn't serving your enemies. He probably has a connection to Hundun as well.." Wow. Complicated.
"Hundun?"
Haldor looks confused. At the very least he seems to recognize the word and its etymological origins, which is saying something since this is Haldor we're talking about. The Viking breathes slowly and deeply again, still hugging Drake in his arms.
"How, exactly, does a Japanese onmyouji end up working for a Chinese… What is it? A titan?"
"The Celestial Bureaucracy and Amatsukami have a shared history. But I do not know. Hundun is the Greater Titan of Chaos. All that talking about being unmade, that's what Hundun does. Be careful.." Konchi says matter of facty. Yes, it's very confusing and complicated, but it doesn't mean that the different pantheons enemies don't work together either.
"Remember, different pantheons work together. The same goes for the Titans as well."
It's not so much confusing and complicated as it is vaguely annoying. Haldor fusses and fumes, cuddling Drake in his arms all the while as he tries not to blow his stack. While he's not really one for pomp and circumstance and ceremony and all that, he's pretty sure howling like a madman and shaking relatively useful spirits like Ponchi and Konchi until they drop more useful information would be a bad idea.
Or, at least, it would give the wrong idea.
"So how do I unseal Pop's powers?"
"I have no idea. We're low level spirits that can be beat up by recently visited Scions! What do you expect of us!"
Maia did mention they were given to newbie onmyouji afterall. The two tanuki harumphs for a few moments.
Haldor resists the urge to flail at them. Drake would probably be upset if Haldor dropped him just so he could flail ineffectually at a pair of tanuki spirits. Instead, Haldor just sighs and closes his eyes, drawing in some more long suffering breaths.
"I must have forgotten because you were being so very helpful."
"Harumph. We can detect sarcasm too! We trained Maia before! So don't you forget that! We trained Kamui too!" they both grump together. How rude! Or atleast how ungrateful in their mind anyway. so they just start to rush off, wrinkling their noses before starting to head off. "We'll tell the others that you're done." And with that, they're off!
Haldor blinks as he's accused of sarcasm. The Viking wasn't being sarcastic, he considered their information on Kamui to be awfully helpful, if a bit disturbing. With a sigh the Viking just squeezes Drake before flopping down beside Thor. Perhaps he'll let his father down once Maia arrives, so she can heal up his wounds right away.
Word travels fast. Ridiculously fast. Still, it takes a while for Maia to get here, and she goes alone. It's been an hour or so since they left, and soon, the Viking can see a running and rather worried young Japanese woman headed towards him. It's quite obvious who it is at this point, but alas.. she's naked. Not again? What the heck happened?!?
Jason has disconnected.
Haldor raises his eyebrows at the naked Maia running toward him. Quite unsure of what to say or do, the Viking settles Drake down on the ground beside him as he rocks back to his feet. The Viking swiftly moves to meet Maia, wrapping her up in a great hug and planting a soft kiss on her lips.
"Dare I ask?"
For a moment he pauses, glancing over his shoulder at his father.
"We should get Thor down and have you heal him up. I can't imagine being crucified is healthy for a sub-demigod."
Jason has connected.
Maia mmms, enjoying the kiss as she checks him over for any wounds. She wrinkles her nose and gasps as she looks down towards Thor as she hrmms for a few moments.
"I asked the nymphs of the dark forest to help fight the jotun. They wanted my clothes since they were fire proof.."
That makes so much sense! Kinda sorta. Maybe. Still, she reaches down and ruffles up Drake's headfur before looking down towards the big burly unconscious redhead.
"Yeah. What happened?" she asks curiously, wanting to be filled in. "And sub-demigod, what?"
"Oh. Well, uh. You want my hoody?"
Haldor gestures to his silksteel garment. Technically he doesn't really need it, he's pretty hard to kill without that there +2B/L bonus. Also it's just a little weird seeing Maia cheerily running around in the nude.
"Kamui's apparently a god already and decided to seal away most of Pop's power instead of draining him or killing him. Apparently it's a part of whatever plans he's got. Oh… And I don't suppose you could patch up Yggdrasil or, maybe, help disconnect all of the wacky connections that Kamui made between branches?"
"If you need it, it's okay.."
And that's when Maia just stares blankly at her beau for a few moments. She wrinkles her nose and looks at him like this: -.- If there was a giant sweatdrop, she'd have one right now as she hrmms for a few moments and looks down at the walnut in her hand. She wrinkles her nose and takes a deep breath.
"Maybe this will be able to do something,but he's a god already? Wow..I feel so.. small.." she whines a little.
"You and me both. I had about two minutes to relish kicking his ass again before Konami and Ponzi told me I fought a powered down clone of a god Kamui."
Haldor sighs a bit, unzipping his hoody and offering it to Maia. It looks like the hoody may have been under attack a few times, but the Viking doesn't look to have been harmed in the least. There are, notably, a lot of metal shavings around which usually means he just shed his body armor.
Quietly the Viking turns to the task of removing Thor from the crucifix. It is probably a little complicated because it requires Haldor to not kill his father.
Maia facepalms and her cheeks flush a bright tinge o red. She follows the Viking as she puts on the silksteel hoodie and zips it up. Fortunately, due to his large size, the hoodie looks more like a baggy dress on her, but that's all good for now. At least she's covered up!
"Be careful. And I'm sorry about Konchi and Ponchi. They have no tact, but at least we know more about him. It just means we have to try harder and I'm sure you'll kick his ass again!" she chirps merrily, offering a bit of assuring as she looks nup at the unconscious god of thunder.
"I'll get the ropes on that side and you get the other?" she offers, just trying to help.
"If you like, sure."
Haldor could probably handle the whole thing quite easily by continuing to act as a conduit for the terrible Frost and just grab the ropes, freezing them in his grasp until they shatter. Or, heck, he could just grab the ropes and rip them off, but he's not out to hurt Maia's feelings.
"So. You know any way of unsealing Pop's power?"
"I don't know the ritual that he did. Can you tell me about it?"
Maia helps as she pulls out one of her own ofuda and blinks for a fe moments as it becomes razor sharp. That's when she's chopping away at the rope, doing thing in an almost mortal sort of way.. if mortals could cut through thick rope with pieces of paper that is.
Jason has disconnected.
"Well he had Pop up like this and he drank some of Pop's ichor, I think, but maybe that was just to power up the clone or something? And he had a pentagram on the ground with him seated in the middle. There were spirits of the five Wuxing elements: fire, metal, wood, water, and wind."
Haldor pauses a moment, frowning as he rips away some thick rope. The Viking looks rather guilty. And why wouldn't he? It's obvious it was a ritual and he clearly knows it, but he missed it the first go 'round.
"Each time one of the spirits was destroyed an ofuda with the name of its element would appear. When all five were destroyed he completed the ritual by somehow getting the ofuda to attach to Pop. Then they just sorta sealed his power?"
The Viking makes a vague gesture like he's not quite sure if that's exactly how the ofuda part of it worked, but that's the effect it had.
"It's not just the Wuxing elements. It's the same elements for onmyoudo as well. Our origins are with Chinese spiritualism in a way afterall, but that makes sense. He was preparing a five point seal on your father. And since your father is a god, I'm sure he had to sacrifice some powerful spirits to block off Thor's power."
Maia hrmms for a few moments, wrinkling her nose as she chews on her bottom lip. She's mulling all the information over as she finally frees her side of Thor before her ofuda becomes just a regular piece of paper once more. She wrinkles her nose, continuing to help him free his father.
"I don't think I can break something like that. Not with my experience and knowledge now. But one day I will! Hopefully sooner than later.." she admits ruefully, her cheeks flushing a bright tinge of red as she feels useless.
"Then heal him up. Being crucified upside down can't be good for his health."
Haldor carefully lays his father's apparently unconscious body down on the ground. The Viking then steps back, crouching down to watch while he gently rubs the half-asleep Drake's head between the ears. Every so often his attention shifts upward, glancing at those cracks in the branch of Yggdrasil between Asgard and Midgard.
"I was planning on doing that.."
Maia waits until Thor's form is on the ground. She sighs softly and kneels down beside him as she closes her eyes and focuses. Her hands start to have a warm glow about them as she starts muttering something under her breath while doing a deep breathing exercise to clear her mind. Soon, the god of thunder's body glows as his body starts to restore itself.
"After that, we need to fix Yggdrasil. I, uh, may have damaged the bough connecting Asgard to Mid- Errr… To Earth."
Haldor coughs slightly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. Quietly he watches Maia tend to his father, icy blue eyes keenly shifting over the landscape.
"So demanding. Maia do this, Maia do that."
There's a little grump on her features as she wrinkles her nose, teasing.. perhaps. Who knows? She still sighs softly and waits until she thinks Thor is actually all better. Ichor loss is different from blood loss afterall. Or is it? She's not quite sure, never having dealt with the medical functions of a god before. Still, it was a new experience and she pulls out the walnut. She hrmms, pursing her lips for a few moments. How does she use this thing?
"Well I'm… I'm sorry. You're just all I've got to help me right now and I haven't exactly proven to be very good at fixing things. Just breaking everything."
Haldor sighs quietly. Maia may have just broken him where Kamui could not. Kamui would be steaming mad if he knew that.
Maia sighs softly, looking up towards Haldor as she feels guilty now for snapping at him like that. She eases on up and dusts her hnds off before leaning against the Viking while resting her head against his shoulder.
"Hey, you did good, okay? Your dad's powers weren't stolen. They're just kinda sealed. He's still a god, he just can't access his powers. That's better than the Baron or than Eris. So you did good, okay?"
"I walked into his god damned trap. I saw all the damn signs and just completely ignored them all. And then I knocked a branch off of Yggdrasil and nearly took out the connection between Asgard and Earth."
Haldor sighs again, wrapping his arms around Maia. The Viking closes his eyes and nestles with her for the moment, trying to relax himself a bit. It's a little hard just this moment.
"I'm sorry. It's just… Y'know. I feel a little useless just this moment."
Maia awwws, wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders. She squeezes his fondly while running her fingers through his hair, just trying to comfort him, cooing softly while looking into his eyes. She offers a bright smile as she nuzzles her nose against his.
"We'll fix it, okay? All of this we'll fix. The Baron, Eris, your father. They'll all be better, just gotta have some faith, ya know? And you feeling useless is just what they want. So don't be that way. I wanna see my hunky cheery boyfriend, kay? I don't date guys in emo bands.." she says teasingly.
Jason has connected.
"Alright. Alright. Let's go fix us some cracked Odin's Horse," replies Haldor. The Viking gets to his feet again, scooping up Drake with one arm while he lefts Maia quite effortlessly with the other. Once on his feet and Maia is securely on her own two feet, he moves to pick up his father and hefts him across his shoulders in a fireman's carry.
Drake promptly scampers on top of Thor's body and curls up to take a nap. For once, Haldor doesn't deny the pup the opportunity to nap in such a weird place. He may not quite be himself yet, but he's not an emokid either. Maia may yet have to summon Shatner to tell him to cheer up, emokid.
Maia lets out a squeak as she's lifted up in her beau's arms. She smiles warmly and motions towards the base of the World Tree. She leans in and kisses him softly, whispering sweet nothings to try to reassure him once more as she stares at the walnut in her hand once more.
"Just stay here for a bit, kay?"
And she scampers off to the base of the tree, after giving Drake another little scritch on the head. He's such a good pup.
Once at the base of the tree, Maia closes her eyes and gently sets the walnut down against Yggdrasil. She mutters a soft prayer, invoking the spirits of the place to show themselves while she closes her eyes and concentrates.
"Greater Spirit of the Wood, please hear my plea. The World Tree has been damaged, and I do not know whether I can heal it. Things have gone awry. I wish to seek an audience with you so that things may perhaps return to the way they were."
The shell of the wallnuet splits down the middle, ropy wooden tenrils emerging and moving to find support as a headish sort of thing emerges quickly thereafter. It.. looks sort of like a little chibi treant, if trees were walnuts. It's a walant. Looking up at Maia it says, "The World Tree has been damanged, and you can not return things as they were. Or at least, you might not do so alone. It is too much for you." The little fellow turns his gaze sadly around to the branches and he says, "It is too much for me. The tree is wounded, and while it is not fated to die from these wounds this weakness will grow. Expand over time. The roots will fail, the breanches will weaken. You might save it, restore it, but you will not like the price."
Haldor stands where he is, since Maia seems to be in the middle of something. Drake barks once at Maia before curling up and returning to sleeping atop Thor atop Haldor. There's got to be something wrong with this totem pole, but Haldor's not sure what.
"This is the World Tree. It cannot fail."
Maia knows that. There are too many things depending on this touchstone existing. She looks back towards Haldor, sounding a bit worried as she wrinkles her nose as she hrmms for a few moments as she peers back towards the Walant.
"What is the price? I will pay it."
The little Walant looks between Haldor and it looks between Maia and it says, "First of all you will require the ichor of the strongest of those of the earth. At the moment that is the Titan Gaia." The little fellow is sproudting a bit of leaflike moss atop his head now, aww, skittering over to inspect some of the damaged branches. "Which is fortunate, she does not hate your kind as do some of her kin. She is likely to demand a price, but remember she will want the tree to die no more than you. Second, it will require the sacrifice of the lifes blood of a willing child of the gods." Sap flows out of a walnutty branch helping to seal a cut on the tree before the Walant skitters back. "If there is no more damage blood alone might suffice. Blood alone might satisfy and the child of the gods might live. There is no guarantee. There are no promsies. To truly restore things as they were might take a life."
Haldor arches an eyebrow at the Walnut. Walant? Walnut. The Viking shifts his weight a little bit, considering that information carefully for a few minutes. Finally he speaks in a calm, cool, slow voice.
"That's all? The ichor of the Titan Gaia and blood from a Scion? You're sure?"
"I think there are stories of how Yggdrasil was maintained. Didn't they use to bind someone, break their bones and let their lifeblood seep into the roots of the World Tree? Or am I just confusing myths?"
Maia swallows a bit nervously, not quite sure if she's right and she hrmms for a few moments, wrinkling her nose once more. She peers towards the little chibi treant and bows her head softly.
"You can use my blood then."
"You are not confusing things" The Walant offers sadly, "That is what it will take. Binding. Breaking bones. Cutting of flesh and bleeding. It might take days, it might take a week. With that sacrifice of blood, and perhaps life, and the ichor I can restore the damage done." It spots another area in distress and scampers over once more to apply sap, "And the ichor of the Titan Gaia. That will be dangerous. The other Avatars of Earth, they want the end of days to come, they would see the death of this tree as the opportunity for the birth of another and a change of power. They will be working to stop any from trying to reach her."
"The stories I know involve the Norns emerging from beneath the root that leads to the heavens, from their home near the well of Uroarbrunnr, with water and mud from Uroarbrunnr. They pour the water and spread the mud over Yggdrasil that it may not rot or decay."
Haldor is, however, overruled by the Walant. Of course, who knows where Haldor's head is at just this moment. The Viking shrugs a little bit, squinting at Maia and the Walant for a few moments.
"No. Use my blood. I caused the damage, I'll damn well help to fix the damage with my own blood."
"That's so it may not rot or decay. But I think the branch is broken already."
Maia sighs softly as she wrinkles her nose and purses her lips as she looks back towards the Viking. She takes a deep breath and shakes her head before looking towards the Walant's.
"No. Haldor will need to fight. He is a stronger fighter than me, so he will be needed." she says matter of factly and with conviction.
"Can we give the blood after we get the ichor?"
Ah, now Haldor's being pragmatic.
The Walant peers between them once more and tiny walnut shoulders try to shrug and mostly fail. Humans are weird. "It does not matter which of you does the bleeding. It does not matter which of you might perish in the doing. You are both Children of the Gods, the sacrifice of either of you would be enough. You do not have to decide now. Without the ichor of Gaia it would not help. The two must work together. Go. Get the ichor. Make your choice."
Ahhh, the life of a Scion. Sacrifice yourself for the sake of the universe. How apropos. She sighs softly and idly runs her fingers through her hair as she nods and bows her head to the chibi spirit before turning her attention back to Haldor with a subdued side. "Looks like we have to go to Terra to convince Gaia to give us her ichor."
"Yeah. We should, however, drop Pop off in Asgard. Hopefully they can take care of him while we're off trying to get ichor from a Titan and, y'know, figuring out which of us is will provide the blod for the blot."
Haldor sighs quietly, looking upward toward the branches of Asgard. This is some mess he's gotten himself into this time.
The chibi Walant offers up, "If you visit Asgard, tell them of what has occured here. Tell them of the state of the tree. With it weakened others might seek to harm it further, finish what has been started. With my essence I can keep it relatively healthy, for a time, but in doing so I shall not be able to defend it from attack. That task will need fall to others."
"It'll be defended. Don't worry."
Andthat's Maia giving the little chibi spirit a subdued smile before she hrmms and blinks a little towards Haldor. What language is that? Sounds ancient and old. And totally not in Maia's realm of expertise so she just nods and smiles right now.
"You and Yggdrasil will be defended."
Haldor reaches out to scoop Maia up in his arms as he prepares to fly off into the Asgardian sunset, a Thor and a Drake upon his back.
The Walnat gives a tiny little walnat wave to them both before devoting itself fully to scampering about the branches. Keeping the tree healthy until their eventual return.
Any additional notes fall to the bottom.
