Just as the Inari clone was set to make an impact, the tiny sphere at the center of Aerys' palm would ignite. And the explosion that occurred blistered the desert for miles on end. Tremors and cracks drew splinters in the desert... The clouds above him were swallowed in the amethyst inferno. Suffocated. Incinerated. Everything was. The sands, the air. Even Aerys seemed to have been vaporized in the cataclysm.
As the clone was nearly at his neck Aerys released an almost incalculable amount of power, Naten so furiously potent its arrival created an event of cataclysmic proportions. What was he to do? The power had been sweltering this is what the Tyre bided his time for, a massive expulsion of fire and force. The twin Inari's who were shaping the giant blood sphere for the next spell had very little time to react before the fearsome wave also encapsulated them.
"No... I cannot fall here...not while I'm so close."
Inari said as the clone that was assisting him ceased shaping the spell and jumped in front of him. Using the power behind its creation it produced a
borg of naten that would by inari mere increments of time. The terrible heat and completely devastating weight of the force pounding down on them could only be stalled for so long. Inari would take advantage of this small window to repurpose the magic.
"If you choose to fall then fall you shall. So quick to try fire with fire...it is the Hellgate way.
He knew this voice, Malka, his mother.
"But you are not the average Hellgate should you choose to rise instead, then rise you shall."
His birth rune connected their consciousness and allowed her to whisper in his mind. In his mind's eye, he could see her so clearly.
"You fight for the family you were denied? What use is a throne to one so unconcerned with the lives of others? What would earning an empty seat mean when all you've ever known is solitude? My little fox, what does this victory mean to you?"
His eyes softened
"Before the maze, nothing, when I entered that place when I stood before the former Wizard King my soul was laid bare. The truth of my curse, and the curse that befell the Myotis. For over 1000 years I have walked this planet in myriads of incarnations. In everyone one of them I awaken, I yearn to know what I do not. I seek strength I covet what I never seem to be able to grasp. I gain it, and then lose it. Endlessly, in every lifetime I give in to the madness of the moon, I mourn, I regret I rampage, and then...I die."
The pulverizing force of the Solar Fission was staggering, cracks in the borg allowed flashes of scalding heat and winds that vehemently burned Inari's revealed flesh. His impressive regenerative abilities allowed him to heal as they occurred but he knew this to be a bandaid of relief.
"There is... this rage..."
His voice cracks, the pain of the burning wounds and the hurt in his heart.
"This unbearable, festering fury that I am in constant war with. This horrid call clamors me towards chaos, invoking me to tyranny. I have killed so many...taken from so many and then I crossed Bora. An Orc mercenary, of noble birth, a son of a great chieftain, blessed by the sun worshiper of Xelphis. I felt his pride...his love for those he died trying to protect. A life of tradition, values bonds...and I took it from him. I could not contain my thirst to know, I hungered and lusted for dominance, to surpass him to...crumble him."
The Inari clone was running on its last monochrome of power, soon it would be devoured by the blazing force and Inari would be faced with the full might of the blast.
"It changed me...whatever power in his blood it...soothed me and I saw for the first time the value of everything I had taken. The value of what I never was able to hold. I vowed to find an end. This path is one I have been walking for eons, a nightmare perennial. The Myotis are trapped in a similar cycle. A moment of weakness leads them to a grand betrayal and they now deny themselves the grace to move on. Despite the horrible choices I have made I will carve this path adjacent to the one fated for me. Whatever the origins of this curse I will shatter it, it begins with the Myotis. I must unshackle them from the chains that have ensnared their hearts. Reignite their passions and show them not to fear themselves in hopes that I might also be free..."
Malka: "Now tell me, what do you know of Kyrin, the moon the Myotis are tethered to?"
"It...endows us. The naten in our ava react to its lux increasing our abilities exponentially"
Malka: "Indeed...but it is far more to us than a simple power boost, that is little more than an effect to the cause."
With another crack, the left side of the clone was nearly evaporated, and the integrity of the borg was moments away from crumbling.
Malka: "Everything about our culture even our very DNA is intricately tied to the primordial traits of the moon. Its rise, its fall. Serenity and madness, Order and Chaos. The moon guides the waves, it pulls and pushes leads and follows ...facilitates. It is both light and Shadow. Every living entity of vescrutia can grow, evolve and overcome. However, the way the genetic structure of the Myotis captures the complexities of evolution still cannot be replicated to this day. The Scarlet Moon Calls it incises its demands. Kyrin, The Azure Moon sings, it invokes. But they are still the same moon. You do not need to meet unstoppable forces with unstoppable force... you merely need to flow...to adapt. Hear the song of the moon...invoke it. He is pushing...so you must..."
Then we must pull!
Inari's
claws radiated an intense azure aura that pierced the blackness of the Solar Fissons naten around them. The naten in the blood mirrored this radiance as its purpose was now reached. He could not hope to match this power at its apex with equal or greater force. But if he could facilitate it, divide it, he stood a higher chance of surviving the encounter. He was always so fixated on proving himself to be the dominant force, always being able to overpower his foes with overbearing magical force, demanding his sources the needed might do so. Taking carelessly and viciously from the earth, demanding both land and sky heed his roars. Now faced with a wall he could not mindlessly topple he needed to learn a different call...and pray it to be enough.
His eyes saw naten in its raw form. He could see the threads crudely woven together. Aerys to possessed a monstrous amount of power but Inari could see it was not incredibly adept at shaping and molding it. His eyes could discern the waves of black and amethyst clad together forming the pulverizing force of the explosion.
" Here under the gaze of the Azure moon, In the height of the new Astral year I will swear my Oath, Consecrated in blood let my will cry out to the heavens above, let it seep and beckon in the flesh of the mother below. I refuse to be the song that murders the world. I swear to fight against Tyranny, so never again run from my truth."
Inari's magical energy was directly tied to his indomitable will. Here now emboldened by his mother's wisdom, the bond he shared with his familiar, and the benevolence of the moonlight he was at standing on the recipe of change, and now it was given purpose with the oath and invocation. His magic flared, and the calm fury coursing through him caused him to respond. Fluently he
moved , the orb of blood magic propagated immensely his eyes flared and as he reached the end of his movement with everything he could muster he released.
REACH AND DIVIDE!
Massive
ethereal claws morphed from the magical orb mirroring Inari's movements shattering the borg and the clone with it meeting the force of the explosion with divisive intent. The result would be a
clashing this time his goal was not to overshadow, this time his goal was to guide and redirect. His spell sought to divide the opposing might reducing the burden of the force but the heat was still searing his flesh. If successful Inari would "tear" through the flaming force causing the tsunami of naten being sent his way to split and go around him. If he failed, he would be swallowed by the crushing force of the sea of black and amethyst flames with no way to survive such a blaze.