Cross Effects > Areas

The Blessed Woodlands

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Kotomine_Rin:
Vanguard

Shadows danced, shifted , and crossed over his face as he ascended and charged a terrifying attack. Whatever conviction, whatever heroic was powering his screaming body, it was only fueled by true desperation.

He moved to strike. No, his ax was already surged towards its tarket.

And yet- it would not be so. Two opposing forces met him, and eventually converged with this fell lightning. A pillar of ice, unyielding and unrelenting, shone even more brilliantly than the frost that covered the forest. It was like diamond, a pure crystal with no impurity that denied all warmth, snuffing even the ire of hell with a frost that would emprison it. A light of judgement, more terrifying than any heavenly spear. There was only one light in all of creation that could shine as bright, and stand as high. It was the searing impact of the morningstar, sending down divine penance to the gravest of sinners.

And it would crush his everything.

His eyes widened. Suddenly, Vanguard was impacted by the clashing forces, his body relented, he quaked as he was slammed on both sides by heaven and hell alike. Thus, he lost his footing, his grounding, and was smashed back into hell through a craxcking and shattering prison of broken ice shards. Pushed straight into it, struggling against it, his flesh and armor learned of true cold, until even they started to crack, and skin became the same as frost.

However, what wouldn't be so would be Uria's victory.

He roared. The diamond dust cleared. Broken and battered, the hero did not relent. Instinctively, he found grounding in one of the shattered ice shards, and did not yield even when his frozen femur broke in half from the impact. Where frosted armor did not cover him, a metal colder than the tundra and  a frostbitten layer of flesh covered him. But he kept moving, kept climbing, even when everything around him was falling. Heaven and hell screamed at him, but that did not stop him. The ice and light had rattled his bones and organs to the core, but that did not stop him. He was flooded with the most abhorrent and dire of visions, but that did not stop him.

There was no stopping now. It was to late to stop. No one stops. Instead, he glared down at the sky with burning conviction and readied his strike, even with now frostbitten and icy limbs, even when moving from broken ice platform to the next with everything beyond his strength. In one moment, destiny would shift. In one moment, the fight would overturn decisively.

In this moment, the fate of everybody in this forest would change abruptly.

YOLF:
Lubei

The guillotine of providence hung over their heads. Lubei sensed there was no turning back from the next instant, but whatever he allowed the ravening knight to do would end only in his own destruction. Vanguard demanded things the demon could not answer. He jumped to battle when he meant only for a little time. But his accusations were not wrong. On the other hand, he had taken Uria at her face. He had forgiven her impulses because he didn't want to add to his sins and judge the heart of a child. But she had no regard for anything but herself.

'Do you believe it is right to leave him to die? To unstoppably march towards oblivion out of empty rage?'

It was not. He could still stop. It was never too late to stop, no matter what awaited them in the future. Lubei had been frightened of stopping - he was still frightened. But why did he live again, and again, and again, if there was no point to stopping, to turning away from his path?

With a crashing kick, he soared, discarding the armor of the glacial dragon. At the apex of his flight, ice formed beneath his boot, and before he fell, he bounced. Like the thousand-league rabbit he jumped between his pillars. With the air screaming behind him, he collided with Vanguard's shoulders, and pinned his torso from behind.

Barely hanging from the man, Lubei dared breathe and look up only then. He wouldn't feel his limbs after this, but that worry was for then. "RaaaaAAAAHHHH!"

The True Cold of Avici was unleashed as an avalanche unto the world. No hesitation hampered the mass that bound Vanguard like chains, and erupted from the collapsed earth like spikes of magma. And against Uria those came, their flat points surrounding the divine child from every direction as to pin the axle of heaven.

Umbra of Chaos:
Uria

Was their fun going to end here? Was the game going to end so soon? No, of course not! Uria could see the onrush of ice, knew its nature as well as their own hand, so even as the demon lord roared they thrusted their hands down. Then the forest groaned.

Trees all but uprooted themselves, the ground shook in upheaval, the pit trembled, and all the world fell in to fill it. Tons of wood and earth were tossed into the deep with the fervor of willing sacrifices, all to crush and bury those within it. If it was weight alone it could not stop such a catastrophe, but the sheer force in which the woods moved to constrict and choke them was beyond any natural explanation.

It was undoubtedly an act of God.

Kotomine_Rin:
The Knight

Lightning erupted from every pore of his body, every pore of his soul. He became that lightning. That man roared in defiance to the heavens.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Why did he see these things? Why were the people he knew and grew up with forced to partake in these things. Why were his hands the ones that acted these memories!? And why couldn't he remember a damn thing!? Nothing other than a man's voice that sounded exactly like his! He, he...

Do you want to be a hero?

Suddenly, his eyes widened as the cold frost of hell cradled his bones. Lightning spat out, split against the branches, the trees, everyything in front of him. But even while his entire blood and back froze he fought. He fought. He fought! But he never stopped to try and understand. He rushed headfirst into this, without ever looking back at what was really important. Because of him, things would get worse. This future must never come to pass. He must never allow it to pass! His power, his body, his soul, he must use everything in his power to stop that child.

But it already begun.

It already happened.


His slash screamed like a beast against the heavens. Against the one above him. His arm slammed against the branches, and the black thunderous aura cloaked the white forest like a curtain. Until its center started to glow, and the dark power shimmered with that righteous blue spark. Vanguard overcame. Even when his body was cracked and covered by ice, he smiled and stood tall as a tower.

Luminous trees and branches were shoved inside his body. The proud knight coughed blood, his vision blurred yet clear. He felt... light, for the first time in a long time. The first time since he donned that armor. It was frozen and was shattering into nothing, of course. His arms were also shattered. The roots were jammed straight inside him, but no divine construct so much as grazed Lubei. Even at the cost of losing his arms, he had defended the demon behind him. He finally realized what was important. He realized what he should have done all along.

"That was foolish of me. I'm... sorry..."

Had he gone all out, he would have been able to destroy every branch. But in doing so, he would have killed the one behind him, and died trying. "You're not such a bad guy after all." The ice cracked. Vanguard cracked. Uria stood as proud as the morningstar. This must be how the heavens feel above all else.

But the hole in the heavens cracked too. Now, that terrible future could never be stopped.

No one stops.

YOLF:
Lubei

His eardrums and ribcage vibrated painfully, and only a prickly numbness now remained in his legs and arms, but Lubei found himself supporting the knight's battered frame instead of holding it back. He scowled half-heartedly away from Vanguard's words. "You are foolish, don't be so distracting."

Their footing was unsteady through the rain of debris and dust, and all Lubei could do to keep them afloat was to conjure more ice to intercept it where the edges of the depression widened like the mouth of a world serpent. In chilling anticipation, the demon king turned his attention to the imperious demigod and the widening gap in the skyline.

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