Tales of Amalgam'verse: The Dark Queen · 12:48am Apr 2nd, 2019
Promo to Part 2 of Omake!
Neighpon, 355 years ago
Iron Antler was trying not to hyperventilate. She was a young kirin doe, light gray body with steel-gray scales and pale mane, and it had barely been a month since her twelfth birthday. And it had been less than a week since the strange occurrences started.
It began small. She'd wake up in the morning to find the necklace she had taken off was stuck to her horn like it was a magnet; an occurrence which only lasted a few seconds before dying off. Another day she paused while walking over the floorboards of her grandparents’ house, hearing an extremely loud set of thumping footsteps and creaking groans coming along the floorboards like someone very heavy was walking across them.
It took her a good five minutes of searching to figure out she was actually the heavy one. Then as soon as the sudden weight came, it left.
And from there it only got more and more severe. Coins would warp and start melting if she touched them for too long, yet she would not get burned. Walking past a jeweler resulted in all of the necklaces and finery pointing towards her like she was North and they a compass needle. Compass needles themselves turned absolutely crazy if she got near them. She felt scared to even so much as get close to where her family worked at the port, lest she somehow fall through the deck after suddenly increasing in weight to several times more than she should be or, gods forbid, she somehow affected the riveting and metal work holding the ships together!
But that wasn't why she was hyperventilating now, as much as some of these odd power surges scared her. The reason she was hyperventilating now was a creature resembling a tapir had suddenly walked out of the forest and faced her.
It took her a moment to realize it, being about a meter tall and standing on its hind legs with a brown-colored belly, hips, and legs, and a yellow colored top was a baku. Yokai creatures were a rare sight near developed areas, but baku were one of the types least feared. The worst they would do was make you forget a certain dream and sometimes her mother and father would tell her a good baku might occasionally lend a hand and take away children’s nightmares. But before she could contemplate if this whole ordeal was just one big nightmare, a tapestry of blackness appeared in the space behind the tapir yokai, and the baku... changed.
It just stared at her for a good minute, never blinking and she soon realized never even breathing. Then it all twisted. Dark mass spilled out of its mouth and nostrils, wrapping around it like some heinous facsimile of a cocoon. She glimpsed a malign grin, a mouthful of fangs surrounded by a sea of fiery crimson hair.
The baku quadrupled in size and by the time the shadows lifted it look like a nightmarish echo of itself. Sharp, recurved, elephant-like tusks on either side of its mouth that formed fangs, a rhinoceros horn sticking out of its face in a way that almost looked like it went through the trunk, long and muscular limbs tipped with tiger claws, and an oversized oxen tail that seem to be on fire, as were the creature's eyes.
The monster, the youma, for now, that description fit it better than ‘yokai’, was upon her in an instant. Iron Antler fell back on her haunches with a silent scream. She didn't observe it at the time, but she did feel it. A surge of power yet again. The necklace around her collar instantly melted and collected together into a single mass. Without even need to think on it she brought her forelimbs up to her face and crossed them for protection. The altered metal flew up in front of her and spread out into a crude shield sent to intercept the baku youma's paw...
Until that was no longer needed when something blasted it back. There was a blinding light and the monster let out a hateful snarl. Iron Antler fell backwards and smacked her head on a tree trunk, sending her vision into a perpetual spiral. She only glimpsed what followed, but it changed her life forever.
Suddenly there was a thick mist all around them and yet she could see through it clear as day. A unicorn, a mare by the sound of her voice though in her daze Iron couldn't quite tell what she was saying, was standing up to and fighting the youma.
She was clad in a suit of armor that looked almost like a short dress, a white body with a metallic set of plates arranged in a pink ribbon and back plate, and skirt of blue plates around her waist. On her hind limbs were a set of tall, thick pink boots that obviously were not for show given she mule kicked the baku backward several yards. The same could easily be said with what almost looked like white evening gloves on her forelimbs that apparently were not made of any normal fabric given they resisted the monster's claws when she intercepted them.
All, while she was running, jumping, and moving far faster than any normal mare of her build, should have been capable of. Finally, she seemed to reach up to her forehead, towards a tiara Iron Antler hadn't even noticed until now. There was an incantation chanted, invoking some sort of power that Iron could feel. As soon as her savior called out, her entire body started tingling. Iron Antler panted and staggered up against the tree trunk, glancing at her forelimb. For a brief moment, she also saw white gloves and glimpses of a similar armor, albeit orange-, blue-, and white-colored on her body. There was a ringing of wind chimes between her ears and she looked back up at the battle.
The unicorn mare formed a massive wave of energy in the shape of a crescent moon and launched it at the baku youma. The monster was engulfed and called out, but it was not destroyed. Instead, the dark mass that had consumed it was ripped free of its host and thrown backward. It flew towards the dark tapestry she had seen before and started to close it after passing through. In its wake, it left the normal baku, who seemed more dazed and confused than anything else. After realizing where it was, the purified creature quickly scampered back off into the forest.
Iron's savior, however, had her eyes firmly locked on the tapestry. The surface seemed to warp, like a moving picture. In the vague shadows beyond it, a pair of burning blue eyes glared back. Someone was standing on the other side as if looking for a window. The unicorn tensed, but nothing came of it. The eyes went away, their owner walking off and the portal closed off in such a way that it winked out of existence.
Now her savior turned her attention to whom she saved. She paced over calmly, a soft smile on her features that were slightly roughed up from the battle. Her coat color was a soft sky blue set under a mass of wavy, golden blonde hair.
"You okay?" She whispered.
Iron Antler, still more than a little dumbstruck, nodded as she was guided back up to her hooves.
"W-What was- How?!" Her stupor kept her from ever finishing the barrage of questions that came out.
The unicorn mare snickered before bursting into laughter, calmly shushing the doe with a gently tap on her nose.
"Names Golden Glow, 37th Lunar Guardian. And I think I have some explaining to do. Though you might have been able to take that mongrel yourself."
Iron's eye twitched as her face cast an incredulous look, "... H-HOW?!"
"Simple," Golden shrugged, "Because you're set to be the 37th Venusian Guardian."
=====================
Neighpon, 350 years ago
=====================
"And that's that!" a tall, blue unicorn mare with golden hair quipped as she and her team of similarly attired compatriots stood tired but victorious after a hard-fought battle. The five stood triumphant together, four kirin does and a gryphon hen all clad in armored, diversely-colored dresses and skirts; with a large kirin buck standing beside them encased in a suit of bronze samurai-like gear.
The perpetrators were a kitsune and baku, a pair of yokai beasts resembling a nine-tailed fox and tapir respectively that had been corrupted into youma monsters, the malefic beasts promptly deliberately went out of their way to cause as much devastation and suffering as possible to fuel more dark magic.
But by the efforts of herself, Golden Glow, and her team, the Celestial Senshi Guardians, they had succeeded in both containing the damage as best they could, keeping civilian casualties to zero, and successfully purifying the youma back into yokai. Still potentially dangerous of course, but now any malign actions were more determinate of the individuals rather than their entire nature being pushed towards malice. And fortunately, the kitsune and baku seemed relatively harmless and didn’t want to hurt anyone. As soon as they became aware of their surroundings in the downtown district they were quick to retreat back into the forests to go home.
Golden had coordinated the efforts and was rewarded for her experience. By all accounts, she was a perfect leader. The stage magician was extremely capable between practiced magic use as a sage and physical prowess in being able to lift a cart over her head with ease, kind patience that came with at one time being the youngest of the prior generation and now the oldest of the current; and about twenty years worth of experience. Her successor had already been located and accepted the role, so she could begin her training whilst Golden Glow kept up full-time duty as a protector. The 37th Guardian in their lineage had already put much of their wisdom to paper in the form of a book that alongside some private notes could hopefully help generations to come.
Relieved at their success, Golden Glow was just about to power down, confident the thick shroud of mist surrounding them would shield any from prying eyes when her compatriot tapped her shoulder. The Martian Guardian, a gryphon dame and first of her kind to be chosen, pointed at something in an alleyway.
A dark shape like an opened tapestry hanging in the wind. Beyond it was a pulsating dim light that revealed glimpses of a heinous looking realm. Golden Glow, the Lunar Guardian, silently nodded to her five compatriots and began to close in on the shape.
Golden Glow grimaced, "Another dark portal to the Negaverse."
"That's where that witch's Black Moon clan resides right?" Iron Antler, now fully garbed as the Venusian guardian and the newbie of the group in her first major field mission after training whispered with an uncertain voice.
"Yes," Golden Glow tensed, "usually they close soon as the youma are defeated though. It's the only way for Beryl to gather energy from them."
"Think she'll send another one?"
Golden Glow was puzzled, but shook her head slightly, "I... don't think so, usually it takes time between efforts... but then, why is she keeping it open?"
Beryl, their foe, was an enigma. A thousand-year curse upon their country born of a nightmare from the moon and the misplaced ambitions of a powerful sage. Exiled and fortified in her dark realm, no living Guardian had ever seen her except in outline. As long as they retained the Silver Crystal, the item that banished her in the first place, she couldn't return. The last of their lineages to ever actually lay eyes upon their adversaries' queen was four generations ago when a team attempted to storm her castle after invading her portal... Only two got back.
Between the hordes of youma, she could potentially summon in that world and the enigmatic queen herself, it was a large comfort that Beryl could never leave her confinement...
That comfort was snatched away when a dark form resembling a kirin with an eerie beauty stepped through the portal and towered over them. She was dark purple in overall color, like an animate shadow, sporting amethyst hues across her claw-like hooves and scaly nose and back. The long mane and tail were a beautiful gradient of crimson to a lighter red with a dazzling gleam about it. And ivory spikes sprouting from her shoulders matched the odd crown and earrings adorning her face and ringing piercing blue eyes that seemed to look through you as much as they did at you.
There was a red flash visible behind her in the portal and a red gleam crackled over her body.
Queen Beryl said absolutely nothing before surging forward.
Five minutes later, and it was no small miracle they were all still alive. The massive, physically powerful Martian Guardian was violently smashed into a wall and dragged across it. The gryphon gasped and coughed amidst the rubble, unable to get out of the way when Beryl mule kicked her through the wall and collapsed part the building on top of her.
When the Mercurial Guardian attempted to save her compatriot by blasting Beryl in the back with a pressure stream of water, Beryl whipped around and instantly froze the torrent while pushing it away. Now with her forelimbs encased in ice, she was helpless as Queen Beryl bore down upon her at a speed unfit for her size. The Nightmare kirin needed only ram into the small mare to send the unicorn hurtling down the street in a heap.
The Jupiterian protector suddenly tackled Queen Beryl from behind and wrenched the witch's head upwards. With a powerful shout to the heavens, she called down a barrage of green lightning bolts poised for Beryl's face. Concurrently the Earthly Guardian, clad in a suit of bronze armor, smashed his hooves into the dirt and caused the ground beneath Beryl to split open in a mass of roots that wrapped around her hooves.
Queen Beryl weathered the first barrage of lightning that hit her, smoking lightly but seemingly not reacting to what hit her
"HIT HER AGAIN!" The Earthly Guardian roared whilst trying to call up more roots to keep the monster firmly anchored in place. Queen Beryl flinched when she heard that voice.
The tiara on the Jupiterian Guardian glowed with a massive emission of light and she shouted out again. Only this time Queen Beryl's sapphire eyes and blood red horn sparked with life and malice. She disappeared instantly in a flash of dark energies that tightly grabbed the kirin who'd been atop her. The Jupiterian Guardian yelped in surprise as she phased through where Beryl had been and was jammed into the ground, dazed and in a further cruel twist; helpless to get out of the way from her own summoned lightning because the roots were now wrapped around her limbs and muzzle. She tried to call out but only could convulse while being electrocuted, soon flopping to the ground while smoking.
"NO!" her beloved cried as he yanked his hooves out of the ground and tried to rush up to her.
He only made it a few steps before Beryl became tangible again in front of him and smacked the armored protector in the back of the head. His helmet, clad with a rose emblem, came flying off and Beryl looked at his face and his eyes rolled back into unconsciousness. He fell at her hooves, helpless and still.
The Nightmare had still not said a single word nor changed her expression the entire time. After nearly seven hundred years of this, it got tedious. She'd killed Guardians before. She moved to place her hoof over his face but paused.
A breeze blew past her face as she looked over a fallen hero. He looked. Familiar. From her spying, she soon recognized why for more than one reason. It was the prince, not the crown prince but his younger brother; but that isn't what gave her pause. What stopped her from crushing his head was a similarity in voice and appearance to another prince she once knew.. Once knew very well. Then again, that prince had betrayed her for another and even wound up becoming the first Earthly Guardian to betray her again.
Her chest felt sore but she stifled it and prepared to stomp. A prince fooled her once, shame on them... fooling her twice would never happen...
A blast of energy resembling a crescent moon smacked her in the face. Queen Beryl once again shrugged off the hit without so much as getting scratched, it even seeming to phase through her like so many assaults had before. A red sheen crackled across her body as she glared at the source.
Early in the fight, she had targeted the leader, especially when the Lunar Guardian pulled out their trump card. That Silver Crystal taunted her with its very existence and no doubt the little wretch thought the item keeping her imprisoned in the Negaverse would be able to send her back. Beryl hadn't noticed Golden Glow had managed to recover from being thrown through the building and observe something about the portal. Even after Queen Beryl had left it, the outline of her image remained upon its surface like she was still standing there. Standing there with some sort of glowing red object behind her. An object identical in color to the sheen that covered her body whenever she got hit.
The Lunar Guardian had a plan, but she wasn't too sure if it would work beyond shooting in the literal dark. She just knew two things about this monster for certain. She absolutely craved the Silver Crystal and Beryl hated the Lunar Guardians above any else for what the first one, Queen Serenity, did.
Golden Glow was not in a good way. It was only by the power of the Silver Crystal which gave them its blessings she was still standing. Her armored skirt was dented and ripped off in numerous places, bruises obvious against her typically shining coat, and half of her tiara was missing. But still, she stood in opposition, even while panting for breath and standing in front of the path leading back to the portal.
"Not done with you yet, you didn't try hard enough," Golden Glow hissed, both in anger and in pain. She held back all of it and chuckled, "Wasn't... it.. the first Lunar one, you hated most?"
Queen Beryl stood silent and stoic. For about four seconds. Then, in a heinous, hideous distortion, her face contorted into a visage of pure wrath and primal hatred that had been brewing for hundreds of years. Her lower jaw distended further than it should've been able to, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs instead of teeth.
Golden Glow shot back a smirk and instead held up something in a way that was sure to keep Beryl's attention. A gleaming crystal the size of a softball was all she glimpsed before a massive blast of white magic, Golden Glow's magical force amplified by the crystal it was channeled through, smashed into her. The dark Queen quickly threw up the barrier, but even with her massive power it only barely held, the dark red magic covering her body erratically sparking and visibly cracking.
Had it been all of them together it might have done something more significant, which was the exact reason Beryl had rushed them so quickly. That didn't mean, however, that when the magic blast subsided it didn’t hurt like hell. Only it wasn't the Beryl bearing down on her that reacted. It was the visage behind the portal that stumbled back, convulsing.
Something Golden Glow noticed and grinned. Like nothing else mattered, she made a mad dash for the portal.
The Lunar Guardian held up only by sheer force of will and her bolstered magic, hopped up and threw up a wide barrier to cut off part of the street. It only managed to obscure her from Queen Beryl's sight for a brief moment, as the dark kirin monarch just bulldozed through the shield like a charging bull smashing through glass. She only glimpsed Golden Glow’s motion to the side before the little wretch dove through the portal.
Golden Glow felt her body impact something, someone, solid and fall backward. The portal sparked and sputtered red magic, the shade of Queen Beryl on the outside freezing in mid-step as she'd reached for the portal. The crimson magic surged and crackled, chipping and breaking more. Like a puppet without its master at the helm, it remained frozen and dangling.
Iron Antler groaned, her head still spinning from a bruise that covered half her scalp. Her memory was foggy after some massive monster stepped through the portal and instantly rushed them. She'd tried to shove Golden Glow out of the way, able to see that the nightmarish looking kirin have her leader dead in its sights, only to not be able to get out the way herself and take the full force of the impact. She was new, not even fully powered yet given her predecessor only recently retired and still carried a reasonable chunk of the blessing the Silver Crystal was transferring to her.
Something told her the amount of bolstered magic she had was the only reason she was even still alive.
When she gazed upwards she grimaced in momentary fear before oddities in the sight before her, the sparkling red magic and stillness of form, caught her eye.
Beside the portal was the frozen body of Queen Beryl, who had a vacant look in her eye and even appeared to be see-through in some spots. Iron Antler quickly recognized a dark magic illusion when she saw it. It had been skillfully obscured and had a massive amount of energy behind it, but now it all made sense how Beryl was suddenly able to walk through the portal. They had never actually been fighting the dark Queen at all, just a solid puppet which could phase in and out of existence to dodge attacks. Essentially they could get hit by her, but not actually hit her back. Its total lack of speech now made sense. But that meant the real Queen Beryl was still in...
The sight she bore witness to was more painful than any injury.
Queen Beryl was hoisting Golden Glow off the ground by her collar, the Lunar Guardian clearly battered after a horrendous battle. The Nightmare Kirin bashed Golden Glow against the stone pillar on the other side of the portal within the dark world before looking her opponent over.
And yet despite the clear power advantage, she wasn't ending it. Beryl seemed to be looking about for something, occasionally checking around Golden Glow in a way that vindicated the first hypothesis. That's when Iron Antler felt a tingling sensation next to her. When she lifted her hoof to see what it was she was laying on, her jaw dropped.
At the tip of her hooves was the very lifeblood of the lineages for their country's protectors. The pain and weakness incurred from the battle were rapidly ebbing away from just being in its proximity. The Silver Crystal. Golden Glow held up a fragment of glass she had swapped for the crystal. She'd fooled the dark witch queen with a sleight-of-hoof magician's trick.
Iron Antler felt a pair of eyes piercing right through her and when she looked up she was terrified. Queen Beryl petrified the teenager in her glare, tossing the battered Golden Glow aside and marching towards her. Iron Antler fought through her mental options. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to run. She was the newbie, she both didn't fully know how to use her powers and didn't even have access to her full power just yet. Effectively she was interning on what was supposed to be a routine conflict and let the other five do the heavy lifting. That was what they had all agreed upon and that was what was supposed to happen.
None of this was supposed to happen.
And one look at Queen Beryl made her want to run across the ocean, folly be upon her that her metal-based powers would weigh her down; she'd try!
Queen Beryl was bearing down on the portal entrance, a small pillar with a glowing red gem atop it burning brightly behind her. But then the rookie saw something. Behind Queen Beryl was a white flicker, small at first but soon growing. She glimpsed a reassuring nod and wink.
There was the sound of wind chimes in the air as she clutched the crystal close to her. She felt an exhilarating rush of energy surge through her like it had when the power first came upon her as a little girl. She winced and held her breath, shutting her eyes so she didn't have to look at the burning hatred glaring at her.
Queen Beryl bore down upon the small young doe, eyes radiating killing intent.
Bits of twisted scrap metal, some utensils, scattered coins and even torn off pieces of armor all started levitating around Iron Antler. They started vibrating midair, energized to the point they glowed white-hot while condensing together. The eyes of the Guardian empowered by Venus snapped open and the glowing masses of metal shot forward. They condensed together to form a solid mass that spun and further collected into a large sphere, effectively forming a kirin sized cannonball. The mass shot forward at an accelerating pace, stretching out into the visage of a large sword.
It struck Queen Beryl square in the chest mid-charge and forced the giantess to backpedal and finally, finally scream in pain from the molten metal spattering across her body as the tip stabbed into her chest. It didn't actually harm her significantly, wisps of dark magic already forcing her bones back in the place and repairing a cracked and fractured rib cage while pushing out lodged projectile fragments. The more important part was that it sent the monster hurtling backward just as a massive disc of magic in the shape of a crescent moon came flying at her from the opposite direction. Queen Beryl getting blasted towards her red crystal made her and the attack come crashing into it; which promptly shattered the structure in a brilliant display. Queen Beryl's body convulsed, almost seemingly electrocuted by the breaking of her item. Red Sparks danced across the entrance of the portal as it started to shrink. Iron Antler, still reeling from the power surge, gasped and rushed forward with her eyes locked on an exhausted Golden Glow.
She had time to get inside and get her if she hurried!
If she-
Queen Beryl got back up and for the first time, let out a coherent utterance.
It was barely a voice, but the fact that a loud curse was audible over the terrifying roar only made it scarier. It was no bellow of a beast, it was a damnation of a twisted mind. She was still smoking, charred, and burned from the double attack; looking like no living being should and yet still be alive let alone healing. She glared through Iron Antler and lurched forwards grab her, only to have her hooves bounce off the other side of the portal. She tried again and yet again she was like a caged beast pawing at the glass.
Queen Beryl flinched, her good ear perking up at something. Looking past her yet again, Iron saw her leader laughing. She'd deduced whatever that construct was, it was allowing Beryl to escape her prison via projection. She couldn’t win the fight. The other Guardians were rookies and she was winded from the youma on top of Beryl being near unstoppable. But in the end, she was still victorious.
Beryl descended upon her in a rage as the portal started closing. Iron Antler still tried to force her way through and reached out to Golden Glow.
The unicorn mare just smiled, holding her hoof up and shaking her head. She’d shown the red crystal’s properties, how it could unleash a monster. If Beryl ever recreated it, they’d need to know how to counter it. She’d taught Iron how, and Iron would tell the others. In the role of a mentor, teaching was the best thing she could do. A tear ran down her cheek as Beryl’s shadow bore down upon her before Golden Glow whipped around and smashed a double kick into Beryl's chest to stagger her.
“NO! NO GOLDEN!” Iron Antler screamed as she tried to crawl through the portal, only to feel something pulling her back.
The Jupiterian guardian, still burned from her electrocution but recovered, held fast to the kirin, “GET OUT OF THERE, IT’S CLOSING ON YOU!”
The portal was shutting rapidly, burning to the touch. Iron Antler still tried to pull herself through to the very end. She saw it all in slow-motion as she glimpsed Golden Glow slugging it out with Queen Beryl, exchanging blows and magic blasts hit for hit… Until Beryl smashed her way through Golden Glow’s magic shield and pinned the unicorn to the ground. She bit down on Golden’s horn and twisted her head to the side in a way that obscured it from view.
Iron Antler’s hoof, the last bit of her holding onto the portal, had the tips snipped off when it shut entirely.....
========================================
Queen Beryl, keeping the unicorn senshi pinned underhoof and twisting her head to the side and snapping the mare's neck. The Lunar Guardian, the 37th as she was keeping count, flopped back onto the floors of the Negaverse's dark kingdom, dead. Queen Beryl stood over her body stoically, contemplating all that led to this.
Her name was Golden Glow, a valiant leader of her group whom had the wisdom and skill to trouble the dark Queen. Beryl, still unable to leave the Negaverse so long as the Silver Crystal was outside of it and beyond her grasp at her jailer, had managed to find a workaround. It took a century to gather the proper materials to create a focusing crystal. As soon as she was bathed in the red magic, she could concoct a dark magic echo of herself to send through the portal. She had launched her attack right after a group of mostly rookie Guardians had already worn themselves down fighting her youma monsters.
She very nearly killed them all by fighting through the puppet, able to expand most of her vast physical prowess and some magic ball being able to effortlessly phase through all of their attacks. It would have worked and she very nearly got the crystal, until Golden Glow wised up to her plans. She flung herself through the portal and had caught Beryl off guard long enough that her compatriot, using the crystal, was able to coordinate with her and destroyed the focusing crystal.
But Golden Glow never got out in time before the portal closed. Queen Beryl stood over her body, the unicorn's blue fur in beautiful golden mane marred with bruises and cuts. But even in death she seemed to be smiling.
The realization made Beryl simultaneously sick and furious. The only veteran Guardian had sacrificed herself, knowing she would leave the moment she rushed through the portal past the puppet to attack her directly. Beryl wanted to stomp and smash her body to pieces, transmute it into glass and shatter it. Not only would it take an exorbitant amount of time to make another crystal like that, but by the time she did the other guardians would be seasoned veterans instead of teenagers, and they would know the limitations of the echo puppet.
Victory in both their extinction and the acquisition of the crystal snatched away by what was now a dead body...
Queen Beryl stared at it for what felt like hours before scoffing, raising her hoof to manipulate the ground and rock into encasing her in a massive crystal that would perfectly preserve the body and its latent fragments of magic. Whether it was some sign of respect to a bold opponent or some dark need to see that body whenever she wished, even the dark Queen did not know for sure.
That was a fun read. I think you did a great job conveying Beryl as a credible threat, and being a shadow archetype to Luna if she was never freed from Nightmare's influence.
Holy emperor.....
This was fun, i enjoy the omake side story for how silly it is while playing itself completely straight, its like Kingdom Hearts at its best. This flashback had the same issue as Wysteria Daisy in that we don't get enough of the heroes to feel too bad when they die, but the action is solid and Beryl looks to join Jeog as good side villains.
I really hope Junior gets to meet Chibi's parents and see their reaction to the Kaiju's because that is always fun.
That is intense.
Awesome fight.
And begins with us meeting Iron Antler, who seems to not be having a good day. Spontaneously developing superpowers tends to do this.
And also being attacked by a Yokai. Which is freaking TERRIFYING if you read Japanese mythology. Malevolent Yokai will do NASTY things to you.
Thankfully, some heroes are in the neighborhood and I like this action scene. Does a good job of showing off the power of these heroes.
And we meet Golden Glow, the 37th Lunar Guardian...That name, worth noting, is also the name of a G2 Pony who was also a 'psudoAlicorn'.
And now the day gets weirder when she finds out congrats, your a superhero.
As it turns out, their job is to track down and purify Yokai mutated into Youma by a Queen Beryl in her pocket dimension.
I like Golden Glow here. I admit, the description of her, I get the feeling of All Might or even the original Peter Parker in Into the Spider Verse...if the latter is intentional, I hope this ends better for her.
And we find out that while past guardians did try to stop her for good, only two survived...and we soon find out WHY when Beryl manages to get through. Yikes.
Also, interesting the the Earth Guardian and the Jupiterian Guardian are the lovers here.
Also, I admit the 'killed Guardians before' line makes me think of Rita Repulsa from the new Power Rangers movie...in fact this whole scene gives me that vibe. Intentional? Especially given they're all rookies...
Try as they might, they're no real match for her and Golden Glow has to pull out a desperate plan just to save her team. Beryl is terrifying here.
Of course Golden also knows Beryl hates her position more than anyone else in the group and uses that against her...and discovers Beryl isn't reacting to getting hurt, rather a visage behind it. Turns out the Beryl they fought was only an avatar of the realm thing, which in some ways might be more dangerous due to being able to fade in and out of existence.
Thankfully, Golden Glow was smart enough to throw the Silver Crystal away before tackling the real one. Iron Antler is understandably terrified...but with the Silver Crystal, manages to use it to unleash a powerful metal attack and blast Beryl with a huge burst of molten metal, with Golden Glow letting loose an attack to destroy the red crystal she was using. And THAT one definitely hurt.
And also cuts off her ability to project.
Golden Glow sacrifices herself to destroy this, but also give her friends knowledge of its existence and that they should destroy it.
And yep...turns out Golden Glow was the original Parker from Spider Verse...yikes...But she died a hero's death. And thankfully, she has effectively ruined that plan for Beryl completely.
Unfortunately, Beryl may have further plans...
Good story but also VERY terrifying...
5042489
Yep, Golden Glow's name was a lucky break for me. I actually picked the name before realizing it was a G2 name, as a placeholder. I came up with her description and then tried to make an alliteration name (since those are common with superheroes). When I realized it was a G2 name, it sinched it and I kept the placeholder. I am noticing some ItSV!Parker resemblances, though some would be coincidental because I had this part written out before I saw the movie finally. Still, the 'paragon' veteran as a mentor to the rookie is a tried but very true archetype and that's what I wanted to convey. Her team are rookies, but she's experienced and trying to look out for them, ease the newbies into the strange circumstances.
Considering how often yokai get 'defanged' these days in fiction, I like using them in their more traditional, often destructive selves. As I put it, while there are some good ones, most are neutral but others are real pieces of work. And being turned into a Youma only makes it much, much worse.
Since I figured we have a legacy heroes set up without direct 1 to 1 reincarnation like we did in Sailor Moon, some things would get shuffled up generation to generation. Sometimes there was no romance, sometimes two of the female Senshi got together, sometimes the Earth Guardian got with one of his female teammates but it wouldn't always be his Lunar empowered comrade...
Beryl... ooooh Beryl. I liked her well enough from the original show but I sought to give her one heck of an upgrade. Fusing her with Metallia gave her full Big Bad status and I kept up her conflict over 1,000 years. In a way, this actually makes her the most persistent of the Equestrian villains of the last few centuries. While she was defeated and imprisoned, she's turned her prison into her own fortress and after a pause of a century or two, has been at this the whole time. All while becoming a horrifically proven hero-killer. Hence the Movie!Rita shout out, which was very much intentional. I always had a soft spot for OG Rita Repulsa, but I can appreciate a villain who manages to be both imposing with their plans while also being a physical threat who can be a force to be reckoned with in a confrontation.
So Bridge!Beryl I'd say is-
Sailor Moon!Beryl + Sailor Moon!Metallia + Movie!Rita Repulsa + End of Season Lost Galaxy!Trakeena
So seeing I made her sufficiently imposing and terrifying puts a stupidly big grin on my face.