The Blessed Woodlands

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

"Hmm? Hm. Hmm. Hmm hm hmmmm~!" Uria looked at him closely then, a conspiratorial look on their face. "I see now! Someone ripped out your singing muscles! But you know, we can talk without those. You just need to use your Paths... or do you not know how?"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

Her words only got to draw his empty, soul sucking look even more directly into her eyes. His grin shrunk and turned into a sad rictus, one that mocked her as much as his own sad predicament.

Seriously, wasn't it kind of cruel to point out?

But his eyes weren't smiling. They never truly smiled. Not even once. But Uria might feel it... the fact there was something more brewing in them. A desire to grab the God by the neck and wrangle it until it stopped making so much noise. That would be pleasant indeed. She could likely feel that much.

He put a leg in front of the other and bowed magnanimously, a hand behind his back as if it was ready to hold a dagger - while another was laid out to Uria as charmingly as a prince's. And not one of those fake royalty types. That kind of regalness was genuine, and oh so contradictory on him.

So much so he had to wink at Uria. A wink Uria had already seen once, maybe from someone else. But this time, it was inviting the God to dance his waltz.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

They stared at his hand for a moment, and their weapons shifted ever so slightly as if they considered running him through even as Uria gave Zeke a cheery smile. When their hand grabbed Zeke's it glowed with light. Lines like circuits traced down their skin intent on moving over to him. Of course, it wasn't as if they could control the man.

But why not make contact?

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

Heh. So his hypothesis was correct. This one's way of thinking was still much like a child's. The innocent carefree way it managed to tap into PATHS would almost charm him, if the ease wasn't so terrifying. Hadn't this one popped just a few days ago at best? Feeling the circuits flare up in his emptiness almost caused a chill to run down the vessel's spine.

Yet that bond Uria tried to connect into him led... nowhere. It just sank deeper and deeper until it drowned in an empty abyss...

Until it bounced back straight into Uria. This suddenly caused a dark aura to seepe out against the light - and force dark purple circuits to trace down Zeke's skin, intent on moving over to Uria. It was a funny feeling, not quite unpleasant, but forbidden and wrong in a sense. Like a shiver or a spark that jolts you and makes you wake up all fuzzy inside.

Like a taboo you encourage when you really shouldn't. Uria had, figuratively speaken, shoved their hand in a cosmic cookie jar. And the jar spoke back.

Hello world.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

Uria pulled back their hand slowly, a slight grin on their face as they received the slightest information from his network. "You're so... fat. Fatty uncle. You take up all those dreams, and bonds, and people and shove them all in your mouth! If you keep eating like that, then one day you'll get your fingers on someone else's plate. Then they might punish you..." There was a cruel glint to the brightness of their eyes now.

"You better be careful! Or someone might reach in your belly and yank everyone out. Then they'll stuff you in a chest and push you right into the bottom of the sea." They laughed, and it wasn't so much a threat as a warning.

If you keep going like this one day you'll lose, and there won't be any more story.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

The dark man closed his eyes and smiled innocently. Even with its massive size, the dark shadow of his split in half against the child's brilliant light. When speaking through these networks, words are unnecessary. It doesn't even take any time at all to transfer information, it is truly like being connected with everything. But well, they both knew that, eh?

What a considerate niece you are.

Zeke started to even sweat a little, honestly. Unfortunately, he was a gambler at heart. Risks are the spice of life! This was all for the sake of his dream, you know? Even the hand that refused to let the God let go. Even the other hand moved to grab the God's other hand fiercely. Even the dark tentacles growing from his dark clothes- swirling back and moving to slither towards Uria's ear.

Dark circuits mixed with light circuits and tangled over the two.

You're pretty gutsy yourself. Not that many people get to outpace a divine construct when it comes to voracity. Nyohohoh~!

Still, even in the maw of a monster, his empty eyes were filled with desire.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

Yet they were constantly out of his reach. Uria floated away, connected only by their interlocked hands for a moment. Then one of their gleaming swords slipped into their hand. It blazed with power for a moment as they looked down on Zeke with nothing less than pity.

"You worry too much, fatty uncle. If you don't have fun because you're trying to be serious then why bother?" And their sword descended to part him in two from shoulder to hip.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

"..aa!" An adorably pitiful sound escaped his throat as Uria suddenly pulled and floated away. The gleam of the burning sword shone for a moment against Zeke's eyes and skin, but before he knew it the arc was drawing towards his poor innocent body.


He blew up his hand to escape her - with a solar burst not unlike his Worldend Breaker. The power he wielded wasn't just one he could fire internally, it coursed within and through his entire body. But even despite his grin, he knew how bad things were. If he hadn't noticed in time, if he hadn't stockpiled just enough energy before coming here for an escape maneuver... no, if Uria hadn't warned him, his guard would have been too low to evade something like that.

The brat was toying with him.

Heheh. Even flipping away from the plasmic explosion in an acrobatic display, he'd barely land on his feet. And when he would, the flesh on his forehead would split in two from the slash he barely avoided, clouding his vision with his own blood. How terrible, how wonderful, how thrilling!

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

But there was no time to pause. The blood had yet to drip from his wound before Uria was upon him again, laughter like bells ringing as they closed in. A swipe of their hand sent a squadron of small winged creatures at Zeke, mouths hungry to eat into him. At the same time they dived to divide him in two again. Their remaining three weapons, another sword, a halberd, and a large club, coming from the left and right to box him into their strikes.

"If you want to fight, you should give it your all! Don't try to be all serious and bleh about it, silly."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

It was only because the explosion was still pushing him back that he had enough momentum to make distance from the three weapons! As soon as he noticed their shift, he hurried to race backwards without leaving eye contact with the kiddo. His steps  zigzagged like a snake with a thunderous crack - but not without his body receiving nasty gashes in the process.

DARKNE-

He waved his hand, but he was too late! They had already swarmed and started melting into his shell-like body. It was like having thousands of marble-sized holes slowly open up on his skin, his eyes, his everything!

"...uuuuh....uuaaaaaaaa!!!"

Suddenly, his eyes widened. Zeke rolled in pain, stumbled back and lost balance. There'd be no more dodging from this last attack! Her speed and aggressiveness were outside this world! This was the future! My my my my my!

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

Untold aggression, overwhelming might, and endless power. Already Uria unleashed another salvo and then another, every strike was accompanied by another set of projectiles. Howling mouths, rusted shards, fangs dripping with poison. All of these accompanied Uria's offensive until they were upon Zeke with a final strike, their three other weapons coming down in unison...

A sword for one arm. The halberd for another. One swing from the club to knock his head into their sword's path. Then, with terrible finality, the blade struck home. Really, Uria had simply picked the biggest target. Their golden blade had shorn off Zeke's beard with an almost graceful set of swipes!

Well, his beard and most of his cheek and neck. With a cheeky grin Uria pulled back with the slaughtered facial hair dangling from one hand. "Got it!"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

Was this it? Was this the end? No, no, no, no, no, no!

WORLDEND BREAKER

When did his shocked frown turn into a big ol' cheeky grin? No, he must have been smiling all along. When she ravaged him with her weapons, when all those little bits punched straight into him, when her final sword rushed to kiss his neck. The harmless, hapless, armless fool just kept dancing madly against God's storm.

His opened wounds bubbled with white hot steam. Then, energy. Suddenly. Irresistibly. Geheheheh! Amazing, everything you just said is wrong.

Zeke's shine turned so hot, so bright, it threatened to melt everything around him. This surge of energy seared, pushed, burned - like a sun. That sun repelled her slash, and pushed Uria away from him in the nick of time. An explosion of heat, energy, and what could only be described as an essence from another world. Another history. Another side. Yet it was no different from the void. In the end, it would always consume. It would always be himself. Whether he drew God closer or pushed it away, Zeke would make it his nonetheless.

I'm having fun. And I certainly won't take you seriously.


His burning eye glowed with such intensity. It didn't stop, it didn't falter. The heat and light just got more intense by the second! So hot, it could make a man's gaze boil inside out just to look at him! Even despite being covered in wounds, he stroked his beard intently and-

WAH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! His eyes widened in shock and horror. The brat... t-the damn brat! How could it, how! It... it....

His precious beard! It was ruined! How could you do this!!! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! The smoldering heat and light stopped immediately, and Zeke started bawling his eyes out, even with a single stumped arm he managed to somehow look even more pathetic and prideless. Even a God launched away by such a violent blast of radiant energy was way less common than this kind of sight.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

Such incredible heat! If Uria went diving deep into that even they wouldn't be able to stand around it forever. Hahaha, how fun! They should show him something fun too. There was nothing exactly that Uria had which would stop this in a flashy way. Their weapons weren't made of the darkness and it would take so many shots to whittle it down! That wouldn't be fun at all. Besides, they wanted to test this anyways! Then their body glew with lines tracing across their body, the light of Paths. A bond created was reinforced, two hearts joined regardless of distance. They discarded their weapon and opened their hand.

True Cold of Avici

To oppose the heat was a hellish cold, an infinite stillness at the bottom of the world. Nothing was in motion. Nothing could change. Everything would be as it was, forever. A bitter truth, a ruthless judgement, this was a chill that froze the very air. An ice that encroached upon the heat of another world and rendered it null. Once Zeke's support had ended, nothing could save that from Uria. The sun, the alien energy had been trapped in a prison of ice. But that wasn't really Uria's concern. They simply held up their blackened, red hand to their face with a mild curiosity. "Uwah, your powers are so cool, Lubei!" Their hand had been frozen to the bone. The blood inside had crystallized and expanded, tearing through the hand like red diamonds while the flesh turned harder than rock. And with a careless smack against the prison Uria shattered that hand into fragments without so much as a blink.

They jumped atop it to stare down at Zeke, still dangling the beard in their remaining hand. "Hey, are you okay, fatty uncle? I wanted to give your beard a trim because it looked sooooooo long."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

"..ah?"

Everything changed when he saw that power firsthand. If it wasn't for his arm covering his face, even Uria would be able to tell his degenerate expression when the God used that power. Seeing it though... it made him feel all tingly and funny inside. And this was the crux of the contradiction. Because even Zeke could not struggle against his nature. His fate. His overwhelming desire.

But that Ice somehow emerged from PATHS as well. it was... it was... simply marvellous!


Zeke sniffled. That was the cutest beard in the Nexus... But just as it looked like he'd sniffle and cry some more - he pounced on Uria and gave the God a big fatty hug, ruffling its head with his cracked stump and rubbing his face all over Uria's cheek. Amazing. You're amazing. It's my loss! Completely and utterly!

Feelings were complicated. Even against something like this, he couldn't let go of his emotions. His self. Zeke was simply too egotistical to let go of that, even when it just added more fuel into the bonfire.

But it didn't mean he gave up. Uria should be able to feel it too, even despite the affectionate rubbing.

Wrestling is best of three, eh?

[Umbra of Chaos]

Uria

"Hmmmmm." They still had their sword in their hands. It wouldn't be tough to lash out right now and reduce him to little cutlets. Sure, their sword was going to break sooner rather than later... But they just didn't really feel like it. "Well, we can't really do much right now, fatty uncle. It only matters if there's something to lose. And there's not a lot here anymore."

Uria shrugged their shoulders, turning their gaze towards the woodlands.