Episode 107: Crimson Shadow
Episode 107: Crimson Shadow
With wary eyes Sunset approached the unexpected group in front of her. She’d imagined finding Rarity and Fluttershy in the midst of mortal danger, and while the massive crater and general destruction of the forest surrounding her attested to a fierce battle having taken place it was apparent at least this specific battle was over. Gilda looked battered and exhausted, although nowhere near as badly wounded as Sunset would expect from the loser of a fight. She surmised Fluttershy’s power, and her newly completed Fullbring, had something to do with that.
As for the small, humanoid walking pile of sludge that accompanied Rarity, Sunset had no idea what to think about that. It’s (his?) spiritual pressure was clearly that of a Hollow’s, although so weak it was difficult for even Sunset to sense.
“I’m glad you’re both okay, but do either of you want to fill me in on what happened?” she asked, casting a concerned look behind her. She felt Adagio and Luna’s reiatsu clashing. It felt like their battle was intensifying by the second.
Rarity took a deep breath and nodded towards the sludge Hollow, “Fluttershy found this oozy fellow, and then Gilda attacked, alongside two other Arrancar. I pinned one to a tree, then helped Fluttershy against Gilda here, until Fluttershy became quite able of handling matters herself. Now it seems Gilda’s become a non-threat.”
Gilda looked like she wanted to argue about that, but gave Fluttershy a strange look, and just huffed out a puff of air, grumbling, “I’m done for today. As for tomorrow, who the hell knows? If I’m not executed for incompetence, I don’t have any idea of what to do next. Still say you’d be smarter to kill me, while the opportunity exists.”
“That’s not happening,” Fluttershy said with a kind of firm, steel calm that surprised Sunset. She’d known Fluttershy had a sort of quiet strength to her that sometimes came out in a pinch, but this felt like a different tier of attitude. Not just quiet strength, but resolved command and self-assurance. Fluttershy looked at Sunset with those eyes, and all of her kindness was still there, warmly shining, but it was joined by an intensity that made that kindness seem as unyielding as stone.
“I’d like to escort Gilda and Mr. Smooze here to somewhere safe,” Fluttershy said, “You and Rarity should go make sure Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet are alright. They were fighting one of the other Arrancar, last I saw. As soon as I have these two secured, I’ll join you, then together we can go help at the camp.”
“That’s a solid sounding plan,” Sunset replied, stretching out her senses for the two Quincy girls and the Arrancar in question. Adagio had given descriptions of the Arrancar working for her, so if this was one of them then Sunset would need to get Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet to disengage without tipping their hand.
Rarity must have been thinking along similar lines, as she moved close to Sunset to whisper, “The one I stuck to a tree was not among Adagio’s people, but the red-haired one our Quincy friends are fighting was. I think she’s likely okay, and seemed to be going easy on them. We can probably break up the fight easily enough between the two of us.”
“Alright then, works for me,” Sunset whispered back, then more loudly she said, “Fluttershy, where are you going to take Gilda and... Smooze, was it?”
Smooze spoke in his low, burbling voice, which was distinctly laced with the strain of pain, “Yes. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I’ll say it plainly... I won’t trouble Lady Fluttershy.”
“You’re right, I don’t have a reason to trust you, but lucky for you I trust Fluttershy, so you get a pass for now,” Sunset said, and then turned to look at Fluttershy for an answer to her question.
“I wasn’t going to take them far. Just deeper into the forest so they’re out of harm's way.”
“Hmph, surprised you'll trust me alone with Smooze,” Gilda said, “I could still bump him off, you know?”
Fluttershy just smiled back in a closed eyed, thin smile that made Sunset’s spine feel a moment of chill. “Oh, I’m not worried. The same thing that prevents you from harming me, also applies to Mr. Smooze. Play nicely, both of you, because I’ll expect to find you both alive and well when this is all over. Am I understood?”
Gilda visibly paled and gulped, “Yes, ma'am.”
Even Smooze shuddered a bit, his slimy body giving a quiver, “More than understood, Lady Fluttershy.”
“Good. Now then, come along, there’s no time to waste.”
As Fluttershy began to lead the pair away, Sunset spoke up, “Hey Fluttershy, just want to say, dig the new look. I can’t wait to see what you can do with the extra arms.”
“Oh, it’s nothing too special, but I’ll be happy to show you once we get everyone together again. Be careful out there. You too, Rarity.”
Sunset got at least a partial preview of Fluttershy’s new abilities as she created a pair of luminescent, golden hands from the enlarged halo that floated behind her, and used them to pick up and carry Smooze. Then she and Gilda departed the crater with swift leaps, and headed into the forest.
That left Sunset and Rarity to go track down the two Quincy, and after a few more moments spent trying to sense their location, she found them, but realized there was something off with both their reiatsu and that of the Arrancar fighting them.
“Hey Rarity, you having any trouble telling who’s who over there?” asked Sunset, and her friend gained a shadow of a frown.
“Yes, it’s as if they’re behind some sort of haze. It might be a new Quincy technique, or something the Arrancar is using. Either way, I suggest we move quickly.”
Abruptly a heavy wave of spiritual pressure rolled over both of them, and Sunset turned her head sharply in the direction of the lake. That reiatsu was Adagio’s! Sunset felt an electric sense of shock at just how fast and sharply it was rising. Had Adagio really gotten that strong!? Then she heard the crash of water echoing in the air as what looked like the entire lake of Camp Everfree went rocketing into the sky.
“Oh my,” breathed Rarity, putting a hand to her chest, “It would seem Adagio has taken the gloves off. I hope she knows what she’s doing.”
Sunset gave a worried look in the direction of where she sensed the battle, and gave a grim nod of her own, “So do I. Come on, the faster we do this, the faster we can help the others.”
She rushed into the forest, zooming by trees with Flash Steps she scaled back just a bit to allow for Rarity to keep pace, although she discovered she didn’t have to scale them back that much. Rarity was right behind her, using Fullbring with the ease now akin to breathing as she bounced off the air with high speed motion that readily kept up with Sunset’s Flash Steps.
“You’ve gotten a lot better at that,” Sunset noted, and Rarity smiled back at her.
“Our long hours of training haven’t been for nothing, darling. Once all of us catch up with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, I dare say we’ll all be quite a force to be reckoned with.”
Sunset nodded, weaving between trees that rushed by in a blur of brown and green. They were fast approaching the area where she sensed Gaw’s reiatsu, and that of Lemon Zest and Sour Sweet’s. The odd distortion in the reiatsu was still present, however, and it was only growing. Keeping her trepidation under wraps, Sunset replied to Rarity, “Don’t know what I’d do without you girls. Once we finally get to Equestria, Starlight Glimmer is going to be in for a surprise if she thinks it’ll go the same way as before.”
“One step at a time, Sunset dear, one step at a time,” Rarity said, and the pair came to a halt as they both passed through a sudden screen of reiatsu that made both shudder.
“What was that?” Sunset asked, glancing behind them. There seemed to be a nearly invisible field of force in the air that did nothing to stop them passing through, but now that they were through it, her spiritual senses had returned to normal. Well, normal on the inside of the screen. Now everything on the other side felt off.
“I don’t know,” Rarity said, “But it looking at it I’d say it’s structure is similar to a Soul Reaper ward. Actually, it’s the same as the one Twilight was using to conceal her lab trailers!”
“You’re right, it’s a Quincy ward,” Sunset said, noting the faint blue color to the reishi screen, and she looked to see just how large an area it covered, forming a dome easily a mile wide. “There’s... no way Lemon Zest or Sour Sweet put something like this up, did they?”
“Let’s ask,” Rarity said, “I sense them just up ahead.”
Now that they were close, Sunset could hear the battle. Someone was letting out loud, roaring battle cries, and someone else was laughing, and Sunset could hear a tree getting cut down, watching it fall in the distance. Rarity and Sunset exchanged a nod and they both ran ahead, and it only took a second to reach the site of the conflict.
Firstly, they saw Lemon Zest laying on the ground, crumpled next to a tree that had several holes blown through it by reishi arrows. Sunset and Rarity both reached her at the same time, and Rarity knelt down to check the Quincy girl’s pulse.
“Alive,” she said, frowning, “Knocked out cold. Strange, she’s wounded, but the blow that knocked her out looks like this lump on the back of her head...”
“Nevermind that,” Sunset said, straightening up and narrowing her eyes at a short gully ahead of them, “Look.”
Just ahead they saw Gaw zip into view from a Sonido. The Arrancar girl was breathing hard, and sporting several reishi arrows stuck in her legs and arms. She held her talon-shaped Zanpaktou out at the ready, and swung it in a series of blurring motions to block several more reishi arrows that came buzzing from the forest with great speed and precision. Gaw managed to block most of them, but one slipped through and got her in the shoulder.
“My my my, you’re slowing down, pet,” said Sour Sweet’s voice, but her manner of speech felt all wrong to Sunset from what she remembered of the girl.
Sour Sweet herself emerged from the forest at a casual walk, and Sunset noticed she wasn’t carrying her usual, large crossbow, but something entirely different. It was made from pure blue reishi, and was formed from three rectangles arranged in a tri-pattern from which odd, spiral patterns in bright blue colors flowed along the rectangle's surface, forming at the center point to create a circular handle that Sour Sweet held.
“I’m giving you so many chances to use your Resurreccion, so I don’t know why you’re not,” Sour Sweet continued to say, but paused as she spotted Sunset and Rarity. Gaw saw them as well and looked at them with a combination of shock, irritation, and fear.
“Sour Sweet,” Sunset said, “We, uh... came to help? Kinda?”
Rarity cleared her throat, “It seems you have things under control, but even so, perhaps you’d consider taking Lemon Zest away from here and allowing us to handle the Arrancar? She does seem to be injured... from a strike from behind...”
“That her doing!” Gaw said, suddenly, growling at Sour Sweet, “She not Quincy fledgling! Something else!”
Sour Sweet turned narrowed eyes towards Gaw, then sighed and gave a helpless smile, shaking her head, “Ah, so that’s how it is. Miss Sparkle is working with all of you, isn’t she? That explains so much that seemed odd about her being here. I knew she still maintained ties to you girls, but I wasn’t certain she was actually working with Hollows, too.”
“Who are you!?” asked Sunset, brandishing her Zanpaktou, keeping her shield up and her blade alight with flames, “Where’s Sour Sweet?”
“Sour Sweet is fine, if a tad indisposed since Las Noches. As for who I am, I’ll refrain from introductions for now. Since you’re here, I might as well entertain you the same way I was entertaining this Arrancar female. After all...”
‘Sour Sweet’ looked at them all with eyes filled with lethal intent as her body flared with white reiatsu, “My real target isn’t in position yet.”
----------
The infiltration was going smoothly until there suddenly wasn’t a lake.
Twilight Sparkle, or “Duskshine” for the moment, had led Di Roy and Roka to the location of the hidden, warded entrance to the Soul Reaper’s underwater laboratory. Before she’d begun fiddling with anything she turned to the two Arrancar and held out her, or rather “his” hands.
“I need physical contact to teleport both of you with me,” he said, still feeling supremely weird at the sound of his own voice. He’d briefly attempted this earlier to get used to the body change, but Twilight was still immensely uncomfortable with all the shifts in mass, center of gravity, and... other things that had come with the switch in gender. Was it supposed to be that size, or perhaps just the uniform pants were too tight?
It’s only temporary, he reminded himself, I can change myself back to normal at any time. It’s just part of my Schrift, and it’s not like I couldn’t use the practice with using it.
Still, just as long as nobody he knew saw her- him- like this, it’d be fine.
“I don’t know if I want to be seen holding hands with a dude,” Di Roy joked, only to receive a polite elbow from Roka, “Ouch! Jeez, I’m just joking.”
“Don’t make it harder on ‘Duskshine’ than it already is,” Roka said, taking the offered hand, “I do apologize for Di Roy. Manners are not his strong suit.”
“It’s fine. Now just hold still, and brace yourselves. This can be a little disorienting, the first time,” Duskshine said, and Di Roy gave him a blank stare.
“You’ll be gentle, right?”
Duskshine groaned, and then just proceeded to teleport. As he’d suspected, Soul Reaper wards just weren’t designed to counter magical teleportation. The energies of spirit and magic might interact with one another, but in regards to certain rules there appeared to be loopholes. He suspected it had to do with the way teleportation essentially bent space to enact the transportation of energy and matter, whereas the portals Soul Reapers and Hollows used were more akin to ‘bridges’ that spanned the distance between two points and still required one to cross through. Wards could be designed to block the latter, like putting up a wall the ‘bridge’ couldn’t get across, but a magical teleportation just bent space to ‘hop’ the wall.
It occurred to Duskshine that this principle might be applicable to the block that the Bount Trixie used to seal up the Equestrian portal, but he’d need lots of time to experiment with that concept to find a workaround. Sadly, he doubted he’d have time to steal any data from Starswirl’s lab, let alone chat the Soul Reaper Captain up about magical portal and teleportation theory.
If things went well, they’d be gone before exchanging a word with Starswirl. If things went poorly, they’d be trying to kill each other. Duskshine was sincerely hoping for the former.
The teleportation itself had gone well, landing the three of them inside the ward and with clear access to the tunnel that led down into the lake itself. As Sunset had reported, there were no guards here, and if descriptions were accurate there would only be a handful of Twelfth Division researchers alongside the Captain himself. Clover was down there as well, but Duskshine just hoped she wouldn't do anything and would just pretend not to see them.
I really hope she doesn’t see me. If she does, I’ll have to find a way to get her to swear to secrecy before she tells the other girls. Ooooh, this is so embarrassing! Why couldn’t I just do a color swap and call it a day?
Because Twilight Sparkle hadn’t thought a color swap alone would be enough of a disguise. Duskshine had to be created as the more thorough cover.
That was what he told himself at any rate as he summoned his bow and began to creep down the tunnel alongside Roka and Di Roy. In all of Twilight’s earlier planning, it hadn’t occurred to her that gender and color swapped or not, they were still using the Hexenfaust and a uniquely shaped Quincy bow. There was no real helping that, however, as her Schrift power wasn’t controlled enough yet to change something like that.
He’d just have to hope Starswirl wouldn’t make the connection, if it happened the Soul Reapers had data on Twilight, or later on if they happened to run across each other again.
“Anyone else feel that?” Di Roy said in a low whisper, “Adagio’s about to cut lose.”
“What do you mean by that-” Duskshine started to ask, but then a distinct rumble vibrated through the water around them, and in the blink of an eye the lake water shot upwards in a wall, as if being ripped upwards by unbelievable force. Walls of water soared skyward around the trio, who looked around with surprise as within meter seconds the ‘tunnel’ of water they’d been sneaking down just... ceased existing.
“...Okay, so, apparently Adagio’s putting in for an application to become the next Moses,” Di Roy said, “Be nice if she’d warn us before she decides to move local bodies of water.”
Looking up at the lake that was now suspended quite a distance up in the sky, where both Adagio’s reiatsu and that of Captain Luna’s were flaring up with equal measure, Roka cleared her throat, “Perhaps, but I think she also just bought us a useful distraction. Look.”
Pointing ahead, down the long, wet slope of the now empty lake, it was easy to spot the collection of bubble-shaped, white tents, and the various equipment of the Soul Reaper laboratory. It was also pretty easy to spot the Soul Reapers down there, all looking up and scrambling about at the sudden loss of the lake around them. None of them were looking in the direction of the two Arrancar and one Quincy that had been moving down the length of the tunnel to the lab.
“No one’s looking our way,” Duskshine confirmed, “Now’s the perfect time to get Ember. Stay close, and move as fast as you can!”
Duskshine all but banished, using Hirenkyaku to burst into action. Roka followed with Sonido, and after a moment longer of hesitation, Di Roy shook his head and followed. He had a feeling this was about to go surprisingly well, or horrifyingly wrong.
----------
Gazing upon Luna with shrewd calculation, Adagio awaited what manner of Bankai the Second Division’s Captain was about to manifest. Unlike Sunset Shimmer and the other human girls from Canterlot High, Adagio had little experience facing the Zanpaktou of a Soul Reaper. She had a general idea of what to expect, but this seemed different than the transformations of a Arrancar’s Resurreccion, or a Quincy’s Vollstandig.
Both Luna’s reiatsu and that of her Zanpaktou were distinct, yet flaring with identical combined force. While Adagio’s Resurreccion was akin to exposing her full power like taking the lid off a well, and a Quincy’s Vollstandig could be likened to a cloak that draped around themselves, this Bankai felt more like two beings combining their powers in perfect unison, each enhancing the other.
Adagio supposed that made sense. Her Zanpaktou was just a storage unit for her power, essentially. Luna’s Zanpaktou was a pair of independent spirits that were more allies than tool.
The shadows pouring out of Luna and her twin scythes began to flow upward, coating her like tar. As they did so she threw one scythe straight up, the weapon spinning so fast that it formed nearly a solid circle of steel... and began to grow in size. At the same time Luna grasped her other scythe with both hands and spun it in front of her, which accelerated the speed of the pitch black shadows swirling around her, until the Captain’s entire body was engulfed in an expanding mass of darkness.
The scythe that had been sent skyward continued to grow in size until in seconds it had become as large as stadium, and Adagio realized it’d ceased being a scythe amid it’s high speed spinning and instead had become a solid mass of metal that now gleamed blood red. Solid red energy with a metallic sheen filled out the form until a crimson sphere hovered in the air, and it’s presence immediately darkened the sky and cast everything in sharp contrasts of black and red, as if light itself was being drained from the surrounding area. Even Adagio’s floating lake was made to appear black, with shades of red, under the light of this... artificial, miniature moon that was positioned to block out the sun over the site of battle.
Meanwhile the mass of shadowy darkness that had engulfed Luna now grew in size, and started to take a more defined and solid shape. Thick black fur with a metal sheen grew over a large, lupine form nearly twenty feet tall at the shoulder. Long limbs were coated in wisps of shadow and ended in paws capped with literal scythes for claws. A tail of flickering, twisted shadows that danced like black fire extended behind this new, beastly form. The head bore no eyes, but was a vaguely wolf shaped mass of solid darkness, from which an overlarge maw of shadow forged fangs were barred.
Upon its form taking full shape, Luna’s reiatsu crashed outward from it in a soul shaking tide, along with a black mist, and the giant shadow wolf raised its head to the crimson moon above, and howled loud enough to shake the air.
When the wolf turned its eyeless gaze back towards Adagio, Luna’s voice resonated from within.
“Shinku-Tsuki no Kage-Okami.” (Shadow Wolf of the Crimson Moon)
Adagio nodded an impressed if begrudging acknowledgement, “Looks intimidating. Now show me if its bite matches the bark.”
She’d given Luna all the time she felt like giving her, and now that the Bankai was released, Adagio had no more reason to give Luna another inch. She didn’t even have to gesture this time, simply willed the water within her lake to move, and multiple jets of water so highly pressurized they’d be able to cut diamond shot up and criss-crossed towards the twenty foot tall wolf.
The body of the wolf contorted like smoke, yet maintained a lupine consistency as it bent around the water jets and flowed towards Adagio so fast that she had to consciously stop herself from blinking or else risk not seeing the strike coming. The wolf’s claws came at her from both sides, the scythe blades comprising them seeming to pulse with solid shadows that Adagio didn’t doubt was Luna’s reiatsu adding to the weapon’s razor edges.
She threw herself backwards with her swiftest Sonido, and even then the wolf claws grazed her body’s armor, scraping along her abs and leaving marks in the hardened white scales from a burst of sparks.
My Hierro is much stronger now, but best not to count on it against those claws, Adagio thought, suspecting the claws of Luna’s Bankai would be more than sharp enough to penetrate even her Ressureccion’s armor if she got in a strong enough blow.
Having seen the wolf bend around the water jets, Adagio tried experimenting with a more concentrated assault. Still having the water under her control, she bent the water jets around to converge on the wolf from behind while simultaneously making several larger pillars of water erupt up from below, while also engaging directly with a swift forward thrust at the wolf’s head.
The wolf’s body contorted to the side, and several of the water jets coming at it from behind missed entirely, while several others shot through the wolf’s hindquarters. The wolf didn’t even react, seemingly unwounded by the jets of thin, cutting water passing through it as it’s jaws bit down solidly on Adagio’s trident. The water pillars from below mostly missed, but one struck the chest area of the wolf, and rather than pass through like the water jets had, this splashed off of solid matter. It drove the wolf upward through shear force, but didn’t seem to do any damage, and the wolf held on to Adagio’s trident as it raked at her with its claws.
Adagio, having none of that, adjusted her tail to sweep up and smack one of the wolf’s paws away, the impact strong enough to cause a burst of force from wind pressure alone. She held her trident with her left hand while she used the forearm blades on her right arm to parry the claws coming at her right side. The wolf’s physical strength was immense, and Adagio felt the blow jar her whole body, but she held firm, and giving the eyeless wolf a heated gaze, Adagio charged up her Hollow reiatsu through her body and into her siren gem.
Luna must have recognized the danger, because the wolf released the trident from its jaws and contorted downward, merging with its own shadow and vanishing in an instant to avoid the intense, blood red Cero beam that Adagio fired from her gem.
Now where did-? Adagio started to look around for where the wolf went, only to find it bursting out of fresh shadows that had appeared beneath her. Adagio was forced to throw herself to the side in a blur, barely able to counter the shadow wolf’s incredible speed, and once more felt the brush of claws, this time along her side. Still not deep enough to draw blood, but too close for comfort, too.
As the wolf flew up past her, it lashed out with its own tail, and Adagio grunted as she turned her trident to block it, noticing that hidden within the length of the tail were a series of smaller scythe blades, like some sharp, rigid spine. The tail struck the shaft of her trident, blocking the blades, but still hitting with sufficient strength to knock Adagio back along the length of her lake.
The wolf howled again, and shadows rose from the darkness of the lake, forming a seething mass of jagged shadow blades and spikes beneath it. Adagio smirked, snapping her fingers, and her lake heaved with fresh waves, along with additional water that began to appear in the air around her as she pushed out her reiatsu to conjure it, sphere after condensed sphere until she had several score surrounding her along with churning waves beneath.
“So that’s how you want to play it, Luna? Be my guest!”
Thrusting her trident forward, she sent the waves crashing towards Luna and her tide of shadows, while the water spheres she’d summoned began to fire entire barrages of her Aqua Bala in a focused storm aimed right at the shadow wolf.
With another howl, the wolf charged, it’s paws running atop it’s wall of creeping shadows, which in turn surged forward along with its host. The wall of shadows and the miniature tsunami and tempest of Aqua Bala all crashed together in a titanic clash. The wolf’s claws became shadowy currents in front of it, slashing at the Aqua Bala and smashing them apart as it charged. The tide of sharp, jagged shadows crashed into the waves of water like a ship trying to surge through a hurricane on the open sea, cutting through it but slowing at the same time. For all the strength in Luna’s Bankai, the shadows were slowed by the incredible weight of the water smashing into it, and not just that, but Adagio’s reiatsu permeated all of the lake’s water and the additional water she summoned. This made the clash all the harder, although Luna was certainly far from halted and would soon break through the tsunami.
Which was fine by Adagio. She was just doing this to buy herself a few moments. She could already tell several things about Luna’s Bankai at this point. One was that the wolf itself was only partially solid. She doubted Luna had become the wolf. In fact she suspected Luna was inside it, guiding it from within like the wolf was both weapon and armor. Which meant attacks on the wolf would be mostly useless unless she could pinpoint where Luna was inside it. Probably the chest, or the head.
The other thing Adagio suspected about Luna’s Bankai was that the red artificial moon that Luna’s other scythe had become was creating an entire area of enhanced shadows that was boosting Luna’s power. So far the “moon” was just hanging a few hundred yards up, shining crimson and coating the entire area in a sharp contrast of black, gray, and red lighting. It was essentially creating more shadows for Luna to use as weapons and making those shadows stronger.
So what happens if I attack it? Adagio wondered, and pointed her trident up at the red moon while Luna was still busy forcing her way through the waves Adagio had sent against her.
A red sphere of power appeared at the center tip of Adagio’s trident as she charged up a Cero, but right before she could fire it the wolf dove into its own shadow and instantly leaped from new shadows that expanded down from the moon itself. Adagio fired her Cero, but the wolf interposed itself, crossing its claws in front of it and slashing into the thick, ruby beam. Reiatsu to reiatsu, the strength of the claws were enough to part the Cero, but only with effort.
Well, that confirms that red moon is important enough that she’ll protect it. Her mobility has gotten ridiculously high with this Bankai. She just keeps making shadows wherever she wants.
This was further evidenced by how an entire cascade of bubbling darkness now descended from the moon and rose up from below, rapidly seeking to encase Adagio. She, deciding that standing still was not an optimal tactic, flicked her tail and burst upward faster than any bullet, and brought the lake with her. Water roared as it surged up, following Adagio’s wake. Luna wasn’t about to let Adagio go that easily, and the descending shadows turned into a ceiling of twisted, jagged shadow spikes that rushed at the rising Espada. Adagio responded by holding her trident in front of her and firing a Cero straight up without slowing down.
Her Cero impacted the shadow ceiling, partially ripping into the shadows, then Adagio impacted with it trident-first a split second later. The shadows were semi-solid, but Adagio’s body readily absorbed the impact and she burst out the other side of them, still soaring upward with the surging waters of the lake following her in a frothing mass.
Back in proper sunlight she could see the red sphere beneath her, the “moon”, which from above looked more like a metallic red orb than the real deal. The shadows churned beneath her, and the wolf rose from them like a demonic phantom, leaping to land atop its moon and stare at Adagio.
“I think I’ve got your Bankai more or less figured out,” Adagio said, aiming her trident down at the moon, “If that gets damaged, I don’t know precisely what will happen, but it’s clear it won’t benefit you. So let’s see just how dedicated you are to protecting it.”
This time instead of one Cero sphere, Adagio charged up three, one for each tip of her trident. And just because she could, she also caused the water of the lake to flow up behind her in a great wave, within which multiple swirling tendrils advanced outward like watery spears. If she attacked that red moon from every possible direction, it stood to reason Luna couldn’t stop all of the attacks. Even if she could, it’d keep Luna on the defensive, forcing her to expend energy protecting that moon, instead of attacking. In terms of raw reiatsu, Adagio felt like she still held the edge in a battle of attrition.
Yet Adagio soon heard Luna’s laughter rising up from the wolf.
“Have my Bankai figured out, have you? Is that what you suppose? Adagio Dazzle, you have deluded yourself. You gain a taste of power, and suddenly you believe yourself invincible. I, too, once held that arrogance. That is why I am glad I ended up facing you, for I know your hubris all too well, having made the same mistakes myself.”
The giant crimson sphere pulsed, and red light gathered around it in a misty embrace. Suddenly the darkness it cast below was now also being cast upward, filling the sky and darkening even the sun until it looked like little more than a gray splotch on a foggy day. Adagio felt Luna’s spiritual pressure start to permeate everything around her, like being dipped in the middle of a thick cloud of smoke.
Not hesitating, Adagio fired her triple Ceros, and sent dozens of spear-like funnels of water cascading down towards Luna, or at least where she’d last seen Luna and the red moon, for now shadows blanketed the area beneath her like she was staring down at an ocean of pitch black. Luna’s reiatsu was spreading out so much it was now masking her precise location, but Adagio figured she’d counter that with widening the area of her attacks... while still being mindful of where her Ceros were aimed so that they wouldn’t hit Camp Everfree, the lake laboratory, or anywhere she’d last sensed her vassals or Sunset and her friends.
To her consternation the Cero beams didn’t seem to strike anything until they hit the ground some distance away, as if Luna and the moon had instantly shifted places. She made a sharp gesture and sent the barrage of water funnels spreading out around her, stabbing and crashing about through what was a fast spreading curtain of darkness.
Still, she hit nothing, and before long Adagio couldn’t see anything either for all light had been removed from the area... at least until the sanguine glow of red shone down from above.
Luna’s crimson moon dipped down from the curtain of shadows, and the shadow wolf formed from the blackness around it’s edge, Luna’s voice edged with cold menace, “Let us see if you truly do understand my Bankai, if you survive long enough to show me.”
Adagio sensed the attacks coming as everything around her, every scrap of darkness, transformed into a claw, blade, spike, or gnashing maw of shadow. Attacks beyond counting came at her from every angle, the prison of pure black becoming a hellish gauntlet under Luna’s control.
The only chance Adagio had lay in her own power; the water. She dove with all speed into the depths of her lake, still present in the all encompassing darkness. Her whole body glowed with bright azure light as she pushed out with her reiatsu and conjured even more water, and filled the lake with her spirit energy. She could now more easily sense the storm of hundreds upon hundreds of shadow weapons closing in on her, but with the water under Adagio’s control she started using it to grasp and hold these living shadows with pressurized currents and near solid walls of swirling water.
Even so Adagio had to swim about to dodge many attacks that still go through, darting and diving amid the depths of the floating lake to narrowly avoid slashing blades of shadow or piercing spikes of solid darkness. She was actually faster in the water, which aiding in keeping herself one step ahead of the slashing shadows, but since the shadows existed inside the depths of the water itself, Luna was manifesting those attacks practically on top of Adagio, leaving her nanoseconds to react.
I have to get her somewhere that limits her movement. She’s inside that wolf, somewhere. If I can just pin her down long enough to get a hit in!
With that in mind, Adagio enacted her plan. She kept dodging the endless stream of shadows assaulting her from all directions. Her body was taking gradually more hits, her Hierro protecting her for the most part, but some cuts were getting deeper, drawing blood. Adagio twirled her trident about, letting her reiatsu flow out through it as she carefully started to churn the water of the lake. She was still using the water to form counter currents and barriers against Luna’s shadow barrage, but at the same time she was letting water splash upward as more and more of the lake turned violent, like it was being swirled about by a storm. She hoped Luna would just think this was from the clash between the waves and her shadow attacks, and wouldn’t notice how much moisture was being tossed up into the air.
Next, Adagio started to focus parts of the spirit energy she’d been letting leak out into the lake at several different points, careful not to let too much build up in one spot, lest it become noticeable. Just to help mask what she was doing she started to counter some of the shadow blades coming at her with Cero beams, firing them semi-randomly to make it look like she was starting to panic. If she could get Luna to buy into the notion that Adagio was running out of options, all the better.
Even as firing those Ceros slowed her down somewhat and let one shadow claw get a nasty gouge into her back, Adagio didn’t stop, and continued to keep up the facade while more and more water splashed upwards, coating the shadow prison with moisture and filling the air with every more water that started to become a thick mist.
Then, Adagio was ready. She spread her senses through the moisture she’d filled the shadow prison with, pinpointing the wolf’s location and the beacon of reiatsu inside it. Luna was inside the wolf’s chest, or at least that’s what the moisture clinging to small bits of the Soul Reaper indicated.
The moment Adagio had a target, she used the larger portions of moisture that had splashed up around the semi-solid walls of the shadow prison to join with the mist around the wolf and form a small but potent sphere of water that surrounded the wolf’s chest. Adagio remembered that part was more solid than the other parts from her earlier attacks, and suspected Luna’s presence there gave the shadow wolf more substance at that location, like an anchor point.
She felt the wolf struggle to break free, or enter its own shadow, but the water sphere was holding fast, at least for a few seconds... and a few seconds was all Adagio needed.
The reiatsu she’d been gathering at several key points around the lake now flared up, blazing with luminous blue and red light. Those points actually formed a circle, and the energy stored within them released into a sudden tidal tornado of water, crackling with destructive spirit energy. Adagio dove into the center of that rising water tornado, and rose with it, directing all the force of her lake and her own spirit energy into the massive, near twenty meter wide cyclone of water and sent it hurtling, along with herself, straight at where Luna and her wolf were stuck.
Which also happened to be still right next to the crimson moon.
Adagio had concocted this attack to use in the lake back in Hueco Mundo, if she could ever lure an enemy there to use that much water with. The shear weight and force behind such a giant mass of water, spinning at cyclone speeds, and filled with destructive reiatsu akin to her Cero beams, which she herself stood at the center of it as a focal point as she also struck with her trident, was a combination she hoped would be sufficient to kill the likes of Guto, if he challenged her. She hadn’t really tested it, and had only briefly considered a name for the attack, since that seemed to be the style of things...
She didn’t shout it out as she rode the watery tornado of destruction straight towards Luna at high speed. But Adagio did think it...
”Marea de la Muerte” (Death Tide)
Luna, and subsequently the shadow wolf, did break free of the water sphere holding them in place, but not in time to avoid Adagio’s attack crashing into them. The wolf’s scythe claws slashed out to intercept the lead of the attack, including Adagio’s trident, but the simple overwhelming impact of it all smashed right into the wolf and the red moon behind it with a sound not unlike the roar of a tidal wave hitting the shore.
From an outside perspective, Luna’s Bankai had created a several hundred meter large cloud of pitch darkness over where Camp Everfree’s lake once was. Observers, what few could afford to observe while many others were in the midst of their own life or death struggles, would see that shifting cloud of black suddenly roil as something large, spherical, and red was sent flying out of the cloud along with a gigantic tornado of water that speared downward with tremendous force.
The water tornado, and the thing it had hit, crashed into the forest with an impact that created a small earthquake, shaking all of Camp Everfree as thousands of tons of rock, dirt, and tree were sent flying upwards as if from an explosion. And it didn’t stop. The torrent of water, comprising all of the lakewater now focused into a singular stream, continued to smash through the forest. It tore through thousands of more tons of earth as it cut a swath north, continuing on for over two and a half kilometers before finally stopping. By the end of it there was a path of destruction dozens of meters wide and kilometers long that had been torn out of the forest, with debris and dust raining down for miles all around.
At the very end of that path of destruction sat a metallic crimson sphere, partially buried in the side of a large hill.
Rain poured down, water from the lake that had now dispersed into the air. For all intents and purposes, Camp Evrefree’s lake was no more, it’s water scattered across it’s northern forest, now.
Adagio laid a dozen or so feet from the sphere, grunting as she levered herself up with her trident and floated up into the air with a flick of her tail. She was a bit bruised from her own attack, the simple force of the impact having been a bit beyond what she’d expected. Then again, the attack had just been an idea in her head, and not something she’d actually practiced, so she was pleasantly surprised she hadn’t accidentally killed herself with it. Looking back along the path of destruction, even she was surprised by how much damage she’d done.
“With a little refinement, I think I’ll have a nice trump card against Guto...” she said to herself, then shook her head and looked around for Luna.
She knew she’d hit the wolf, and by extension, the Soul Reaper Captain. So where was she? That hit must have inflicted some damage! The red sphere that comprised half of Luna’s Bankai was right there, and since it wasn’t manifesting any more darkness, Adagio figured she must have done something to it. It didn’t look damaged, but it wasn’t glowing red like it had been, either. So what was the deal there?
Before Adagio could do much more than take that moment to wonder, she felt the sharp presence of Luna’s reiatsu appear, and lines of shadow bled from beneath the fallen moon like a spreading oil slick. The wolf climbed up from the pool of shadow, but as it took shape Adagio could tell the darkness coating it’s body was fading in places and that it was no longer as solid as before. In fact it’s form looked like a torn, emaciated specter, with its chest sunken in enough that Luna could be visibly seen partially submerged in the shadows. She was bleeding rather badly from rips in her chest, limbs, and scalp, and she was letting in and out heavy gasps of air.
“Not looking so good, there, Captain Luna,” Adagio said, “And it looks like your ‘moon’ isn’t producing as much shadow anymore either. You said I was arrogant, and perhaps there’s some truth to that, but it still looks like you had some hubris left in yourself as well.”
Luna gave her a strange look that Adagio wasn’t expecting; concern. Not for herself, but for Adagio.
“You should start running...” Luna said in a voice that sounded... odd. Distorted, as if her vocal cords were struggling with human speech. “...wasn’t protecting the moon because it’s vulnerable, stupid girl.”
Luna’s breathing became more ragged, and faster. Her face began to twitch, and her eyes grew glassy. The reiatsu pulsing from her became erratic as well, and the previously inert sphere of crimson metal suddenly gained a crack in its surface. The cracks started to spread, and thick, red spirit energy started to pour out of the cracks.
Luna spoke again, although it was clear it was taking her some effort to get even a few words out, “The moon contains... power and lunacy... siphoned from every Hollow my Zanpaktou... has slain.”
The Captain looked at Adagio with eyes that shifted from blue to the a wolven amber as the energy from the cracked moon started to pour into her. The shadow wolf contorted, and the shadows entered Luna as well. All that was left were the scythe blades from the claws and tail, which spun around Luna as her body started to change.
“Can’t control this power yet... didn’t want to use it, but no choice, if the moon is damaged... it releases it anyway. Can’t stop it now.”
Luna’s body contorted and grew. Midnight blue skin was replaced by thick tufts of crimson fur. Muscles grew out and formed powerful, rending limbs tipped with onyx claws. Her human face elongated and reshaped itself into a lupine snout bearing a fang filled mouth and tapered ears, all sporting blood red fur. Legs bent into powerful reverse jointed limbs. Most of her Captains robes were in shambles now, just black and white cloth torn loosely over a now much taller, muscular body.
The scythe blades that were floating around her then flew together, some stretching out to form a long metal shaft, while the others snapped together along its length to create a weapon nearly twelve feet long. On either end dual scythe blades joined together to form shapes like a crescent moon, while along the weapon’s shaft multiple smaller scythe blades sprouted like thorns.
Letting out a growl that vibrated the very air around her, Luna, in this beast-like new form, grasped the weapon and locked predatory eyes on Adagio.
“Well,” Adagio said, blinking and taking up a defensive stance, trident crossed in front of her, “That’s unexpected.”
Luna opened her wolf-like jaws and let out a howl that hurt Adagio’s ears, and caused the nearby trees to sway from the sonic vibrations of it.
Just her howl alone is that strong? Well, I wanted to test my limits. Looks like I’m getting my wish. Adagio thought, and rather than wait for Luna to come to her, she took advantage of Luna’s howling and decided to strike first.
The ground broke apart under Adagio as she rushed forward, her trident thrusting towards Luna’s chest. In a blinding flash Luna caught the thrust with the shaft of her own weapon, stopping Adagio’s strike dead. Luna then gripped the multi-scythe in both clawed hands and smashed it down, pressing against Adagio’s trident. Adagio felt the incredible strength in Luna’s new lupine muscles and felt herself driven back for a moment, but not inclined to back down, Adagio pressed harder herself.
Red reiatsu and blue reiatsu clashed as both fonts of spirit energy rose from the two combatants, their weapons becoming surrounded by sparking arcs of conflicting spirit energy as the two tried to overpower each other. Luna had already been fairly strong, but Adagio had held the advantage before. Now Adagio could tell that advantage had shifted to Luna’s favor, although not so overwhelmingly so that Adagio couldn’t hold her own.
However it was clear she was still getting pushed back. The ground was shattering beneath them, the area becoming an ever more rubble strewn pile of broken rock as the sanguine light of Luna’s reiatsu started to overtake the azure blue of Adagio’s, and with another bestial howl Luna slammed her multi-scythe down and simultaneously sent Adagio flying backwards, but also cut a bloody wound across the siren’s armored chest.
Adagio grit her teeth at the sudden pain, refusing to let it distract her as she flicked her tail and stopped her backwards momentum at the treeline. Just in time, as well, because Luna didn’t pause. Her pawed feet kicked off the ground and she zipped forward in a crimson streaked Flash Step, spinning the deadly, many bladed weapon in her hands as she cleaved a horizontal line at Adagio.
Adagio turned her trident into the blow and stabbed it down, catching the multi-scythe as she used the trident to lever herself up into the air, flipping over Luna and slashing with her bladed tail at the wolven Captain’s back. The blow struck home, cutting a deep gouge across Luna’s fur covered back and right shoulder, but it was as if the pain was inconsequential to Luna. She hurled herself around and slashed with her left hand, her onyx claws tacking a chunk from Adagio’s tail.
“Gggrrgh!” Adagio grunted, and spun away from Luna, charging up potent energy inside her gem. A ruby sphere, with a pulsing blue core, was aimed at Luna and Adagio fired a point-blank Cero.
Luna raised her multi-scythe up, and both red and black reiatsu crawled up it’s length before she slammed it forward into the Cero beam. A huge wave of shadow-lined crimson energy blasted out from the weapon and cleaved into the Cero, causing both energy attacks to detonate together. The explosive wave flattened nearby trees and knocked Adagio back until she herself had to dig her trident into the ground to stop herself. Luna was blasted back as well, finally stopping herself by smashing her left claw into a passing boulder to ground herself.
She then proceeded to pick up said boulder one handed and fast-balled it at Adagio. Not because of any tactical advantage, but just because Luna’s mental state was beyond rational combat strategy. Within Luna’s own mind she was drowning in dark anger. Her Zanpaktou was a dual natured one, just like her sister’s, and the reason for that dual nature was not a matter of public knowledge to many in Soul Society. Most of her fellow Captains were aware, since it wasn’t something that could be hidden from them, but much of the rest of the Gotei 13 had no idea that Celestia and Luna had a mixed heritage.
The wolven form she now wore, stemming from one half of her Zanpaktou, and the spirit energy it drew power from, was due to her Beast Realm heritage.
A heritage that made her Zanpaktou’s powers difficult to control. She’d mastered her Shikai long ago, but her Bankai was another matter, at least when the crimson moon’s power was unleashed. She knew Celestia had similar difficulty with the dragons formed from her own Zanpaktou, barely able to control her Shikai, and was so fearful of unleashing her Bankai that she all but refused to do so save in the worst of circumstances.
Not that Luna was much different. She avoided using her Bankai unless she knew she couldn’t win without it, and Adagio had proven far too strong a foe to hold back with. She’d merely hoped to avoid the violent power contained inside the red moon from coming out and forcing her into this state. It was not unlike the unfortunate mental state Lieutenant Posey had faced with her Zanpaktou, but Luna wasn’t entirely bereft of self-control. Violent rage pulsed through her, but it was a predatory thing, focused upon an animalistic drive to hunt rather than just pure psychotic bloodlust.
She couldn’t think entirely straight, but she still recognized who she was and what she was doing. There just wasn’t any ability to work out a plan or anything silly like that. The beast inside her howled for her to attack, and so attack Luna did.
For Adagio, all she could surmise was that Luna had clearly intended to avoid this outcome, and from her perspective it seemed the reason why was simply because as powerful as this form happened to be, it lacked all of Luna’s previous subtly and control. The boulder that was pitched at her like an oversized baseball was easy enough to smash out of the air with her trident, but Luna was already bounding towards her and gave Adagio practically no time to brace herself.
Luna charged while leaned down, using her legs and left arm to hurl herself forward while her right arm was cocked backwards to strike with the multi-scythe. Adagio got her trident shaft up in time to block the scythe blow, but Luna still barreled on forward and body tackled Adagio, carrying her along to smash through one tree after another. At the same time Luna bit down hard on Adagio’s shoulder, her fangs penetrating Adagio’s Hierro and drawing deep wounds.
Shoving the pain lancing through her shoulder aside, Adagio twisted her trident to the side to knock Luna off balance, and grounded herself by digging her bladed tail into the earth. She then cut across Luna’s chest with the bladed protrusions on her right arm and then pulled her trident back and spun it around for a straight thrust. Luna growled in deep, guttural anger, eyes flashing as she willingly sacrificed the palm of her left hand to catch the trident, letting the hand be impaled. She then gripped the weapon and tore it from Adagio’s grasp, and with her other hand slashed her multi-scythe across Adagio’s torso, ripping a line of blood form the siren that splattered the trees.
Yet Adagio didn’t back down, even as her body accumulated ever more wounds. She’d let Luna get close on purpose, drawn her in so Luna couldn’t readily escape. With the water of the lake largely dispersed now, Adagio had to rely on the water she could rapidly summon on her own, but with Luna this close, it’d be enough.
Water erupted from Adagio as her reiatsu flared and she conjured it from her body, surrounding herself and Luna with a pressurized sphere about ten meters in diameter. Adagio slipped out the top of the sphere and flew up, all while summoning more water to flow out in jets that slammed into the sphere and added to the crushing pressure of it.
She went and retrieved her trident from where it lay, stabbed through a partially broken tree trunk, and then turned to the condensed water sphere. She could see Luna trapped inside, struggling to move. Adagio raised a hand and conjured yet more water, adding it to the imprisoning sphere. Soul Reapers needed to breath, so eventually it stood to reason that Luna would pass out.
Only within a few moments writhing red and black spirit energy burst out of Luna, and the sphere of water was cut to pieces by the tearing energies as Luna screamed out a piercing howl. Heaving in and out great breaths, Luna glared at Adagio, who in turn stared back with a relentless resolve, unflinching.
“Come on then,” Adagio said, "I'm still standing. Bring everything you have, Luna! Crush my arrogance if you think you can. If I can't beat you, then my ambition to dethrone the likes of Tirek really is just a pipe dream, but after coming this far I'm not backing down, so COME ON!"
Adagio's words were hardly needed to spur Luna on, who almost seemed to smile while growling, barring flashing fangs and spinning her multi-scythe to a ready position before coming at Adagio like a crimson storm of lethal shadows. Inside of a bare instant Adagio found herself dodging and parrying for her life as Luna pulled out all the stops and came at her with renewed speed, force, and savagery.
For half a minute that stretched to an eternity for combatants capable of moving at speeds such as Adagio and Luna were, the pair streaked and clashed around the thick forest, heedless of obstacles in either of their path. Trees, hills, and boulders were rendered to chunks of wood and dirt as Luna mercilessly spun her multi-scythe in a black and red cat’s cradle of deadly strikes. Adagio was forced almost entirely on the defensive, working both arms to twirl her trident in a ruby barrier to deflect the blows seeking to rend her apart. Her only offensive ability came from conjuring more water, blasting at Luna from different directions to try and break the momentum of Luna’s attacks.
Both scored several more hits upon one another, yet while Adagio’s wounds were starting to slow her down, Luna seemed aptly able to ignore her injuries in her transformed state, as if the bleeding stabs and cuts meant nothing to her feral mindset.
It was rapidly becoming apparent to Adagio that without landing a powerful enough blow to put Luna down, the Captain was going to win through simple attrition. The only advantage she still had was that Luna wasn’t thinking clearly, focused entirely on offense and all but ignoring defense.
Adagio thought of one last plan, and without hesitation put it into motion.
With the full speed of her Sonido she broke away from Luna and zipped towards the spot where her Cero and Luna’s energy attack had clashed before, the explosion having created a relatively clear area in the forest. Luna came after her in hot pursuit, her Flash Steps matching Adagio’s Sonido readily.
Adagio took her trident and dipped its center tip in her most profusely bleeding wound, ignoring the pain, since by this point her whole body was in pain. She then took the blood tipped trident and hurled it into the air as hard as she could, sending it to fly up into the air above the clearing ahead. At the same time she conjured a jet of water and sent it up along with the trident, reserve a bit of mental focus to control the water.
Once she reached the center of the clearing she turned to face Luna, raising her arm blades and bladed tail to receive her foe. Luna didn’t disappoint, exploding from the forest like a super-sonic missile and coming straight at Adagio in a bestial fury. Adagio tried to block the multi-scythe with her arm blades, but without her trident she was forced to take the scythe blow painfully on arms with a Hierro just too battered to stand up to the punishment. She blocked the larger crescent blades on the end, but the smaller blades dug into her arms.
Adagio slashed with her bladed tail, cutting Luna’s legs, but the feral Soul Reaper didn’t budge and instead pressed harder on the multi-scythe, until Adagio was forced to the ground and pressed into the broken earth. Luna’s hungry, enraged eyes bored into her, but Adagio wasn’t fearful. Much. After all, this was exactly what she wanted.
Adagio controlled water. Any water. Even the water in blood.
Suddenly the blood leaking from both her wounds and Luna’s leaped to life! There wasn’t nearly enough to create much in the way of weapons or bonds, but there was enough to splash a near bucketload straight into Luna’s snout, face, and eyes.
As Adagio figured, Luna’s wolven form also had an overwhelming sense of smell, and the blood splattering up her nostrils, along with the blood blinding her eyes, was shocking enough to cause Luna to reel back and let out a startled cry.
That instant of distraction was enough for Adagio to dart backwards with Sonido, tearing her arms painfully free of the multi-scythe. She then concentrated on her trident.
The water she’d sent up with the trident she’d used to form a sphere strong enough to grip and suspend the trident overhead, it’s prongs pointed down... straight at Luna.
Adagio had one last attack she hadn’t used. One exclusive to Espada, and taught to her by Tirek after she’d ascended to the Espada ranks.
At the tip of the trident prong covered in her blood, a brilliant neon blue sphere of Hollow energy formed, drawn from the core of Adagio’s soul and enhanced further by her siren gem as it pulsed along with the Hollow energy and added it’s own magic and stored spirit energy to the mix.
The air around the trident distorted, as if space itself was getting partially warped by the build up of spirit energy present. Then Adagio unleashed it with the empowered Cero only Espada could use, and then added her own twist, since this attack was using more than just her Hollow energy.
“Gran Rey Cero; Octava Sirena.” (Royal Hollow Flash: Siren Octave)
An all encompassing boom of noise was followed by the expulsion of a torrential downpour of azure energy in the form of a titanic spiral beam, surrounded by crimson rings of sonic force not unlike the ones Adagio and her sisters could create in their siren forms. Like a chorus of trumpeting warhorns, the air split with the noise of the attack as the beam lanced down and impacted directly atop of the startled, unprepared Luna.
The resulting explosion created a pressure wave that threw Adagio back like a ragdoll, even though she’d braced for it. She had to dig both hands and arm blades into the ground to keep herself in place, squinting her eyes against the blast of wind and force that was flattening trees for quite a distance around. If she was the sort to care about that sort of thing she might’ve felt bad for just how much damage was being done to Everfree Forest, but Adagio had larger concerns on her mind. By the time she was able to get upright again, the clearing had become a crater, one around fifty feet deep and twice as wide as the original clearing had been.
She raised her right hand and the water sphere that had held her trident floated down to return the weapon to Adagio’s waiting grasp. Then slowly, cautiously, Adagio floated down into the crater, the trident at the ready. She couldn’t be sure that this attack had done the trick, and was prepared to strike if Luna came at her again. Granted, Adagio was wounded and had expended more energy than she’d hoped to in this fight, but she wasn’t out yet. If Luna still had fight left in her, Adagio was prepared to give it to her!
However, it turned out that wouldn’t be needed. As Adagio reached the smoking center of the crater, she found Luna, and it was clear the Captain of the Second Division was down for the count.
Luna had already reverted back to her natural form, with only a few streaks of crimson hair left through her usual blue locks to indicate the transformation into her beastly state. Some of her Soul Reaper robes and Captains jacket were leftover to provide a minimum of propriety, but they were little more than tatters at this point, and Adagio was surprised any were left at all. Reiatsu was a wonderful thing for surviving giant explosions. And Luna was certainly alive, coughing and stirring as Adagio approached. She let out a pained groan as she pushed herself over onto her back, her body scarred with burns and bleeding abrasions from head to toe. Her Zanpaktou was intact, but reverted to it’s sealed state, the two blades laying next to Luna with smoke rising from their surface.
Blinking her eyes open, Luna saw Adagio looming over her, and with obvious pain and effort moved to try to grab her swords, but Adagio put the tips of her trident against Luna’s neck in a heartbeat.
“Go for them, and your sister will be burying you by day’s end,” Adagio said flatly, then shrugged, “Or whatever it is you Soul Reapers do. Do you do burials?”
Luna just silently glared at her and Adagio rolled her eyes, “Don’t give me that look. You said I was the arrogant one? Well, that’s true, I am arrogant. However, I’m clearly not the only one. We both believed ourselves capable of winning this fight, and if you had better control of that beast-like state of yours, I’d likely be me on the ground right now, instead of you.”
“I... cannot deny that,” Luna said through clenched teeth, “Had you not triggered the change, my earlier Bankai form could have beaten you through attrition.”
“True, I was having a lot of trouble with those enhanced shadows. Without the lake to enhance my own powers, I might have lost, eventually. Pointless speculation, now. The real question to ask is this; what do I do with you? Oh... I know,” Adagio extended her tail so that it was poised over Luna’s face, “I don’t have feet in this form, but I’ll accept kissing my tail as an appropriately humiliating admission of defeat, my dear Captain.”
“You cannot be serious...”
“Oh, I don’t know, I can be very serious when I wish to be,” Adagio replied with a thin smile, “And let’s not forget, this began with you stealing my friend out from under my nose. Be grateful that a bit of humiliation is all I want as recompense. Well, that, and the fact that you’ll make a fine prisoner to use to exchange for Ember’s safety, in case the rescue doesn’t go as planned.”
Luna’s eyes flickered with understanding, “So that’s where your subordinates are. I thought it odd none of them were with you. In that case, I suggest you do take me prisoner, for whatever you might have planned for, Adagio Dazzle, I can guarantee you that you couldn’t plan for the danger of sending anyone to face Captain Starswirl.”
A day later thank intended, but here's the next chapter, and hopefully you folks enjoyed it. Before anything else, our friend Feather Book has done another cool sketch, this time of recent events:
Look at that heartwarming hug to such a grumpy Gilda. None can resist Fluttershy's hugs now, for she has too many arms to escape! But seriously, props to Feather Book. I always enjoy seeing any drawings the story inspire.
At any rate, Adagio and Luna's fight might be over, but we've got a lot more still to go as the situation continues to escalate. Next chapter will likely jump around a bit more. Thank for reading, folks, and as always let me know any comments, questions, or critiques you might have for me. 'Till next time!
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I continue to be impressed by your stellar fight choreography and character powerset variety. And there are plenty more to look forward to, it seems.
Ah, we're almost there! Just a little further, and Ember will be rescued! I think by now enough has gone wrong, maybe it's now time for some things to go right. Also, the assassin in the Quincy ranks has been spotted!
This just gets better and better. Another great chapter.
i have wondered how kenpachi would react to the fights in this series since day one.
and now i know.
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/029/368/joji.jpg
Foreshadowed! foreshadowed hard! Trying not to say anything but damn.
9990119
Assassins
Well it looks like no one will know what Luna's standard Bankai ability is. All most observers would have seen was a black dome so that's good and I don't think anyone was high enough in the sky to see a level or downward view of the sphere so they probably didn't see Luna during the very short time she was out of it in her base Bankai state. Hell maybe this will help her out if the Hollows come after her preparing to face her in her werewolf form.
Another thing that I have to say is that during the initial planning on the raid of the science lab I was worried that Sunset & Co. were signing off on a bunch of dead Soul Reapers when the Hollows came to bust Ember out. With Twilight's plan and the operatives Adagio picked that doesn't seem like that will be a problem. I'm glad Twilight and Adagio aren't exploiting their friendship with them even after everything that has happened to the two of them.
Edge of my seat
Its over 9000!!!!
Another excellent chapter. Good job.
My hype was not unjustified or let down. Awesome battle!
Twilight aka Dusk is about to have a fun time. The poor dear.
But, Miss "I got this!" is not going to be happy about what just happened to the forest. That on top of other things- It's going to be crazier than the Soul Society raid in no time at this rate! 
Mastered Werewolf Form Captain Luna vs Animalistic Resurrection Espada Tres Catrina has to happen at some point. Battle of the animal speedsters, LET'S FUCKING GO!
Everything is going entirely too well here. Experiments fought off with relative ease, Gilda defeated and pacified, Luna beaten and the lab successfully infiltrated! Not to mention no sign of the Kraken or the QOT (Queen of Thorns) yet and the two Mad Scientists are both present? Nah guys shit's going to get a lot worse, starting next chapter.
Starswirl's going to easily see through this disguise and we know he has cameras set up all over, which will have allowed him to keep up with all the fights going on (and take note of enemy abilities) without taking his attention off his research, or his test subject. In fact (if he's anything like his canon counterparts, both Bleach and MLP) he's likely already worked out that rescuing Ember is the end goal at this point. Have no illusions people, I guarantee Starswirl is overall the most dangerous Soul Reaper involved in all this and I can't see Twilight beating him alone. But we'll see I guess.
Honestly, I didn't expect Adagio to win but I suppose that she hasn't won a fight at all in this story. So I guess she was due one at this point. Conversely Luna had (outside of the Chrysalis fight where the Espada treated her like she was irrelevant) been nearly unstoppable so she was due a loss to take her down a peg. Plus we're given an area in which she could improve.
9992754
I agree pure power can destroy most thing in front of it but with a little technique you can turn power against itself
Well... seems like Starswirl might still be in the scope of the mad scientist trope. This may be dire.
This was an amazin fight though. I honestly couldn't pick who I wanted to win! Adagio's gran ray variant is amazing though! The sonic aspect is just one more layer of hell for Lunacy Luna.
But now... we must panic and worry for what the extraction team has to face.
9992754
Luckily, beating Starswirl isn't the goal. They just need to grab Ember and run!
9995082
True but, as I said before, Starswirl has most likely already figured out that saving Ember is the goal. We know (from Bleach canon) that technology exists which can keep the Arrancar from opening a Garganta so, even if Twilight teleports them out of there, they are still in Camp Everfree where Starswirl can find them easily enough.
And that's ignoring the idea that, having a better understanding of how magic works now thanks to Sunset Shimmer lately, he may have developed something to stop (or at least interfere with) magical abilities as well. Just on the off chance he ever had to come up against any of the girls.
Defeating Starswirl might not be the goal but, as Luna said "he's never let a subject go willingly" so saving Ember and defeating Starswirl pretty much go hand in hand in this case. Best case scenario (as I see it) is Twilight stays behind to face him while Di Roy and Roka work to save Ember. And Roka will still likely have to bring in the cavalry (Lament) before all is said and done.
9995189
I'm just saying that it's possible they'll come up with a way to escape (maybe to Equestria, since there was a hint) or strategically nullify Starswirl, rather than beat him in a knockout brawl. If anyone can pull that off, it's Twilight.
It's nice to see that, even after their fight and getting beaten, that Luna understands Adagio and her intent to get Ember back.
I respect the power of that Bankai, quite impressive.
the shipper in me want this Gilda to crush on Fluttershy
camo.fimfiction.net/7m7MJPqji1N3lQHbH2OJqAKK2fXdZX5fJR5Rw06EfM8?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fo1nRWNy.jpg
and this image just feed my inner shipper even more
Nope, done. Done with this unearned power. She just walked through what has been hyped as one of the strongest Soul Reapers and barely broke a sweat. Just like with literally every other fight she's been in. Bored now, hope other people enjoy the villain sue.
10955652
Who are you even talking about? Adagio vs Luna?
Adagio is neither a villain nor a Mary Sue, nor was her power un-earned. She trained, fed in the forest of Menos for weeks and Equestrian magic accelerates spiritual growth. Hell she absorbed half the power of a freaking Espada, reached Vasto lorde AND became an Arrancar. Of course she's fricken strong...and she still BARELY beat Luna.
If you're going to talk shit, try knowing what the fuck you're talking about first.
10955738
Regarding Adagio training, i totally forgot how much she did trained.
Adagio magic allowed her a far greater speed for gaining power, combine to her ability to absorb part of the strength of those she defeated, but it was a training from hell, far closer to HunterXHunter, one of the best if not the best shonen regarding the importance of training, rather than this hack of naruto (the character, not the manga) or worse this insult to coherence of powers and hard work than fairy tail is.
Also, thanks to answering to your comment on the right page, i had again saw the art of Fluttershy hugging Gilda, and not only it is the best of the story IMO, but it make me ship the two of them so hard.
.
10955819
To be fair we aren't shown most of it, only told about it afterwards so it's easy to forget. BUT she was constantly fighting and training from the moment she became a Hollow, giving her the entire Soul Society arc to improve.
Naruto as a character was actually pretty good when it came to having to train to get most of his gains. Sure towards the end it gets a bit pear-shaped as he's handed power by the Sage of Six Paths but for most of the manga, Naruto is actually a GOOD example of a Shounen protagonist who earns his strength.
A bad example would be Ichigo, or just Bleach in general. Kubo never failed to take a steaming dump on the idea of training actually being worth doing . You're either strong to start, pull power-ups out of your ass or you're in the royal realm, or you're completely fucked.
One Piece is one of the best examples of Shounen that illustrate the importance of training, right up there with Shaman King as well.
10955882
My problem with naruto is mostly the hack of the clones and his absurdes reserves of chakra.
For the rest, i still feel than HunterXHunter is the best regarding training.
What do you think of shipping Fluttershy and Gilda ? This is mostly because the art is really cute.
As for adagio, we still saw a lot of her pain, so it's not like we didn't saw much.
10955900
He's a Jinchuriki AND an Uzumaki, both of which explain his Chakra reserves. The Shadow Clones were effective but they were never game-breaking and he still had to train to use them effectively.
I would have more of an issue with that, if not for the fact that a lot of the time, it really didn't matter. Chakra doesn't work like Magic in MLP of Reiatsu in Bleach, you can't just overpower someone just because you have more Chakra. Naruto still had to out think or outfight his opponents basically fair and square a lot of the time (see the Kiba fight for example where he was actually NERFED and still won).
Now true once he started tapping into Kurama's power more freely, it became much more power based but it was still only really the final arc where it got completely ridiculous. I give Naruto props for the most part in that area.
You see I've never read it, I was simply bringing up the ones I thought did it the best.
I don't see it honestly but I'm much more conservative when it comes to shipping. there has to be GENUINE and OBVIOUS chemistry between two characters for me to entertain shipping them together. I don't just ship any man/women or combination of the two that happen to share screen-time for a couple of seconds.
Until the Luna stuff came up, i was kind of shipping Thorax and Adagio but that got blown right out of the water.
10955920
Honestly, this is more than reasonable.
Although i ship them as friends.