Cross Effects- The RP

[Umbra of Chaos]

A bored but piercing look on his face, Karna observed as the peculiar child retracted it's fleshy appendages and charged his way, now arming itself with a shield of hardened flesh and a blade of the same material, sharpened like a sword. While one could praise the creature for having supreme predatory instincts, Karna could see past that. Behind the innocent mask of a child and the ferocity of a wild beast laid a sharp mind. It did not truly matter to the gold-and-black clad warrior. The remaining pedestrians had cleared out, and Karna could now cut loose.

The four arrows, now coated in an explosive layer of fiery prana, were let loose, and were instantly joined by another two dozen, as Karna lept into the street.

'This should prove most interesting', Karna thought as he unleashed fiery hell upon the interesting creature.

PARIAH was prepared for a normal archer. Not the inhumane skill shown by this human, no, person. White hot arrows destroyed the shield upon impact. PARIAH grimaced when he saw 24 more arrows fly at him. He enhanced his legs with biomass and jumped into the air. With a thought the blade detached. It only took a second for PARIAH to throw the blade at the person. If he was truly alive like he thought he was then the archer should survive it. He descended, regrew his blade and shield, and PARIAH watched.

[Brahmastra]

The child's agility was impressive, to say the least. Even as it jumped into the air, unscathed from the gale of arrows, it reacted swifted with a toss of it's bladed hand before immediately regrowing both appendages. But this was no time for appreciation. Curiosity had killed many a cat, and Karna was no feline. Bracing himself for the incoming projectile, Karna swung forth an armored boot and collided it with the bladed limb, sending the sword flying for miles. Spinning with a stylish but wasteless flourish, Karna strummed his bow mid-spin and let loose seven fiery arrows, shooting at seemingly impossible angles to hit the child from all sides.

If this was to be a war of attrition, Karna was prepared for it. His first opponent did not disappoint him, and he would in turn show it the time of it's life.

[Umbra of Chaos]

The child's agility was impressive, to say the least. Even as it jumped into the air, unscathed from the gale of arrows, it reacted swifted with a toss of it's bladed hand before immediately regrowing both appendages. But this was no time for appreciation. Curiosity had killed many a cat, and Karna was no feline. Bracing himself for the incoming projectile, Karna swung forth an armored boot and collided it with the bladed limb, sending the sword flying for miles. Spinning with a stylish but wasteless flourish, Karna strummed his bow mid-spin and let loose seven fiery arrows, shooting at seemingly impossible angles to hit the child from all sides.

If this was to be a war of attrition, Karna was prepared for it. His first opponent did not disappoint him, and he would in turn show it the time of it's life.

PARIAH was impressed. This was obviously a person. He was fast, strong, and skilled. All traits that PARIAH associated with being truly alive. However PARIAH needed to deal with the problem of having arrows coming in on all sides. He could not block them all, so he would only let himself be hit by the ones that would damage him the least. A leap forward and 2 arrows were deflected by the blade while the other two punched through PARIAH's skin leaving identical smoking holes in his chest.

The space where his heart should have been was gone.

PARIAH almost slowed down. Now he was right in front of the archer. He moved the blade forward, ready to sink the it into his opponents stomach. Even as he struck PARIAH opened his mouth and instead of a child's voice the voice of all the consumed spoke as one.

"wHo arE YuO?"

[Brahmastra]

The creature before Karna, now having replaced it's torso with a gaping cavity, was clearly not human. But it could not have been the child of neither Deva or Asura, for such a union could never bring forth an organism this vile. The pale warrior reasoned that whatever the creature was, it was likely a modern arcane construct gone wrong, given it's odd personality.
Even as it inquired about his identity, Karna stood his ground, his treasured bow having disappeared into thin air. As the swing of the biological sword came down, Karna swung a single fist forward, trapping the sword in the space between his arm and the golden blade on his forearm, stopping it to a halt with a fair deal of effort. With an unnatural twist of his arm and a quiet grunt of effort, Karna dislocated the sword-arm at a 270 degree angle before using the leverage from his twist to throw his spiked gold-clad foot, bathed in a thick parameter of fire, straight through the shield-arm's small limb, sending it flying.

Having disarmed the child, both literally and figuratively, Karna shoved it backwards a few meters, throwing it off balance, as he drew his Brahmastra in the shape of a Katar and subsequently shoved the dagger-like weapon through the child's head, spilling it's blood everywhere.

"Know that you were felled this day by the Son of Surya, Karna of Anga." With nothing more to say to the abomination, Karna turned his back, having no further desire to see the mutilated corpse of a child, regardless of it's abominable nature.

[Bloble]

"Hey."

A voice interrupted Karna's silent exit. "I should be thanking you for the help, kid, but that's not how you fight a bad guy."

Axe Cop stood resolutely in Karna's way, mustache bristling. "For starters, that thing isn't dead yet. Turning your back on somebody like that is like asking to get your head chopped off."

[Umbra of Chaos]

The creature before Karna, now having replaced it's torso with a gaping cavity, was clearly not human. But it could not have been the child of neither Deva or Asura, for such a union could never bring forth an organism this vile. The pale warrior reasoned that whatever the creature was, it was likely a modern arcane construct gone wrong, given it's odd personality.
Even as it inquired about his identity, Karna stood his ground, his treasured bow having disappeared into thin air. As the swing of the biological sword came down, Karna swung a single fist forward, trapping the sword in the space between his arm and the golden blade on his forearm, stopping it to a halt with a fair deal of effort. With an unnatural twist of his arm and a quiet grunt of effort, Karna dislocated the sword-arm at a 270 degree angle before using the leverage from his twist to throw his spiked gold-clad foot, bathed in a thick parameter of fire, straight through the shield-arm's small limb, sending it flying.

Having disarmed the child, both literally and figuratively, Karna shoved it backwards a few meters, throwing it off balance, as he drew his Brahmastra in the shape of a Katar and subsequently shoved the dagger-like weapon through the child's head, spilling it's blood everywhere.

"Know that you were felled this day by the Son of Surya, Karna of Anga." With nothing more to say to the abomination, Karna turned his back, having no further desire to see the mutilated corpse of a child, regardless of it's abominable nature.

Pain. It burned through PARIAH's body, but it was fine. He would endure. What was a body to a virus? Nothing had any extreme importance. Limbs could be regrown, holes could be repaired, and the head was simply a tool for sight. Within a few moments the weapon implanted in PARIAH's skull dissapeared and the regeneration began again. Cuts were filled with biomass, holes were closed, and a new arm was created. He held out his hand and out of biomass life was born. Small shards of blades. Seemingly inanimate but sentient. PARIAH hurled the parasites with enough force to shred human flesh, but it only pierced the Karna's back. It was enough. Tendrils sprouted from the tiny organisms and they pulled themselves into his body. Within a second they would grow, fester, and tear him apart from the inside out. However, PARIAH was in no mood to watch. The loss of biomass was minimal but the pain of having an arm removed was extraordinary. Even as the Axe Cop began to warn Karna PARIAH reinforced his legs and leaped across buildings to make his escape.

[Brahmastra]

Pain. A sharp sense of pain spread across and into Karna's back as the creature's tendrils invaded his innards, trying to rip him apart from the inside out, to ignore the great damage dampening effect of his father's heirloom. He had not seen the attack coming. Even an instinct honed for almost a century could not help against an attack from something that was, no, should've been dead. His lack of knowledge of the world he had only resided in for a few hours was surely showing right about.

Pain. The process he was experiencing would surely bring certain death upon any mortal made of flesh. Tendrils now burrowed in his lower torso, one would surely die from such a horrible process.

But...

Karna was not fully mortal, and no amount of pain could crush his iron will. Taking a deep breath, Karna steeled himself.

"Agni!"

Invoking the name of the God of Fire, Karna's insides were flooded with a gout of fire, reducing the foreign flesh to ashes. No amount of fire or heat could harm a son of the Sun, and Karna's insides went unharmed from the incineration. While the tendrils had damaged his innards moderately and even cut some of his vitals, this was nothing that his superhuman physique could not heal in a matter of a few tens of minutes.

An inelegant burp, caused by a combination of the buildup of combustible gas in his stomach and whatever damage the child's attack had done to his gastric track, escaped from Karna's mouth.

"Thank you for the, albeit late, warning, man of the law. No creature of my own era could survive and function without it's head. There is still much for me to learn about this interesting world, I suppose."

With that, Karna leapt into the air once again, landing on the same roof that he had begun the engagement from. The damage to his innards had left him awfully hungry, and he required time for his body to restore it's functions. With those thoughts in mind, he began his encroachment on the closest food stall, feeling a slight of eagerness towards trying more of the cuisine of the modern world.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Survival. That was all that mattered. If there was anything that PARIAH was certain of it was the knowledge that he would endure. That certainty had been challenged. That skirmish he had with that person... Karna. He was strong. Stronger than PARIAH. The amount of biomass destroyed had proved a little problematic, but nothing a few humans couldn't solve. However he needed to be careful. He had been weakened. PARIAH finally took a moment to survey the area around him but something was off.

There was a stench in the air. It smelled like... cattle.

PARIAH looked over and saw the strangest sight. A barn? In the city? He dismissed these questions. Why it was there didn't matter. Cows were much larger than humans, which meant even more biomass. He walked right in and consumed.

[Bloble]

"It's fine, kiddo. Just be careful the next time you run into that thing," Axe Cop grumbled. "This city's getting too many new arrivals too fast, and we still have no idea what's causing it. There's already been a dozen firefights, a few blocks exploding, and a meteor show that wasn't scheduled until five years from now. Here, take this. If you start feeling like there's an alien parasite growing in your body, call Dr. McNinja." He handed the lost looking fellow a donut, gave him a pat on the back, and took off, leaping over rooftops in search of more trouble to fix.

That tentacle thing had gotten away once, but the next time, it wouldn't be so lucky...

[Brahmastra]

Karna had accepted the circle-shaped pastry the man of the law had given him, and was now slowly munching away at it on a rooftop. It was too sweet for his tastes, but that did not matter to him, food is food. The worst of his injuries were already being restored, as the healing rays of the sun shined upon him.

His thoughts dabbled back to the ungodly creature he had fought not 30 minutes ago. The ability to not only survive, but also escape after having it's brain destroyed was truly something he couldn't have predicted, to the point where it had actually managed to land an attack on him when his back was turned. He still had many questions about the modern world, about what twisted technology could spawn such a horror. He decided that on his next encounter with the beast, he would not be so merciful as to refrain from his divine weaponry.

Karna wanted to fight the creature again, and soon. Though the lives of the mortals that would rejoin the cycle because of this creature's rampage mattered little to him, he had himself killed tens of thousands of times that number, his reason for desiring a rematch were merely a matter of his nonexistent pride. The creature had broken the Code of War, attacking him while his back was turned, and for that, it must die.

Finishing his snack and returning to his frown-y facial expression, Karna focused with his archer's eyes, looking for anything similar to the abomination within his ten-kilometer-measured piercing stare.

[Umbra of Chaos]

PARIAH was content. His predatory side had been satisfied by the cattle, and for the first time the drive for perfection was gone. However, without the excitement of the fight or the incessant noise of his predatory side PARIAH realized how alone he really was. Silence permeated the air and PARIAH felt hot tears spilling from his eyes. Even if the virus felt nothing, whatever was human in PARIAH wept.

[Mooncake]

"Leave me."

The business woman stared blankly, cut off in the middle of her speech.

"S-Sir?"

Red eyes connected with her own for the briefest of seconds. The sharply dressed woman turned pale, unable to move her gaze away from that piercing stare, the stare of a God looking down upon an ant and finding it wanting. She left hastily, a messy pile of papers and folders clutched in her white-knuckled hands.

The man - no, it would not be just to compare him to a mere man. The King lounged in his chair, something that, to all others, would be comprised of the very finest materials available. He found it lacking. The room where he resided, inlaid with gold and amber, built from cedar and marble, was found by his judgement to be basic, even though he had it constructed to his exact commands. Rising from his chair, Gilgamesh, He Who Surpasses All Other Kings, found the very existence of this building to be repulsive to him.




Passing by the reception desk, Gilgamesh gave but one command to the harried staff.

"I find this place ugly."

Such a phrase would be vague coming from anyone but Gilgamesh - when he found something ugly, it was immediately removed from his sight. The orders of the King were absolute. As soon as Gilgamesh emerged from the glass doors of the skyscraper, a limousine pulled up to the curb. Not tacky, black, with tinted windows, and a driver that was completely loyal to Gilgamesh (as all are, though some do not recognize it). The driver turned around as soon as Gilgamesh slid into the leather-seated car. His "Where too, sir?" was interrupted by Gilgamesh's command.

"Drive."

The limousine took off with a purr, skillfully weaving through traffic. Gilgamesh considered traffic lights unsightly, and was in the process of having them removed from the city. As such, his limousine did not stop even once during the journey, only coming to a halt when Gilgamesh gave the word. The driver immediately sprung out of the limousine and opened the door for "Mr. King", as expected of a commoner. Gilgamesh left the car without a second thought.

With a lazy jump, he had covered six kilometers, landing atop the roof of a building with unmatched grace. Taking a single step forward, The Original King surveyed his kingdom. It smelled of the foul stench of modernity. Humans that had once been so strong, so powerful, now sat and waited for everything to come to them. The consumerist life style had sullied the world, his possession.

In this city he had thought it was not so. Conflict brewed on the streets. All manners of creatures roamed the city, a worthy test for any warrior. And yet, even in this place, humans could not dare to do so. They hid in their fragile houses, never stayed out after dark, pretended that nothing out of the ordinary went on around them as they lived their rabbit-like lives.

The King of Heroes was sickened by this decay, this rot that had grown in the heart of the humanity that he loved so. Gilgamesh had only rarely appeared to the public that was no longer worthy to see him, so disgusted was he with their cowardice. His lips drew back in a sneer.

"Mongrels."

Looking to the horizon, Gilgamesh noticed someone, another who wore armor of gold and with hair that was pure white. Gilgamesh recognized him on sight, and would give him the honor of speaking to the King. A hero of the ancient age was infinitely better than those who walked upon the ground of this city today. With another step, Gilgamesh landed behind the figure. He had no doubt that the Indian hero knew he was there. Gilgamesh, bestowing the honor of conversation upon one of the rare few that deserved it, spoke first, as a King should.

"What troubles you, son of Surya?"

[Brahmastra]

"King of Heroes." With dull surprise, Karna acknowledged the presence of the greatest king mankind had ever seen. If Karna was in any way shocked from this development, he did not show it. Truthfully, one with instincts like his could feel the all-encompassing presence coming from a distance of a dozen kilometers. For now, he remained seated, looking towards the vast city.

Internally he felt a small slight of awe. Even in his time, the King of Heroes was one of the grandest tales shared by village elders, the tales of the King who had been created by the Gods of his time, and yet rebelled against them. The man who could shatter mountains, slay even the Beast of the Gods, Gugalanna, and held all wealth of the world. Truly, he was graced by a man above men, a king above kings, a god above gods.

But even with that, Karna had sworn loyalty to but one Emperor of the World, and it was not this man. Therefor, he would not lose the last of his dignity by willingly prostrating to another lord.

"What do you wish for, King of Heroes? It is still noon, and I may yet provide you what you wish for. Provided, of course, that it is within reason." Karna was obligated, nay, sworn to assist all who came to him during the midday. It was simply the desire to help those who asked for it. The King of Anga could never bring himself to force someone to change. Change was hard, and something the person that was to change had to decide for themselves. For that reason, Karna would help anyone who could summon the courage to come before him.

[Mooncake]

"You do not face me, son of Surya? What ill manners, to not face the King when he deigns to speak."

Though he said it lightly, Gilgamesh was displeased by the Indian's reaction to his presence. To not turn to the King when he spoke, listening with rapt attention, was a grave offense. In older days he would have killed for that level of disrespect.

"What do you wish for, King of Heroes? It is still noon, and I may yet provide you what you wish for. Provided, of course, that it is within reason."

Gilgamesh scowled.

"I do not wish for anything, son of the Sun God. You had a troubled look about you, and as an existence above these mongrels," he gestured to the streets below. "I had come to learn why. Am I not kind?"

With but a single glance, Gilgamesh had already learned of the events that had taken place. The king saw the thoughts of others before they became words, leaving the need for an answer expressed through words useless. In truth, he had come here on a whim. In this city one that stood above the rabble was rare, rare enough to draw the eye of the King of Heroes. Walking forward, Gilgamesh spoke again.

"Look around you, son of Surya. Do you not see it? This city of cowards that hide behind their fragile walls, hiding from the moon and the night sky on the chance that they might meet something more than human?"

Gilgamesh stopped and looked for a moment, at the busiest time of day in this place where all things gather. It sickened him, to see drawn faces and darting eyes, the smell of fear ever-present. His displeasure was made evident in his voice as he spoke.

"Such a city should not exist."

[Brahmastra]

"You do not face me, son of Surya? What ill manners, to not face the King when he deigns to speak."

"My apologies, King of Heroes, but for all eternity, I serve but one lord. You may be the greatest sovereign the world ever saw, but you are not the one I pledged myself to."

Utterly calm and collected, Karna finally rose to his feet. With a slight smirk, he continued, now burrowing his utterly piercing blue eyes into the red beads of the Mesopotamian.

"And regardless of my loyalty to Duryodhana, one king does not bow to another without first suffering the taste of defeat."

"I do not wish for anything, son of the Sun God. You had a troubled look about you, and as an existence above these mongrels," he gestured to the streets below. "I had come to learn why. Am I not kind?"

"All beings are created equal, God-King, it matters not whether they are orphaned outcasts like myself or the hand-forged perfect human made by gods, like you." Coming off as insulting, Karna truly meant nothing hostile with the sentence he had just spoken. That was merely his way of communicating, to always tell the truth, and to never hide what was on his mind.

"Look around you, son of Surya. Do you not see it? This city of cowards that hide behind their fragile walls, hiding from the moon and the night sky on the chance that they might meet something more than human?"

"Do you truly think so? You, who lead all of humanity in the war against those cruel and selfish Gods that sought to control them by proxy through you? I can understand that feeling, but I fear that I do not share your opinion. All humans deserve the right to choose their own fate, and if you feel that you have the right to choose the destinies of every man, woman and child in this realm, then truly nothing must remain in your jaded heart but the nature of a tyrant."

"Such a city should not exist."

"Unfortunately, this is where we come to a disagreement." A raging fire erupted in his right hand, and a spear appeared within it. This spear was black like a moonless night, and just it's spearhead was nearly the size of Karna himself. A pink thunderbolt was trapped between the near-split spearhead, and gold decorated the length of the spear in great detail. Truly this was just as much a work of art as it was a deadly weapon, forged in the hands of the Creator. Still not striking a battle stance, Karna continued.

"I would like for you to back down, King of Heroes, and cease this foolish endeavor. If not... Well, I don’t wish to myself, but it seems this will be where we part."