The Official Grand Battle RP [Round 2]

[NARFNra]

It was very hard for Zenit to see. The whole place was a flickering patchwork, as whatever ran those crystals was powerful enough to combat the darkness spell released and spammed inside the area. Everything was rather hard to see due to the luminous combat, and he could barely make out.

An area cleared for a moment or two.

((What the HELL?!)) Thought Zenitropos as the giant creature rolled out of the pit. What ever it was, it looked like a giant anaconda, but that wasn't the whole thing. In fact, it looked more like the anaconda head was actually merely a tentacle, as as his enemy the Human started to fight it, he figured that it wouldn't hurt anything to attack it himself. He bounded over to the pit, able to see it even in the darkness around him, and looked in it.

He now knew why they had needed an alarm system. The Crystals were blaring so loud that he could hear it perfectly, vibrating through his feet, and as he looked down he saw... The Other Beast.

The Beast of Des Firr wasn't the only one, you see. The Beast had been here so very long, but that had only really succeeded in making this place a near ghost town. It seemed that another race had lived here once, the ones who prefaced the beast, and they had been guardians of something... worse.

It wasn't really a tentacle so much as one of the parts. The Other Beast (Zenit nicknamed it Amphisbaena based on it's first tentacles snake like appearance) was a sort of multitude of horrors, a combination of all the fears in existence, and thus was there and not there at the same time. He was surprised though, the shifting mass of unknowns and hates and fears deep within the darkness of the pit didn't appear to have seen him, and infact, other than the Snake like tentacle rampaging through the now quite lit room, was almost lethargic looking. Zenitropos decided ((Nothing I can do to deal with that, and proceeded to start attacking the Amphisbaena.

"Yo, Mercenary guy!" Zenitropos yelled at the man now attempting to end the creature's life, "We might be able to reseal or kill this thing if we smash it's snake head in, as these crystals seem meant to do that!".

Wolf glanceded at the alien he had just tried to kill. It was attempting to attack the snake thing with acid, and having limited success. Should he trust the thing?

He decided he could deal with it later, as the thing was attacking the same enemy as he, and continued to rapidly beat on the snake with a sword, hoping the scales would shatter.

[Ultra Storm]

As the legendary machine approached its destination, it made a sharp turn beyond most modern fighters. The Vimana now rose above the storm and soared under the open sky. Even now, it shone in gold and was untouched by the sand because of the protection of the wind.

There he saw Seed Alpha in thought, gazing at the red sun in the sky. In his hand was still the legendary sword he had held, in the same shining glory as before. It was as if the sword was a symbol of their interrupted encounter and their reunion had been determined by fate.

Seed Alpha immediately knew why the being had come to meet him. There could only be one reason, after all.

“We do not know for certain. All we have sought is knowledge, so there may not be an ideal for us to fight for.”

The Aevan stated a clear, honest response to the question. But that was not all he wanted to say, for the words of Aether had made him wonder.

“But we would want to know. Our desire for omniscience is great but that alone does not determine our deeds. To understand ourselves we must also understand what we are fighting for. We have slept and wandered in the world for a long time, long enough to seem like eternity, but have never fought for an ideal. We may continue to exist for aeons still, so we wish to find meaning in our actions.”

It was expected that there would not be a simple answer. No, Aether would not have asked if there had been such an answer. Even so, he had chosen the right one for whom to present the question, as Seed Alpha seemed to understand his dilemma.

“I understand. I am the same as you in this regard, as I have also sought knowledge for an eternity.”

Indeed, Aether had searched for eternity, but it was not an eternity one might suspect. He did not experience time in the same way as the others. For him, there seemed to be no beginning or end. But if that was the case, what would be the cause of his creation? Even he did not remember.

“But the knowledge that interests me is not just anything. I know of many things, yet there is still something I want answered.”

Aether did have vast knowledge, the memories of many beings. Yet, even he was not truly omniscient, as he was yet to find an answer for himself.

“There has not been an ideal that has brought me satisfaction. I wish to find meaning for my existence, for even an eternity is worthless without a reason.”

[Heartless]

"Grr, these damn tunnels don't make sense!" Doe knew that hugging the right wall in a maze was a surefire way to find the exit. What he didn't realise is that it only works when you're at the start of the maze, and had been going in circle for a few hours, not quite blissfully unaware of what had been going on outside. Frustrated, he completly forgot all the security measures he had taken to make it this far (which is admitedly not very) and kicked the wall.

"Damn it, damn it damn it. Is there no exit to this damn place? Will I have to choke men to get out of here? Where is the god damn ex-" Pvt. Doe was interrupted by the sounds of a large metallic object falling behind him. Stunned by this sudden plot development, he turned around and saw that Clunks had fallen behind him.

"Ah ah! my ticket out of this maze!" Pvt. Doe was let down, however, when he noticed Clunks had shut down. "Darn it, there's sand stuck in it's mechanism. Whoever was supposed to be taking care of that marvelous demonstration of technology and let it get filled with sand better watch out because his ASS is GRASS and I will KICK it with my SHOVEL." Using the aforementioned shovel as an improvised steampunk robot maintenance tool, he quickly cleaned out the finer mechanism from the death machine.

"Let's see... there! All clean!" Once done, Doe let out a sigh out relief as Clunks reactivated and stood up in front of him. "All right, big guy, you're back in action! Now, this MAZE is complicated, but with that big drill of yours, we can get out of there no problem. I'll watch your back, you just smash that wall and whatever gets in your way. Got it?" Pvt. Doe pointed to the wall at his left as he said that, then readied his shotgun in order to be ready if trouble came. Not that he wouldn't be ready if he were the one shoveling, per se, but when you have a giant robot, then you make sure it's useful AND well protected.

[Cereal Killer]

Could I trust Dr. Pepper? I figured not, so I decided to contend with the beast how I saw fit. I bent my knees and jumped, soaring into the air with my blade in hand. I swung it back over my head and came down on what appeared to be the middle of the beast. Even that strike, my most powerful so far, had done a minimal amount of damage, cutting slightly into the gigantic anaconda. Suddenly I felt its tail move and along with its body it wrapped around me. I let out an agonizing shriek as it started to squeeze me. It hurt a lot more than anything I had ever felt, it almost felt like I was throwing up mixed with what I imagined exploding from the inside felt like.

But then I saw Dr. Pepper jump up and spray acid all over the creatures face…It was at this moment I noticed I wasn’t dealing with an anaconda at all, it was a large tentacle. At that moment the tentacle started wiggling around violently trying to hit Dr. Pepper. It was also then that it freed me. I took this opportunity to jump on top of the tentacle. I decided that Dr. Pepper was right after all; his plan sounded logical and like a good way to slay the beast.

I started running along the back of the crazy swinging tentacle, it was obviously not liking the idea of me running across its back. It was swinging back and forth like a mad man as I continued running up. Now I was up halfway and I started to bring my sword behind my head again, storing up power to swing it for a killing blow.
But at that moment the tentacle swung upward sending me flying towards the ceiling, my back facing the impending doom at the top. But as I turned my head to look up, I knew what I had to do to survive. I flipped my body to an upside down position ready for the impact. I hit the ceiling with my feet and absorbed the shockwave into my body, and then I released all the power and went flying downward through the sky with my sword outstretched. I soared through the sky towards the beast’s head and with a swing from my sword a huge slicing noise sounded as the head slid clean off the creature and onto the ground. It made a huge crashing sound and green blood squirted all over the room.

Before I hit the floor I braced for the new collision I would face. I then hit the floor at an incredible speed with my feet, running towards the wall. I immediately stuck my sword in the ground to stop the momentum. As I swung around the sword holding it I crashed into the wall with the velocity I still had stored up. In all the madness I almost didn’t notice the creature screeching and pulling back into the dark abyss it came from.

[NARFNra]

As The Other Beast screamed in agaony and retracted its tentacle, Zenitropos ran as fast as he could over to a crystal, neatly severing it with his acid.

"HIDEY HO YA PSYCHOTIC POTATO!" He squealed as he hurled the crystal as the retracting being. The being screamed so loud the whole area shook, and the arm turned into a neat, crystalline imitation before falling apart into the pit. Zenit watched in amazement as the pit sealed itself, becoming the same substance as the crystals.

The hateful screeching of the crystals died down, returning to the tranquil happiness it had started as. Zenitropos picked up his crate, nodded to the man, who was standing up and looking at Zenit oddly, then drank one and began to trot towards one of the passage ways.

As he walked, another scream of pain reached his ears. Something was fighting? He rushed down the corridor, crate in tow, passing a large machine and man almost without noticing them. He could hear...

Was that red shadow's voice screaming? He moved faster, turning into the passage where the voice was coming from, and...

[funwes]

The Beast came stampeding forward with its head down near the ground. There was no room to effectively maneuver, so Zygax went the only way he could: straight at The Beast, sword pointed straight ahead. The madness and insanity in It's eyes met the calmly nervous look in Zygax's. They rapidly got closer. Zygax's heart raced with terror and excitement. His bones chilled and rattled with every step, but he continued his momentum. There was no way back now.

He leaped. The Beast brought up its horns to meet Zygax. A minuscule slice of his cloak was cut off as Zygax dropped the sword down onto The Beast's back. It struck...and made a slight scratch. What? Damn! Zygax thought as he continued his momentum to go over the top of The Beast, nearly cracking his neck on the ceiling. Zygax jumped off of the top of It and turned around to find The Beast already charging back after a quick U-turn. !!! Zygax leaped out of the way of a snarling mouth and had blood from Its mouth spattered all over himself, getting some in his right eye. The Beast passed just barely missing Zygax as he stuck to the wall. Zygax tried another few hits at The Beast's skin, but no luck. His sword could only cut a few centimeters in and would go no farther. Cursing again, Zygax's mind raced for what he could do as he raced to back to where he started. He had to think faster, for The Beast was already turned around. But it had yet to start Its charge. It stood in the corridor, glaring at Zygax. Suddenly, after looking into Its eyes, Zygax couldn't move. He couldn't even look away. He could barely think; his only coherent thought was "Keep it away...Keep it away..."

Zygax exerted all the willpower he had as The Beast came charging. Zygax's eyes grew wider and wider as he realized why the only survivor was catatonic: The only thing the man ever saw for the rest of his life were those eyes of insanity. Zygax didn't want that. He REFUSED it.

His mind broke free. At the last possible minute, Zygax jumped out of the way. The Beast plowed into the rocks, causing even more of the tunnel to fall on Its back and a large rumble to shake the underground. Zygax took the opportunity to bring his sword around towards The Beast's face and found one of Its squishy eyes. Blood, gore, and puss erupted from the eye socket of The Beast and continued to stain Zygax's already colored cloak.

All over my cloak? Oh, now you've done it. That's the last straw. Zygax got angry. Very angry. He pushed into The Beasts head even further out of hatred. His own eyes began reflecting the insanity that The Beast had only moments ago. Zygax went out of control, hacking and slashing at The Beast's face and mouth, slicing open anything and everything that his sword could penetrate. Blood flowed like a river coursing over a cliff. The walls of the corridor became drenched as did Zygax. The Beast flailed, sightless, throughout the entire ordeal. Finally, it backed away, and made one final charge in Its desperation and smashed through the wall of rocks.

In his own personal blood lust, Zygax licked a little of the blood off of his sword as he walked through the new opening, found The Beast's face once more, and drove his sword to Its brain. From Zygax's mouth, a triumphant shout escaped. A large, half glorious and half batshit crazy smile appeared on his face as he laughed maniacally. Zygax ran his hand over The Beast's lifeless, crumbled, and bloody body, reveling in Its destruction. Nobody had been able to accomplish what he had just done. He started breathing normally again. The madness left his eyes. Slowly, exhaustion caught hold of Zygax. He soon discovered the large bite in his side that he conveniently ignored during his rage. He began coming to his senses again.

No...I went over the deep end again. After I promised her I wouldn't. But...it was the only way. Yeah, it was the only way. But I can't fight the other competitors like this, especially with this....mmrfff....injury.

Zygax leaned his back up against The Beast's horrible, bloody and mangled body and looked to his right...only to see that he just emerged out of a side corridor and into a larger corridor where some other competitors were gathering. They just happened to be looking a bit strangely at Zygax and his little demonstration of licking off the blood from his sword...

"What are you looking at?" Zygax said. "Haven't you seen someone burst into a room and kill an unkillable creature before? Honestly, I thought you all had experience in fighting."

[Falkenwing]

What was that? Lass had watched in amazement as the glowing room turned red, then pitch black. Afterwards, he had heard lunatic screaming, and some kind of hacking. The lights then came back on, and the whole ordeal was over in a matter of minutes, or hours, Lass was not sure which.

He approached the room, glancing around him. There were crystals everywhere and they looked calm, as if they hadn't noticed anything. Lass touched one of the crystals, and an agonizing shriek could be heard coming from it. He removed his hand from the crystal, probably dangerous, and turned right, walking along another twisting passageway. After walking halfway across the passage, a horrible stench wound its way into his nose, smelling like a dead animal.

Wasn't there a beast on this desert?

Thinking about this, Lass ran forward and approached a disgusting sight. It looked like someone had slayed some type of beast, and blood, ooze, and guts were spilled everywhere. It gave Lass the urge to vomit, but that would just make the scene even more repugnant. He approached the beast cautiously, fearing it was still alive. He kicked it. The beast's skin just flapped helplessly, and he knew that the beast was dead.

Too late Kaze. Maybe next time.

He then saw a red figure with a mixture of colors on him ahead. He started to approach him, when he saw the figure lick his sword. What the hell? Then he shouted out some words, but Lass was too concentrated on attempting to cover the overhead stench. Then he sensed something greater, something more deadly and powerful somewhere in this maze. It held even greater power than this filthy beast, and Lass wanted to find out the power of this desolate planet. He ran past the rainbow man and he reached a split. Right or left. Lass turned right, and started to run up that passage. The power was now surrounding him, the aura intensifying every step he took. This was an exciting moment.

[voltcs]

This must be it…

The servant had came back from Wolf’s home planet after a long search. He was walking down the hallways when he noticed Varen, talking to the other servants.

“Sir Varen, excuse me…” He called Varen’s attention as he dismissed the other servants and turned to him.

“Oh, it’s you. Have you done Wolf’s request… and mine?”

“Yes, Varen,” the servant replied. “I left it in your room, as you and Wolf had wished.”

Varen nodded. “You may resume to your duties now. I shall be in my room to have a look at it.” It’s time to take this opportunity to investigate Wolf’s “precious” item.



“It’s a shame that Xolar had to lose,” said Darxen. “Apparently, people of his kind create black holes upon death, you see?”

“And by knowing that effect after his death, you used it to take down a part of the galazy.”

“Now now, calm down,” he insisted. Darxen is currently explaining the events of Xolar’s death to a mysterious dark-skinned woman in the royal room. She wore a black robe just like the servants, except the robe has blood stains, showing superiority over the servants. She, too, is a servant, but has high authority equaled to Darxen, and less than his father, the emperor of the Palace of Dimentia.

“The port town, which is the first round’s setting, is simply a world created for the purpose of the Grand Battle. More so an illusion made by me.”

The woman shook her head. “The problem is not the planet being absorbed into the black hole. It’s the fact that the environment looks very similar to those of Earth, a planet populated by humans.”

“Yeah, so?” Darxen smiled and began walking side to side as he explains. “The people of Earth won’t know about the Grand Battle. There’s simply no problem to it.”

“You’re still missing the point.” The woman was very displeased to the emperor’s son. “You forgot the fact that one of the contestants here is from Earth.”

Darxen was surprised to hear that, but he slowly remembered one of the contestants being a human from Earth. “Come to think of it, there’s this old guy by the name of Doe. I don’t see a lot from him, and he seems to be unaware of everything going on here. All he cares about is survival, ya know?”

The woman became silent after Darxen’s explanation, thinking about what to say. She knew Darxen could never fit to replace his father to keep watch the universe and to stabilize the order and obey fate of every single individual inhabiting their very own universe. To her, it seems Darxen is rather against his own father. She isn’t sure if he really wants a rise to power, or just get out of Dimentia and do whatever he wants.

“Okay,” she said. “Remember the purpose of the Grand Battle, especially this one. Normally, it’s a sacred tradition to honor those who possess power, will, and courage, but this time is different. This time, it’s going to require a life to restore our father. Now, I’ll be off to check on him. Please continue to your past activity.” She bowed and began to leave the room. Once she is out of sight, she spoke once more. “Please do not let another loser like Xolar die. Although we can always use the champion, we might as well be resourceful with those near death.” She didn’t say another word, and the man assumed she was gone.

“Finally…“ Darxen became relieved that she was finally gone. “Heh, rise to power my ass. I know what you thought of me, my lady Anabelle,” he said quietly to himself. Darxen, being the son of Angel Dimentia in a palace unseen by any physical forces, has a secret intention. He knew that this century’s Grand Battle might be the chance, and that chance is going to get him something aside from his father’s power. More so, it’s revenge.

[Heartless]

Just barely after he had ordered Clunks to start digging, the power of plot had already made it's move and now was surrounded by three other competitors. The man in red had just killed some big thing-a-bob and now looking in his direction, wondering why people were looking at him strange. Pvt. Doe walked up to the beast's corpse, looked at it and spoke up.

"What's strange is that your drinking the blood, yet your letting all this meat go to waste. You kids don't know how lucky you are to be able to eat as much as you do and grow fat from it. Why, back when I was in the war, everything you ate had to go directly to the muscles, or else they would stop working, and when your muscles stop working, you know you're in trouble, even more if you're surrounded by thousands of enemies like I constantly was during the war, since I was the only one man enough to actually go attack them down in their bunkers." Pvt. Doe crouched down near the corpse, took out his shovel and started to cut the meat pieces from it.

The man in red was surprised at first, for obvious reasons, but eventually calmed down. "Bloodlust is to be expected in a grand battle, I guess", he thought. Angered by the surprisingly hard scales, Pvt. Doe started whacking the beast's skin with his shovel until he managed to make a dent that he could use to rip off his next meal. "Ha! With this, we'll have enough to make meat soup that'll last us for another ten years!" After struggling a little more, Pvt. Doe told the other competitors: "Hey, don't just stand there you maggots. Help me loot this thing, I don't want you to let this go to waste, which is why YOU don't want to let this go to waste."

[NARFNra]

Zenitropos wasn't so happy about getting nearDoe, but he felt that he might as well help. He hopped over, tapped a scale to determine the metal content, and then crushed it. The scale was somewhat tangy, and he started ripping more and more of them off. The bare flesh under the skin was kind o strange, but he ignored it. Why care when there was all this food?

Sipping a Dr. Pepper, he started moving faster. He could eat these in about ten minutes.

[funwes]

"Devour this thing? Not after what I had to go through to kill it." Zygax responded. This guy was nuts. Besides, there's no way Zygax was planning on eating after getting all this gore all over himself. Zygax was in serious need of a bath and needed this cloak cleaned as soon as possible. He hated to see it get dirty, but it was covered in gunk. But there was no water anywhere close.

Zygax sighed and watched as the demon started gnawing on the corpse and also as Hippie started running back at the tunnel where Zygax just fought.

What a strange bunch of characters. From the serious immortals to the loony demons, this is surely a diverse group.

Since neither Doe, Zenit, or Clunks was attacking him, Zygax sighed and took a seat on a nearby rock to rest.

[Hellraider]

Somehow, it seemed that the sandstorm below was a bit louder than before. Seed Alpha had to raise his voice to make his words heard.

"Time alone will not bring the answers you seek. Just like us, you will have to embark on a long journey to find yourself. However, you have to be aware of one thing. While our paths may be entwined for a while, they ultimately lead to similar, yet different destinations. May it be omniscience, madness or death; the two of us differ in all these things, just like how your way of existence is unlike ours."

While talking, another small part of Seed Alpha puzzled over the exotic transport medium Aether was using. Unless the visual signals were tricking him, there should be no way that it could actually soar in the sky. He wondered where it came from, whether it had the same origins as the weapons which Aether showed off earlier.
But now was the wrong time to ask about it. There would be more than enough time to go on his quest for knowledge later.

Aether could see truth in the words of the Aevan. They had the same question, but the answer they seeked were different. Maybe they would be able to complement each other in their journeys. That is, if other circumstances did not prevent this.
He spoke of what had entered both of their minds already some time ago.

"If the future does not change, we will be forced to face each other all too soon. Before that happens, I sincerely hope that I - that we find what we desire. There is a chance that we will not be able to avoid the fight, since I do not know a lot about this competition or its organizers."

Now, he had to stop speaking, as the roaring noise coming from below made continuing the discussion next to impossible.

It did not take long until Seed Alpha could make out the nature of the disturbance. A native being of this planet was flying upwards through the sandstorm with a speed nearly matching the one of the exotic thing Aether was riding. It was unbelievably huge with two gigantic wings and four other extremities. Most importantly, that being - most commonly called dragon - was in a state of mental uproar. Seed Alpha guessed that the earthquake disturbed it in its sleep.

Now, the dragon finally broke into the free sky and with a final roar, latched towards the two competitors.

[Clunks]

I woke up to find my arms and legs worked again - my best friend saved me. He asks me to dig a tunnel with him, and I happily comply. Shortly thereafter, we break until a room in which another friend and two others who are not yet friends await. My friend's stunted movements suggest injury, and I see blood flowing from a gash in his side. He eyes me warily as I approach, but is caught by surprise when my hand shoots out and grasps him. Struggling violently, he is lifted up to my shoulder. Blood pours smoothly onto my foot. A blast of searing steam strikes the wound, and his mouth wrenches open to unleash a powerful wave of sound. The drip of blood has ceased, my hand places him back onto the rock, clutching his side. I turn to find the tall one staring at me, judgmentally. My best friend nodded approvingly and the other one was cowering in fright. I clamber over to a large corpse I discovered laying on the ground; with a high pitched VREEEEEEEEE its skull is cleaved in two. I turn to discover everyone moving their hands away from their ears - some signal I do not understand. The skull half in my hand is violently shaken, sending pieces of matter flying until the smooth bone is exposed. Water vents from my repository to collect in the skull, and it is placed on the ground near my injured friend.

[Ultra Storm]

This competition had become troublesome. It was bad enough that Aether was interrupted each time one of the competitors managed to get themselves killed. But he also had to waste time in trivial battles which did not interest him. This dragon was certainly one of them.

As the dragon approached, it brought forth a sandstorm in its wake. It was as if the dragon could summon the wind at will. The gale increased in speed and passed the dragon itself, striking towards Aether and Seed Alpha.

But the sword in Aether’s hand would not allow the sand to reach him. The air near Fragarach began to swirl and struck against the approaching storm like a hurricane. The sand did not reach him but he was still pushed back by the intense pressure. Seed Alpha was also thrust back but not far. He did not have the protection of the wind but his body was almost perfect. Even an otherworldly weapon could barely scratch him, so he would not be easily moved by a natural force like this.

Having been struck by the gale and the sand hindering his view, Aether could notice the approaching dragon only moments before impact. His craft moved swiftly to the side to avoid it. Aether almost lost his balance as a result but managed to remain standing and strike with his sword. As the dragon passed, the sword cut its skin and it shrieked in pain. The scales of the dragon were hard as steel but they were no match for his sword. It had been said that the sword could cut through any shield or wall, so it would not let itself be stopped by something as trivial as this. But this was not enough to stop the creature, as it approached for another pass, still covered in the desert storm.

Aether took a look at Seed Alpha and remembered the sword still in the possession of the Aevan. It was the sword destined to strike dragons. Perhaps now was the time to reveal one of the secrets of the blade and see how worthy Seed Alpha was to wield it.

“There is something I must tell you. Like all of my strongest weapons, the sword you hold is famous. It is Gram, wielded by Sigurd when he killed Fafnir, so it could be said it is a dragon slayer by its very nature. Wield it wisely.”

[Hellraider]

Without further delay the monster rushed towards Seed Alpha, the raging winds in its wake. There was no choice but to trust the mysterious owner of this sword named Gram. While in mid-air, the Aevan cyborg had no way to gather enough psychic power to defeat the beast without at least awakening the stored souls. Even now he could already feel the strain of constantly juggling in midair while being exposed to both physical attacks and the desert storm.

Seed Alpha was not a warrior. There was no need for something like a stance. Knowing that he would remain nearly unscathed from whatever the flying beast could do even if his attack failed, he accelerated and charged towards his foe.
Even though he was no warrior, he knew how to swing a weapon as simple as a sword. The monster had about five times his velocity, yet his perfectly timed sword strike was aimed directly for the dragons neck.

And it hit. However, the supposedly legendary sword Gram did not even manage to inflict a wound deeper than a child's thumb.
Instantaneously reacting to his own failed attack, Seed Alpha attempted to dodge by getting below the dragon. The attempt failed, and the force of the knockback threw him several dozen meters through the air before he managed to fully control his movements again.

While it was obvious that fully controlling the power of a legendary weapon at the first try was impossible, Aether did not expect the resulting strike to be that weak. For some reason, that felt surprisingly disappointing. Changing its course, the Vimana now headed towards Seed Alpha, reaching him while the dragon was still busy with roaring and sending a sandstorm in their direction - something that was easily repelled with Fragarach.

"It seems that you did not understand my weapon as well as I would have hoped. I have already said this once today, but I will repeat my words for you.
It is not the blade that strikes you but the weight of its concept. If you wield the sword only physically, the results will just be as you have seen. To truly be worthy of using it, you must extend your mind further beyond the mortal realm."

Without waiting for a response, he made the Vimana ascend once again, knowing that Seed Alpha would now manage to defeat the dragon on his own - and maybe come closer to the knowledge they both desired.

It felt like a deja vu. Once again, Seed Alpha could see the dragon rushing towards him while he wielded Gram in his hands. It did not feel the slightest bit different than the first time. Yet, he now knew that there was something that he had to do. Truth was, he had no knowledge of things such as 'concept', 'idea' or 'realm beyond the physical one'. Not even Aevan knowledge had managed to reach out so far.

That was why, for the first time in his long, long life, he felt excitement. What was about to come now was a road that was not paved yet, steps that he would take alone.

If he was to strike with the weight of a concept, then he shall apply the strongest concept that he knew of. The legend of an Aevan warrior, cutting his far superior opponent with a weapon simpler than a cooking knife. With this idea behind him, Seed Alpha closed his eyes and prepared himself for the moment the dragon came into striking range. Now visual signals would be merely distracting.

There it was. The dragon came closer, opening his mouth and baring its fangs, ready to devour the puny being in front of him. But that was not going to happen. In a single flash, so fast that even Aether was unable to follow, Seed Alpha rushed past his foe. Now behind him was the corpse of a dragon, cleanly cut into seventeen pieces.