Episode 197: Gilda's Strength
Episode 197: Gilda’s Strength
With the remains of the four mutated Arrancar, victims of Grogar’s mad experimentation and weapons engineering, still cooling behind them, Adagio and Fenice approached the pyramid-shaped inner sanctum of Chrysalis’ silent bastion. While nowhere near as large as the palace suspended at the top of the rift many hundreds of feet above, this building of sickly, dark green resin was still sizable and filled Adagio with an unnerving sensation of being watched. She sensed no further hostile reiatsu, even the fuzzy kind the mutants had possessed that made them so hard to detect.
The main doors to the pyramid were open, and inside Adagio found a short passage that led to the center of the structure’s interior, which was hollowed out, with a lowered floor akin to a big carved bowl with stone steps encircling it. She blinked at the sight of dozens upon dozens of green, spherical shapes of dark green shells... the remains of eggs, each one the size of a basketball. Fenice, beside her, wrinkled her nose and a bit of lava dripped from her skeletal wing in a hiss.
“Holy hell, no wonder her horde is so damn big,” Fenice muttered, shuddering slightly, “Ugh, don’t need the mental image associated with it, either. Out of all of the Hollows I’ve seen, Chrysalis is by far the creepiest.”
Adagio put a faint smirk on her face, thinking of all of the horrors seen and experienced while she’d been stuck as a captive of Grogar. “I think she has competition in that department, although, yes, I see your point. Going to guess most of these are Tirek’s, assuming she even needs that component for eggs. She might not, for all we know. Not in the mood to speculate too much. Really want to find Thorax and get out of here before ‘mommy dearest’ comes home from... wherever she is.”
That really was a question that was starting to burn a hole right through her gut. There was just no way that Adagio could imagine Chrysalis, of all Espada, just leaving her home empty like this. Well, empty save for a group of Grogar’s horror-show bio-weapons, but that was even more worrying. She’d known Chrysalis and Grogar were in cahoots with each other, but she hadn’t expected the alliance to be quite so tight that Chrysalis would trust Grogar’s monstrosities to guard her lair rather than her own, homegrown drones. What was so important it took every single Arrancar of Chrysalis’ horde, including the queen bitch herself, to be present for it and leave their home base practically empty?
She’d left Pharynx behind, however, perhaps to keep an eye on Grogar and ensure things went as planned here in Las Noches? And Thorax must have known something, and Chrysalis couldn’t afford to let him tell Adagio about it. That was the only thing that made any sense to her, unless Thorax had been playing her the entire time and was in fact completely loyal to Chrysalis... but no, no Adagio didn’t think she’d misjudged his character that badly. She hadn’t gone that soft in the head, yet. Sure, maybe she’d softened up a little bit, lately, perhaps put a bit of faith into this whole “friendship” thing that Sunset was always going on about. But Adagio hadn’t lost her edge so much that Thorax could have pulled the wool over her eyes. It just didn’t track.
So where the hell was he?
Suspended in the center of the large inner chamber was a cocoon-like building made entirely out of spun threads of silken webbing and jade green resin. It was like a twisted spider’s mansion, hanging in a dangling spot over the pyramid’s incubation chamber. Probably so Chrysalis could keep an eye on her children before they hatched. Murderous psycho that she was, Adagio supposed she had to give it to Chrysalis that she was a doting mother. She actually couldn’t see Thorax being hurt or in any real danger, just locked up somewhere. Problem was, it wasn’t as if she’d spotted any convenient dungeons on the way in, and she still couldn’t sense his reiatsu anywhere, despite focusing hard on her Pesquisa the entire time as they walked towards the center of the chamber.
“There’s a few side passages,” Fenice mentioned, nodding off to the left and right, where Adagio could see a few archways leading to corridors that presumably went around the perimeter of the pyramid.
“We could split up,” Adagio said, although she didn’t like the sound of it even as she spoke the words, “But honestly I’d rather we just move faster and start sweeping every room we can.”
Fenice gave Adagio a confident look that Adagio found she liked, as it reminded her that while these two Sunsets might be different from one another, there was a prideful, self-assured core inside both of them that shone with a similar fire. “I can keep up with your Sonido, I’m pretty sure.”
Adagio returned the confident look with a nod, “Then show me.”
The next minute or so passed with the two girls moving in flickering whirlwinds of high-speed motion. First they checked Chrysalis’ abode, and while Adagio was tempted to sort through some of the books she was shocked to see on Chrysalis bookshelf, in fact shocked at the idea of Chrysalis reading anything, she decided they didn’t have time for anything other than being focused on finding Thorax. So once it was clear he wasn’t in there, they swept out into the side passages of the pyramid, zipping from chamber to chamber, of which the outer perimeter was lined with them, several of which may well have suited as a cell to keep an unruly Arrancar.
Yet once the whole building was covered, still no Thorax.
“What the blasted hell?” Adagio growled, feeling her frustration mounting and using it to hide how worried she actually was starting to get about him. “Could he really not be here?”
“Huh...” Fenice’s brow furrowed, but then the girl’s eyes lit up as she looked at Adagio, “Hold on, got a question for you. You’ve got water-based powers, right? Like you control water and stuff?”
Adagio tilted her head to the side, and made a little gesture that summoned forth a conjured globe of swirling water, “Whatever gave you that idea?”
Much to Adagio’s hidden delight, Fenice just grinned at the sarcasm and swept her hand around, “Well, you can summon up a whole bunch of water, right? So if there were, like, any hidden doors or passages in this place, the water would seep through the cracks. You could feel it, or sense it with your crazy water powers, couldn’t you?”
For a moment Adagio had to collect herself, then kick herself for having not thought of that herself! “Okay, you’ve officially made yourself one of my most useful vassals, Fenice.”
“Frieeeend. F. R. I. E. N. D. Say it with me,” Fenice chuckled, clearly not actually taking any offense, and Adagio shared the brief laugh and shook her head.
“Person whose company is sufficiently pleasant for me to continue enduring it. There. Happy?”
“It’ll do. For now. Now c’mon, make with the waterworks,” Fenice said, then blinked as she appeared to think of something, “Actually on second thought perhaps I should wait outside before you-”
But Adagio was already bringing forth her power, all but exploding with thick waves of water that washed out around her in a massive, gushing tide. Fenice made a startled ‘yorp!’ sound, but Adagio, in her infinite magnanimousness, directed the water to create an air bubble around Fenice as it continued to be conjured forth in wave after frothing wave. With Adagio’s present level of power, it barely took more than a few seconds for her to quickly flood the pyramid, even sensing the water rapidly spilling forth into the larger rift beyond. She didn’t much care if some of the water might ruin Chrysalis’ little web-house. She was all in at this point on the “piss Chrysalis off and damn the consequences” part of the plan. If her fears turned out to be true, it wasn’t as if there was much more time to pretend to be at all on Tirek’s side of this war.
As Fenice had surmised, Adagio had an innate sense of the water she could create, as it was formed from the reishi of her Hollow power. So she felt every gallon of it as it flooded through the chambers of the pyramid and the caverns outside. She sensed every nook and cranny that her water soaked through, and as she spread her senses through the mass of water.... she realized that indeed there was a space where water was seeping through small seams in the stone floor of the incubation chamber.
It took a minute, but she soon let the tides of water subside, instead focusing and concentrating the pressure of her water at a spot on the far side of the entry passage, no more than fifty paces from where she and Fenice were standing. She let the water seep in further into those hidden seams, until the water gathered at the... stairway on the other side? With a moment or so more, she had enough water to push the stone block hiding the secret passage on the other side, sending it flying up on a jet of pressurized water.
As the water finally went still, and they were left standing in about two feet of the stuff, Fenice looked at the crashed stone door and the passage of stairs leading down and splashed a bit of water with her foot at Adagio, “Went a little overboard, didn’t you?”
“I like to be thorough,” Adagio replied, “And it worked, didn’t it?”
“True,” Fenice’s joking expression melted away to grow serious, like lava hardening into rock, “Got to wonder what someone like Chrysalis decides to keep behind a secret door right under where she sleeps.”
Adagio squared her shoulders and started walking to the opening in the floor, “We’re about to find out.”
Up close it was clear to see that the secret passage was no small affair, but a rather sizeable space with stairs wide enough that ten or more people could march down it shoulder to shoulder. Perfectly sized, in fact, for moving a large group of people in or out of whatever lay beyond the stairs, which curved down at a steady, curving angle. Adagio kept her trident at the ready as she walked down, eyes narrowed, lips pressed tightly together as her mind placed itself in Chrysalis’ headspace.
I’ve been so focused on my own plans to overthrow Tirek that I haven’t spent enough time considering my other competition. Chrysalis... What is it she really wants? I know from Sunset that she’s allied with Starlight Glimmer, and I’ve always assumed the point of that was to acquire more power so she could backstab Tirek one day. Mistake on my part, making any assumptions at all about someone as unstable in the brainpan as Chrysalis. Worse, we don’t know what’s been happening in Equestria lately. Something could have occurred there to change the pieces on the board... dammit, I hate playing blind, having to make my moves without being able to see the whole picture.
The stairs went down a fair distance, and when they opened up from a curved archway into a new, circular chamber, Adagio looked up to see the stairs had partially been part of a stone pillar that went down into this cylindrical shaped space. Numerous openings covered in green resin were built into the wall circling the chamber, which had the scent of fear and blood leaking through the air. Adagio flinched at the sensation, if only for a second, and realized the resin doors were partially transparent, and that she could see within them were what looked like cells. Hollows, all of them Adjuchas class, were chained up inside these cells, dozens of them arranged like wall decorations, most barely conscious.
“Adagio... what is this?” Fenice asked, “Chrysalis’ prison? Or personal pantry?”
“I don’t think so,” Adagio said, shaking her head in confusion, “She wouldn’t bother hiding either of those. Look... there’s pipes in the walls.”
The same kind of metallic piping that Gaw, Di Roy, Roka, and Fenice had found in the Warrens was melded into the walls of the chamber, and ran through the cells, with each and every Hollow prisoner hooked up to them by metal bands that wrapped around them alongside their chains. There was a constant, low pulsation of reiatsu flowing through the pipes and through the captive Hollows. The sight made Adagio’s gut twist, but she didn’t have time to wallow in sympathy.
“We’ll free them if we have time,” she told a worried looking Fenice, “But we check around for Thorax, first. There’s one door that doesn’t lead to a cell.”
This door was directly across from the stairway pillar, and its resin was shaped less like a solid, semi-transparent wall, and more like an actual door with a pair of handles to pull it open. Adagio, feeling less and less inclined towards patience, went right up to it and proceeded to lift her right leg and slam her heel in a straight on kick with all her strength right into the center of the door. The resin shattered and the doors went flying off their hinges, revealing beyond an even wider space... and a bright flicker of white and blue light that for a moment almost blinded Adagio.
“Subtle,” Fenice commented on the broken doors, and blinking, followed Adagio into the room beyond, and both of them gawked for a moment.
Adagio had heard of Sunset’s misadventures in Soul Society. She knew, at least in general bullet points, what had happened there. The chaos that Celestia and Luna’s capture had caused, the brief quasi-civil war that had occurred between the Soul Reapers as Sunset and her friends rushed in to try and rescue the erstwhile sisters. She knew that Starlight Glimmer and Chrysalis had been behind the whole plot, all so that Starlight could steal the power of this execution weapon called the Sokyoku, and then hijack the Soul Reaper’s secret weapons laboratory, Hitsuyo-Aku. And the purpose of doing all of that had been to get ahold of a unique item crafted by the Soul Reapers, an powerful portal device that could pierce the barrier between realities and ferry Starlight and her cronies, along with Hitsuyo-Aku, all the way to Equestria in an instant!
“Oh shit... the Cross Gate...” Adagio said, staring ahead, “They replicated it here.”
Sunset had never described it to Adagio, but she could guess at what she was looking at. There were four large, curved, very talon-like pillars of dark metal and green coated resin that rose from a disc of metal, all pointed inward. In front of the disc was an obelisk of black metal with more green resin forming a makeshift control console of sorts. The flickering white and blue light came from a swirling vortex of energy that was being generated by the four pillars, creating an opening in space that Adagio could see through and vaguely make out what looked like a dark chamber beyond... presumably the other side of the original Cross Gate.
More of those metal pipes grew in a thick nest through this chamber, massing through the ceiling and floor to gather around and then merge with the disc supporting the Cross Gate. Adagio could feel the power seeping into it, reiatsu being drawn from the Adjuchas prisoners in the other chamber. Prisoners who’d been there for who knew how long? Weeks? Months? Starlight had used the Sokyoku to power her Cross Gate. Could Hollows be converted over the course of months to result in similar power? Chrysalis could have had her drones capture an endless supply from Hueco Mundo’s wasteland, just putting more in when the present stock got drained dry.
But Grogar... she would’ve needed Grogar to set all this up. Had Chrysalis worked all of that out before she even infiltrated Soul Society with Starlight Glimmer? Grogar, sick genius that he was, very likely could have replicated the Soul Reaper’s technology, if Chrysalis had handed over everything in Hitsuyo-Aku’s database over to him.
Hell, that’s probably exactly what happened. This is... this is what Thorax meant when he told me he had an alternative means of getting me to Equestria. He’s known about this second, Hollow-built and powered Cross Gate since the very start. Its how Chrysalis moves so easily back and forth between the two worlds. I thought it was just the original Cross Gate doing the jumps, but if they linked up two of them, it’d be even easier... easy enough to move a whole army through.
An army that was probably in Equestria right now! Chrysalis was moving her entire damn horde into Equestria... which Starlight Glimmer never would’ve tolerated, Adagio felt certain. Which meant something must have happened to Starlight, otherwise Chrysalis wouldn’t pull a move like this.
All of her speculation was put on hold, however, as she noticed that on the left side of the chamber, there was a pillar of resin in all different shades of green and black, and trapped inside the pillar was Thorax!
“Thorax!” Adagio didn’t even notice the tone of her own voice as she rushed to the pillar, Fenice right behind her. She halted at the pillar’s base, one hand on the resin as she looked at his face. His eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping, his body suspended like a proverbial bug trapped in amber. She couldn’t see him breathing, but she pushed her Pesquisa’s senses into the thick, hardened resin prison and breathed a deep sigh of relief as she felt his reiatsu.
“Oh good, he's alive. Thank the ocean...”
Fenice gave her an odd look, and Adagio, realizing just how relieved she felt, and the rather embarrassing display of those emotions, swiftly put on a glare and held her head high in challenge, “I mean, we need him to tell us what this is all about, after all.”
“Riiiiight,” Fenice said with a smug grin that Adagio really wanted to punch, but that’d just confirm everything Fenice was probably thinking, which wasn’t helped as Fenice added, “Thank the ocean?”
“Ugh, just an old phrase from back home. We don’t really do ‘gods’ in Equestria,” Adagio said, shaking her head, “Nevermind that. Let’s get this big lummox out of there so I can properly yell at him for getting his fool-self put in this situation in the first place.”
Given her performance with the doors, she didn’t think this resin pillar would keep her out. That said, she didn’t want to hurt Thorax, so rather than just smash the thing with her fist, she conjured up a pair of water spheres and then expelled a highly focused line of pressurized water from each. The lines of cutting water delicately sawed through the resin, carving away at it until a neatly spaced opening was made that allowed Adagio to reach in and tear away the last bits of resin holding Thorax inside. A few moments later and she had him in her arms, having set her trident aside so she could gently lay him on the ground.
Before she could fully set him down and stand away, he opened his eyes with her still holding his head in an entirely too tender position for Adagio’s liking. Especially when he looked up at her from nearly her lap and smiled in a wide, beaming, and entirely too sultry manner, “Oh, my goddess come to save my delectable rear from the frying pan? I am either dreaming one of several dreams I’ve had about you that lead to all manner of debauchery, or... wait, is this real?”
Adagio dropped him with a huff, letting his head smack to the ground as she stood and scooped up her trident, “Hmph! I see you’re no worse for wear after your mother apparently put you in a time out box! Debauchery indeed! Get your head out of the gutter, Thorax, and please focus. We came to find you and learn why you went missing. Apparently Chrysalis didn’t want me knowing she has a Cross Gate for moving armies around, did she?”
Thorax sat up, rubbing his head with exaggerated motions, despite Adagio knowing full well that drop wouldn’t have hurt him at all. He stood, cracking his back and stretching his limbs with a groan, then his expression gave her and Fenice a curious look, then a surprisingly soft smile, “It seems you already put together some of it. I’ll tell you the rest in a second, but first I do want to thank you for coming. Haven’t been wrapped up like that by mother in... a long time.”
He blinked, doing a double take towards Fenice, “I see you’ve undergone some fashion changes. How long have I been out?”
Fenice rolled her eyes, “Not that long, but it’s been a busy day. Now what the heck is going on here?”
Thorax’s expression lost any hint of joking manner as he gave the Cross Gate a narrow eyed, stone laden look, “Mother has switched to her ‘Plan B’. ‘Plan A’ was always Starlight Glimmer, but that has apparently fallen through.”
Adagio clenched her hands around her trident, wondering just what could’ve happened to Starlight Glimmer in the first place. “So what’s her ‘Plan B’? Invading Equestria directly sounds dicey, even with her whole horde. The Princesses are not to be underestimated, and Equestria has enough magical firepower to give any one Espada’s horde a run for its money, even Chrysalis’.”
Throax’s eyes were not comforting as he nodded, “You’re right, and after spending time there, mother knows that. Which is why she’s not planning to invade with just our horde. We’re just the vanguard meant to secure our new base of operations. And if you’re here, that means you got here without the horde present to stop you. That means mother is already on the other side... which means we don’t have a lot of time before she uses the two Cross Gates to-”
“Incorrect, my young, foolish friend.”
Adagio, Fenice, and Thorax all spun to see Grogar stride into the chamber with all of the confidence in his aged, withered form as a grizzled alley cat that just caught a mouse. Beside him walked another pair of his cybernetically altered and mutated Arrancar monstrosities, each one more grotesque than the last. Seeing Grogar along with his pet monsters would've been back enough, but then a group of small, white, furry Arrancar Bushwoolies waddled in right behind him, and Adagio felt the reiatsu of their mistress flaring up before the woman entered the room! Walking in with a smug sway to her hips like she owned the place, or at least was severely judging the décor, was Catrina. The Third Espada had her hands tapping her slim chin with a look of keen interest in her jewel green eyes as she gazed at the trio of Adagio, Fenice, and thorax.
Grogar, smiling with dark satisfaction, stared right at Adagio, although there was a flicker of cold scientific curiosity after a brief glance at Fenice.
“It is not that you ‘don’t have a lot of time’," he said with his sandpaper voice, "You, in fact, have no time left at all.”
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Wind soared in a cyclone through the large, underground arena. The spectating Arrancar on both Guto and Hydia’s side howled with delight, eager for the bloodletting to grow more intense, now that Greta had unleashed her Resurreccion. Many gazed expectantly at Gilda, figuring that she, too, would make use of her Resurreccion while Greta was still in the process of transforming.
Instead Gilda just wore an increasingly disgusted look as her eyes flicked sideways towards Guto on his throne. The man sat with the stiff and prideful stature of an emperor watching choice gladiators entertain him, as if the outcome of this fight meant nothing more than an evening’s sport. It rankled and boiled in Gilda’s blood. How much had she and Greata sacrificed for his vanity, his self-absorbed desire to own everything around him? She cast her eyes over the cheering and equally jeering warriors in the stands, many of whom she recognized as former comrades she’d fought beside. Did any of them understand how much Guto had stolen from them? With his grueling treatment, his ‘trials’, of young desperate Arrancar, grinding down their hopes and aspirations until they were honed to a fine killing edge that were willing to spill the blood of their brothers and sisters just to... be considered one of Guto’s ‘elites’.
She’d been no different. Desperate to be strong. Desperate to be looked upon with value by her Espada. Loyal, loyal, loyal, even when the punishments were harsh, because of course didn’t they have to be, for failing one who was so generous as to give worthless wretches like her a chance at glory and power?
It made Gilda want to vomit, now. It pissed her off, like a thick acid in her veins. Oh, she was mad at Guto, but a lot of her anger was also directed at herself for having been such a thick headed moron for so many years. Why had it taken such a buttery, flowery, kind hearted sap like Fluttershy to smack some sense to Gilda, both metaphorically and literally?
Because compassion, empathy, kindness was part of a strength Guto didn’t grasp, and sure as hell couldn’t pass down to his so-called warriors. Even he was little more than a product of the larger system of power-obsession and might equaling right that Tirek presided over like some immovable god.
Maybe that was why Gilda felt such a strong desire to help Fluttershy, much as it galled her. In Fluttershy, her friends, and even that smug faced Adagio... there lay perhaps the only hope Gilda saw for those like herself and Greta to break free of the system. Or at least change it even slightly for the better. That, more than anything else right now, seemed worth fighting for, perhaps even dying for, if it came to that.
Her hand gripped her Zanpaktou tightly, eyes still half focused on Guto. Certainly worth killing for, if we can pull it off.
But right now she had to turn her full attention to Greta. The thick cyclone of winds had started to subside, sand kicked up by the swift swirl of air now falling away to reveal Greta’s new form. And Gilda felt a lurch in her chest as she saw it, for she knew what Greta’s Resurreccion was supposed to look like! She’d fought alongside Greta in this state plenty of times.
This wasn’t the same. Oh, it had similarities, but Gilda would’ve needed to be blind not to see the glint of metallic, cybernetic enhancements blossoming along Greta’s body, and Gilda’s eyes grew with sickened anger.
“What did you do, Greta?”
Greta’s face was partially obscured by a fall of metallic, silver strands, her mane of white and green tinted hair now shot through with silver. Her arms were covered in sharp wings whose feathers were more akin to jagged blades. In the past, these would have been the white of bone, along with the razor edged bone spurs along the top of her arms, but now Gilda saw metal lacing through the feather blades, edging them in serrated teeth. Greta’s body had a taller, more hunched and avian form, like that of a harpy with her torso still mostly human, but her feet feather coated bird legs, the feathers razor sharp, and her talons thick and ending in piercing claws. However along her legs were now strange metal pods connected to hoses that went into her sides. Normally Greta’s back was left bare in this form save for a spinal length of bone armor, but with her clear modifications Gilda saw Greta had a pair of what looked like winged get boosters grafted to her shoulders. Her tail was at least the same, a long segmented whip of sharp bone that ended in a fan of bladed feathers. Greta’s face was also largely unchanged, save for the valkyrie-like white wings that flowed from her temples, and the specks of bone white, small feathers around her brow and eyes.
At Gilda’s question, Greta frowned, her ire still written plain on her changed features, “Only what I had to, in order to get stronger! Stronger than you. Stronger than Thorax. Stronger than anyone who’d turn their backs on me. Lord Grogar has been offering plenty of gifts to those loyal to Lord Tirek, and Lord Guto’s whole army is on the docket for upgrades, at least for those who prove themselves actually loyal... unlike someone like you.”
Gilda’s jaw tightened, her voice hoarse, “I was loyal, but I’ve got my eyes open to how much we’re being used, Greta. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you sooner. I’m still not sure what changed with you after Everfree-”
“I wasn’t at Everfree, Gilda!” Greta snarled, and green light blasted from the jet boosters on her back, and with a powerful, straight on Sonido she rammed herself right towards Gilda. Gilda barely had time to register the buzz of noise from the feathers on one of Greta’s wings vibrating at high frequency. This was part of her natural Ressureccion’s power, but Gilda sensed it’d been enhanced by the metal added to the feather blades.
She tried to dodge, but felt the horrible bite of pain in her side as a thick slice drew a line of blood across her hip. Her Hierro was useless against Greta’s sonic wing blades. Even without Grogar’s enhancements, those vibrating feathers were a terror on any kind of armor, and could even penetrate many spiritual barriers.
Greta’s head on rush left her slamming into the arena wall, and she’d leaped and turned to impact the stone feet-first, her talons crunching into the wall with tremendous force. Her eyes were locked on Gilda, who’s partial dodge had sent her sprawling halfway across the sands, and Greta blasted herself off the wall for another full speed rush, her jet boosters flaring.
Gilda sliced the ground in front of her, flinging a scatter shot of rock and dirt chunks into Greta’s path as she tried to flip over the attack. However Greta sliced right through the distracting barrage of debris and altered course with an incredible hairpin turn that sent her flying right at Gilda as she flipped. Gilda barely got her Zanpaktou in the path of Greta’s next wing attack, the vibrating feather blades making an ear piercing whine as they slammed into Gilda’s sword and rained sparks down upon the arena. Gilda felt her arm go numb from the vibrations, and saw Greta raise her right wing in preparation to slice while Gilda’s sword was occupied with Greta’s left wing.
With no other option, Gilda opened her mouth and fired a point blank Cero of crimson power right into Greta, driving her friend back down to the arena floor in a bright blast of ruby energy. Before Gilda even had time to fully land back on the arena ground, Greta swung her wings and dissipated Gilda’s Cero. Her body did smoke a little from the blast. Even in Resurreccion, even with Grogar’s enhancements, Greta couldn’t just walk away from a point blank Cero as if it was nothing. Still, the damage was little more than a few scorch marks, and Greta’s expression grew darker as she glared daggers at Gilda.
“What do you mean you weren’t at Everfree?” Gilda asked, hoping to learn what this was all about, while also buying herself a moment to breathe.
Greta gained a sarcastically twisted smirk as she said, “What, did your bestest best new friend Adagio not tell you? That it wasn’t me who went with you to Everfree, but Thorax?” At Gilda’s wide eyes, Greta huffed a bitter laugh, “Couldn’t even tell, could you? I thought I could trust him, and he freakin’ drugged me and took my place. Nothing I could even do about it, even after the fact, because he’s goddamn Chrysalis’ favored child! I... am never trusting him again.”
Gilda felt as if the ground under her feet was unsteady, and she shook her head, trying to work out just how pissed off she ought to be at Thorax. Or Adagio, assuming she knew. Why did Thorax replace Greta like that? “I... I thought maybe you’d been acting a bit odd, but... shit, I didn’t know, Greta! I swear I had no idea! But I promise I’ll find out, even if I have to slap an answer right out both his and Adagio’s faces when I see them again.”
“Touching, really,” Greta said, bitterness still tainting her tone, “But don’t bother. I don’t really care what their reasons were. I’m mad at them, but I’m more mad at you for getting duped, then switching teams, without even talking to me about what was going through your head. Now it’s too late. You picked your side, and by the end of today either you’re dead and I’m then new Tenth Espada or...” she trailed off, no pleasure or anticipation on her face, “There isn’t any ‘or’. I have to do this, otherwise you’re just as dead, only by Lord Guto’s hand, or someone else’s gunning for your spot. The very least I can do, as someone who thought of you as a friend, is be the one who cuts you down. I owe you that much.”
She held her wings out to the side and the outer layer of vibrating feathers shimmered with an edge of fierce, jade light. In a sickeningly swift storm, a dozen feathers from each wing shot out and flew in curving arcs towards Gilda. Only the fact that Gilda was familiar with this attack from having seen Greta use it in the past allowed her to survive it as she charged in, bobbing and weaving her body in slick bursts of Sonido as she swung her Zanpaktou about, deflecting one razor feather after another. Still, even anticipating the attack, the speed of these flying feathers was such that Gilda couldn’t evade or deflect all of them, and she felt the terrible pain of one of them slicing the back of her leg, just below the left knee. It nearly sent her crashing to the ground, but instead she used her remaining good leg to spring forward with one last Sonido and get behind Greta. Her blade swung in a flashing arc, aiming for one of Grogar’s cybernetic jet pods.
Greta twisted, zipping away with a Sonido of her own, but Gilda did feel the jarring bite of her sword managing to strike one of the pods, scoring it with a gash of sparks. Greta landed a dozen yards away, and with a fling of her right wing, she still controlled the feathers that had detached from her, and they swarmed towards Gilda.
For her part, Gilda sighed, talking almost to herself, as if time was slowing down as she ignored the pain in her leg and stood to her full height. Red spiritual energy mixed with violet as an aura of reiatsu built around her.
“I get it, Greta. You won’t listen. I’m no Fluttershy. So we’ll do this our way instead...” As the storm of razor sharp feathers were about to strike her, she growled out, “Rend; Bestia Herida!” (Wounded Beast)
The eruption of raw red and deep violet power engulfed her and swirled upwards until it crashed into the ceiling, shaking the arena as she unleashed her Resurreccion. Greta’s flying feathers were all knocked away like twigs in a wind storm, and Greta raised her wings to accept them back as they flew to her. Her eyes were locked on Gilda’s blinding aura of power, only a bit of her anger fading as a glint of satisfaction lit her eyes, “About time, Gilda. I thought you were going ot let me kick you around like a sad sack forever. I don’t want to kill you and take your place without you going all out on me, dammit. I don’t want to do this without it being... done right, my all versus your all.”
Gilda’s voice echoed from the dissipating plumb of raw crimson and purple energies that were released from her transforming body, and she stepped forth in her Resurreccion form, lion-maned spear at the ready. Seeing them side by side, one could see the similarities between the two, and might’ve thought there was some blood relation. Gilda’s form had the lower body of a lion, golden fur and claws to mirror Greta’s avian lower half. Her upper body, clad now in bone white armor in Roman centurion style had echos of the harpy myth Greta’s form clearly resembled. Both of them even had tails in this form, Greta’s the thin whip-like extension of bone, while Gilda’s was a beefier barbed tail like a pale scorpion. The biggest difference now was the cybernetics built into Greta’s body, like metallic tumors, the jet engine pod Gilda had damaged sparking slightly.
“I’ll give you my all,” Gilda stated bluntly, “But only because after I beat your ass, I’m going to make you listen to my apology for letting Thorax do that to you, then I’m going to find and kick his ass. After that, who knows, I might get ambitious and kick Guto’s ass too!”
From his throne the Espada in question raised a very annoyed and skeptical eyebrow, “Someone is getting bold beyond their station.”
“She’s grown to understand her own self-worth and that of those she cares for,” Fluttershy said with serene bluntness, side-eyeing him from where she stood a few steps down, “Something you took from her and others like her when they were still children.”
“Which, gonna outright say, major ew and creepozoid factor with all the making kids fight and kill each other,” Pinkie Pie said, her cotton-candy hair bristling like an irate hedgehog, and a few Arrancar nearby her scooted away as they noticed a rather growing shade of darkly pink-hued shadow that crept out from the base of Pinkie’s feet like a menacing sludge of melting candy.
Hydia took note, eyeing Pinkie with interest and a mixture of hunger and ire in equal measure on her broad features. Her two daughters were too captivated by the arena fight to be paying much mind to the peanut gallery. Guto, for his part, looked at Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie as if he still couldn’t decide if he should be cordial to them like guests, or gut them like offending vermin. He settled for sitting back in his throne and turning his attention back to the fight as he said, “I give nothing to my warriors, other than a path to strength. One that Gilda and Greta both willingly followed, until you tainted the former with your saccharine words. Soon, she’ll pay the price for allowing that weakness into her mind.”
Gilda and Greta squared off against one another for a moment, both measuring each other’s stances and reiatsu. Now in her Resurreccion form, Gilda’s spiritual pressure readily clashed with Greta’s, although those most perceptive in sensing energy would be able to tell that Greta, possibly due to Grogar’s modifications to her body, held a slight edge. But only slight. Gilda had always been the stronger of the two, and it showed now in the fact that even enhanced as she was, Greta didn’t hold a decisive advantage. Transforming had also reduced Gilda’s wounds, giving her body a brief burst of regeneration.
There was no more exchange of words between the two, despite the fact that Greta’s expression was now less filled with rage and more focused, almost relieved it seemed, to hear Gilda’s declaration, as if Gilda’s words confirmed her friend was still someone she recognized.
Greta made the first move, leaping into the air and spinning as her wings vibrated. A fresh barrage of piercing feathers flew out, half of them going right for Gilda... while the other half rather oddly went nowhere other than straight down into the sandy floor of the arena where they penetrated into the ground and vanished from sight. With a whole new level of speed and reflexes, Gilda spun her broad-bladed spear around her body, generating gusts of wind force as the weapon hummed through the air. The vibrating feather blades deflected off of the shaft of Gilda’s spear, sent spinning away.
A microsecond later, the ground around her rippled as the other set of ungodly sharp feathers flew out of the sands, coming at her from below. Gilda flipped her body and slammed her spear into the ground, generating an explosion of force that created a wide crater in the arena floor and sent her flying upwards away from the feather blades, even as they narrowly grazed her with their vibrating edges. Blood dripped from the shallow wounds, but Gilda didn’t lose a moment of focus, aiming her spear down as the feathers chased her. Crackles of ruby light coursed over the spear and a moment later was followed by a rapid expulsion of Bala reishi bullets that rained down upon the feathers, blasting most of them apart.
Greta rushed Gilda from the side while the feathers had her distracted, and it was now the pods on her legs that opened up, revealing extending spikes on one and end smaller thrusters on the other. The spikes, like her wing feathers, vibrated at high frequency as Greta spun her body into a double kick with both her harpy talons and the spiked pods crashing right at Gilda’s face and body.
Gilda spun to defend herself, feeling her spear vibrate as she parried the kick aimed at her face, but she took the body blow, and felt the raw jab of searing pain from the spikes drilling into her flank. Greta’s look of satisfaction was short lived, however, as a grimly determined Gilda used her right hand to grab Greta’s leg, rip the spikes from her side, and then proceeded to rocket her body straight down to the ground, dragging Greta with her. Greta was body slammed, one handed by Gilda, straight into the floor, making the whole arena shudder from the impact. Not letting up for a split second, Gilda kept her grip on Greta’s leg and spun her around rapidly like a top, and after a few fast rotations that created a small tornado in the arena, she released Greta and flung her straight into the nearest arena wall with tremendous force.
Greta coughed as the impact burst blood from her mouth and almost crumpled, but managed to right herself as she fell and landed on her feet. A good thing for her, as Gilda was already making a swiping gesture with her spear. The lion mane at the base of the spear’s blade grew sanguine with acidic blood, crawling like veins up the spear until the blade was covered in a thick sheath of smoking red acid. Gilda thrust her spear forward and a thick torrent of multiple acidic tendrils flew at Greta as Gilda intoned, “Derritiendo Venas!” (Melting Veins)
In response Greta flung her wings outward, and a new cascade of bladed feathers flew out. These feathers instantly spiraled around in front of Greta and locked together, forming a jagged, sharp shield over ten feet across that took the impact of Gilda’s acid blood assault. The blood still sprayed everywhere as it hosed against the shield of feathers, filling the arena with an acrid stench as sand melted in puddles. No small amount of Arrancar in the ‘splash zone’ of the nearby spectator benches let out cries of pain and dismay as some of the acid splashed towards them, most scrambling out of the way while others nursed burning spots where stray drops got on them.
Greta flew up in a flash of speed, zipping around to Gilda’s right side. At the same time the shield of combined feathers, while partially melted from the acid blood, remained intact enough that the feathers now moved at Greta’s direction and flew right at Gilda, spinning like an aerial buzzsaw. Gilda didn’t even look at it while raising her spear in her right hand alone, and brought the weapon down with such force that it hit the shield and sliced it in half. As the two halves flew past Gilda, she had kept her eyes on Greta, who was using Sonido and the jet engines on her back to burst around the air at such speed as to try and confuse Gilda’s senses. As she did so, Greta kept detaching feathers from her wings, but rather than attack in mass, the feathers just hung in the air, vibrating more and more as they floated around.
This was a new one on Gilda. She’d never seen Greta pull a move like this before, and had to give her friend a moment of respect. Either Greta had thought up this technique recently, or had always kept it in her back pocket and never shown it to Gilda, just in case. Either way, Gilda had to respect the smarts of that, as she sure didn’t have any similar moves that Greta wasn’t aware of.
Rather than wait to see what Greta had in store for her, Gilda decided to try and shut this technique down in the most straightforward manner possible. Throwing her left hand out, she pooled crimson power within and exploded a full powered Cero out in a wide path of destruction. She kept the beam going, sweeping it left to right to try and destroy the vibrating feathers before they finished doing whatever it was they were doing. The beam smashed into the ceiling, making everything shake. Fortunately this arena and the surrounding underground structure was heavily reinforced to withstand immense punishment, but it wasn’t really meant for Espada-level opponents, so Gilda’s Cero still managed to rip a furrow in the ceiling and drop hundreds of tons of rock down.
Greta avoided the falling debris as swiftly as the Cero, and unfortunately for Gilda while she’d destroyed half of the feathers with ease, Greta had distributed so many of them and in such a wide area that Gilda’s Cero couldn’t get all of them. Even as Gilda’s beam petered out, more feathers floated nearby, and Greta, finishing deploying a few more, appeared in a buzz of Sonido across from Gilda as she raised her tail from behind her. At the pointed tip of the tail a similar gathering of energy to a Cero occurred, but smaller, more focused, and distinctly pale green.
“Cero Rebufo!” (Cero Slipstream)
A thin, focused beam of green Hollow energy fired from Greta’s tail and struck the nearest floating feather. The vibrations seemed to split the beam and send it scattering in several other directions... right into other feathers, which then split the beam magnitudes of times further. Yet for each feather, energy was added from the feather to the beams, so the Cero didn’t lose destructive impact as it kept splitting. In less than a second the single Cero beam became a blinding array of scores if not hundreds of crisscrossing beams that all cut into and around the area Gilda was standing in!
Gilda could barely follow the movements, let alone do much to dodge. All she could do was spin her spear around her with such speed and force it effectively created a dome of air pressure and raw force around her. Even then, this only did so much to defend her, as beams from the Cero Rebufo sliced through and pierced her in various places, including her left bicep, her right thigh, her left hip and shoulder, and even through her scorpion tail. Speaking of said tail, as the beams struck her, she drove it into the ground and used it to dig through the sands.
Greta was so focused on watching the effects of her attack, that she almost didn’t notice the burrowing scorpion tail burst out of the sand and slash at her. She grunted in pain as the barb on the end tore one of the cybernetic pods from her right leg, not striking flesh but still hurting as the spike pods were torn off of her flesh. The Cero Rebufo ended, the Cero beam’s energy used up, and Gilda was left with several smoking holes in her as she staggered, letting out a snarl of pain past clenched teeth.
The feathers that had been used to disperse the Cero beam now hovered around Gilda, their razor sharp points aimed at her in preparation to fly at her, while Greta kept half an eye on Gilda’s tail as it withdrew back to her.
“You put up a fight, but it looks clear to me how this is going to go,” Greta said, “You’re too hurt to dodge another barrage of my feathers, and I can just keep making more. It’s over, Gilda.”
Gilda heard no sense of satisfaction or jubilation in Greta’s voice. If anything Greta sounded as if she was forcing even the gloating. She glanced towards Guto, who was watching with far more satisfaction glowing in his smug eyes than Greta was showing. He was leaning forward, looking down his nose at her, as if to say ‘This was the inevitable result of you disappointing me’.
Apparently in his disdain for her, he’d forgotten that she was an Espada, even if the lowest ranked. Greta, perhaps, was also making the mistake of thinking Gilda was still essentially the same after becoming an Espada.
Gilda lowered her spear. To anyone looking it almost would’ve looked like she was giving up, as if preparing to let the feathers floating with menace in the air pierce her body from all sides. She saw Greta gain a confused look, and even more disdain coat Guto’s face. She almost laughed, but instead just silently smiled.
Do or die in this moment, she wasn’t the same person who’d served Guto with blind faith for so many years, or envied Adagio until she was all but maddened by it. She and Adagio would never see eye to eye on a lot of things, especially Thorax related things, but one thing Gilda felt like she did understand now was that a part of Adagio’s strength, same as with Fluttershy, was that they pursued goals greater than just themselves. Adagio mixed that with practical, intelligent planning, and Fluttershy augmented her actions with pure compassion and serenity that let her see other’s more clearly.
Gilda... well she didn’t have either of those. But she did have a goal now beyond herself, and her way of doing things, her strength, was she could always find the blunt solution to a complicated problem.
Heh, Twilight wanted us to keep everyone here distracted. I’ll deliver that much in spades.
It was almost too easy with how much she was bleeding. Blood being the catalyst for the power shown only to those who earned the rank of Espada. And Gilda had worked out a twist to it, utilizing her natural blood combined with the acidic blood produced by her spear. With her left hand she gathered blood from her various wounds, and then gripped the lion’s mane attached to her spearhead and ran the blood over it. This blood mixed with the acid blood produced by the mane, and as Gilda mixed the two bloods together a spark or raw cerulean energy began to swirl and snap around her spear.
Greta, as if sensing the sudden danger, sent her feather blades flying at Gilda while using her wings to enshroud herself in a defensive shield as even more feathers grew around her in a shell. Several of the flying feathers stabbed into Gilda, but she ignored the painful wounds and spun her spear in a sudden cyclone above her head as the raw, distinctive blue energy flared brighter flaring arcs of power, shot through with acid veins of red.
”Mordaz Gran Rey Cero!” (Scathing Royal Hollow Flash)
The majority of the spectators in the seats around the arena were throwing themselves back, many using Sonido to try and get away from the epicenter of what any Hollow present could sense was going to be a devastating attack far outside the bounds of the arena edge. Even Guto and Hydia reacted, Guto standing up from his throne and holding out a hand with an annoyed and only slightly concerned grimace while Hydia actively grabbed her daughters by their heads and tossed them behind her while drawing her Zanpaktou in a defensive posture.
Pinkie and Fluttershy didn’t move back or dodge, but Fluttershy did expand a series of golden arms from her Fullbring’s halo to encompass protectively around herself, Pinkie, and any nearby Arrancar warriors who were reacting too slowly.
All of this happened in the split second of Gilda shouting her attack as a sudden explosive typhoon of churning blue and red power surged out of her in a wide dome that fired outward as much as it did upward, like a bursting waterspout. This Gran Rey Cero boiled over with melting veins of blood, drowning the whole arena in destruction, while the bulk of the beam also fired upward and cored through the ceiling in a cascade that destroyed even the reinforced stone and burrowed to the surface. Indeed on the surface, right next to Guto’s tower, the Mordaz Gran Rey Cero’s energies tore up and through the sands and flew up, nearly touching Las Noches’ own vast ceiling high above.
When it was done, and the main pillar of energy dissipated, there was still a soft rain of blood red acid that smoked along the sands for hundreds of yards around and even pelted the tower.
The artificial light from above filtered down the hole and into the now ruined arena. Half the seating was melted away, and the arena had gone from a neatly rectangular space to a jagged oval of partially melted and destroyed stone. Most of the Arrancar had managed to get clear in time, and Fluttershy specifically had protected any near her with her golden arms generating reinforced shells of reiatsu around them. She and Pinkie were mostly unharmed, Pinkie having slammed her hammer into the wave of power that had come their way, the hammer gaining a hungry mouth that had slurped up a good portion of the oncoming energies. Guto and Hydia were similarly unscathed, primarily due to being out of the blast’s range, but Guto was looking at his ruined arena with eyes burning with fresh anger.
Within the arena, or what was left of it, Gilda stood, body shaking. Her attack had drained a lot of her energy, and there were still several of Greta’s feathers pierced into her, which she slowly used one hand to pull out with grunts of pain. Gilda’s eyes blearily looked towards Greta, who was still standing, but only just...
Greta’s body was covered in burn marks, her wings and feathers scalded, the feather’s of her wings in particular a twisted and partially melted mess. The jet engines on her back were ruined, and her tail was half melted away. Blood dripped from open burn sores all over her, and Greta was breathing heavily with hisses of agony as her legs shook under the strain of trying to keep standing.
With a distinct limp in her step, blood dripping down her legs, Gilda walked towards Greta, her spear nearly dragging on the ground.
Greta, sucking in breath and eyes twitching from pain, shuffled forward towards Gilda.
When the pair got within a few paces of each other they paused, Greta’s face twisting in strain as she raised her battered wings in a ready stance, but she failed as her arms drooped. She didn’t have the strength to lift them anymore. “Dammit...”
Gilda, seeing this, looked at her own dragging spear, and raised it. She still had just enough strength to bring the point towards Greta’s chest. Both women looked at each other... then Gilda glanced sideways at Guto. She saw Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looking at her, and for a second her eyes met Fluttershy’s, who looked back at Gilda with calm faith and smiled softly. Gilda wasn’t even all that shocked at herself when she returned that smile. She took her spear away from Greta’s chest and instead just rested the weapon on her shoulder, and extended a hand towards Greta.
“I’m not playing by his rules anymore, Greta. Not even sure I’m playing by Las Noches’ rules anymore. But I am the Tenth Espada for now, and if you want... I’d like you to join me. As a friend.”
Greta looked at Gilda’s hand as if she didn’t really comprehend what it was, like she was looking at some weird creature that had crawled out from under a rock. Her voice was hoarse as she said, “That’s not... how things work here, you know?”
“Says who? Guto? Screw him. Screw this whole place, Greta. You fought as hard as anyone to get his attention and approval, and right now does he looked more pissed off that you're this badly hurt, or pissed off that his damn playground got jacked up?”
Greta’s eyes slid towards Guto, who was glowering at the melted ruins of his arena and glaring deathly towards Gilda, but wasn’t sparing so much as half a glance of concern towards Greta. Gilda saw something break in Greta’s eyes, like a tiny candle of child-like hope going out, and while it hurt Gilda to see it, she also knew that what Greta was losing was the false belief she’d ever actually matter to Guto. It was pain she’d happily help Greta through so her friend could learn what self-worth actually meant.
Greta looked at Gilda’s proffered hand once more, and half reached for it, but then Guto’s voice snapped across the air like a whip.
“GRETA! You disappoint me! Get your carcass out of that arena, and I will finish what you clearly lack the ability to.”
Greta flinched as if she’d actually been hit and backed away from Gilda, who seethed as Guto jumped down into the ruined arena and started towards her. Gilda turned towards him, struggling to keep standing as she met his furious eyes.
“What, did the glorious Seventh Espada need me softened up before taking me on?” she said, “I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out what an absolute ballsless bastard you are.”
“Guto, ain’t saying you can’t off her if you really want to,” called out Hydia from the back of the arena seating, “But won’t Tirek get all uppity if you kill one of your fellow Espada without making it a formal challenge? Also, ain’t we kind of expecting... you know... something important to happen soon where we need all of us?”
Guto snorted, “Lord Tirek doesn’t need this one for his plans. She’d be less than useless in the invasion to come. And that was if she was loyal, where I highly suspect she’s fully in bed with Adagio fucking Dazzle. Considering its up in the air if that one will be kept alive for much longer, I think we can safely say we can erase this embarrassment of an Espada without too much trouble.”
“Incorrectomundo my petty party pooper!” Pinkie Pie said, quite suddenly standing between Guto and the wounded Gilda. He blinked at her, as if not quite sure how she’d moved so fast as to get in his path. He blinked again when Fluttershy was also suddenly there, the faint glitter of green Bringer Light still softly wafting around her feet from the high-speed motion she’d made to get there. The two girls stood facing off with Guto, keeping Gilda and Greta alike behind them as they stared down the Seventh Espada.
“I believe we’ve seen enough,” Fluttershy said plainly, “I appreciate your attempt at... showing us your culture, Mister Guto, but Gilda is our friend. Attempt to harm her, and we shall be forced to respond with appropriate measures.”
“Double that for Gilda’s gal pal!” Pinkie declared, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder at Greta, “She’s a bit messed in the head, but she’s cool. You might wanna stop treating her and all your other peps like they’re disposable tissue paper. It’s super lame, and makes me and Mena all kinds of grumpy to watch.”
Guto’s eyes smoldered darkly with murderous light, “I’ve indulged your desire to lecture and spout your childish nonsense for as much as I can reasonably be expected to stomach. As far as I am concerned Gilda is a failure of an Espada that none will miss. The two of you are little better than naive toddlers in sore need of a reality check.”
A golden aura of power rose from within him as he drew his Zanpaktou, “And I am more than happy to deliver it. Hydia, you plan on spectating, or putting the pain to the humans who have embarrassed your beloved Gorgar?”
Hydia bristled at this, although it wasn’t clear if it was at Guto’s insinuation and overbearing words, or at being reminded that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both had gotten under Grogar’s skin at one point or another. She still had her own Zanpaktou drawn, the weapon looking as if a fire-poker of dark iron had a broad blade in place of the usual poking end. Her wide mouth twisting her face in a broad grimace, she took a thunderous step forward, “Reeka, Draggle, take the boys n’ gals back home to the grotto while mamma takes care of business here.”
Her two daughters exchanged uneasy looks, but both bounced their heads in nods.
“Yes mama,” said Draggle, waving her arms at the group of deformed Arrancar that served Hydia, “You all heard mamma! We’re heading home!”
“Awww, but I wanna watch the nice candy lady fight!” cried one, while another nodded eagerly.
“Yes, yes, the fun pink lady fed us. Does she have to get dead, Lady Hydia?”
Hydia cackled, cracking a grin at her vassals, “Tell you what, boys, if you all like the pink one so much I’ll just beat her down, feed her some choice poison that’ll keep her alive, and I can drag her back home so she can join the family.”
“Ooooo! Yaaaay!”
“Okay, mamma’s said her piece, everyone let’s get going,” said Reeka, while she and Draggle ushered the bouncing collection of odd balls away. Meanwhile Hydia adjusted her clothes and then took a big, bouncing leap into the arena, landing next to Guto. She did give him a bit of a stink eye before brandishing her bladed fire-poker Zanpaktou at Fluttershy and Pinkie.
“I ain’t a petty woman,” Hydia said, “Want to give you both a nice face rearranging because it’ll tickle Grogar pink, and I can lord it over him that I got to you first, so don’t take this all personal. Just figure I’d have some fun with you two! Quite frankly I ain’t had the chance to get a proper taste of you girls the way Groggikins has.”
“Heheh, fine by me!” Pinkie said, twirling her hammer and angling herself to face off with Hydia while Fluttershy took a slight step to the left to angle herself more towards Guto.
“Gilda, Greta, you’d best both get to a safe location. I recommend the embassy,” Fluttershy said, to which Gilda nodded and moved to put Greta’s arm around her shoulder. However before she could leave, she saw a flash of gold light and her eyes widened as a Bala from Guto flew straight at her head!
The Bala bullet was slapped out of the air just an inch from Gilda’s face from one of Fluttershy’s ethereal hands that extended from her halo. Guto’s brow furrowed in annoyance, his left hand raised and ready to fire more Bala as his right hand held his Zanpaktou drawn at his side.
“Nobody is going anywhere,” he said, “Except as corpses, or in chains.”
----------
Despite the thickening complexity and increased frequency of the wards blanketing the upper levels of Guto's tower, Twilight and her team was having a relatively smooth time of thing thanks largely in part to the lack of sentries or servants on these levels. Apparently Guto didn't trust the vast majority of his horde to even stand watch over his personal rooms. There had still been a few levels that remained guarded due to their use as storage chambers for captured lesser Hollows meant clearly for food, or carefully arranged storerooms with living world amenities kept under lock and key, probably for distributing as rare rewards or for Guto's own use. There was one entire level fully dedicated to being an indoor bath complete with marble statues in the center of half naked warriors locked in battle. The girls stared at that for a few moments before moving on, Twilight wondering at the fact that Guto had somehow arranged such a project prior to Adagio showing up and creating an actual lake outside Las Noches.
The final, top ten floors of the tower were dedicated to Guto's personal use. Part of this seemed to be because the tower thinned out somewhat towards the top, with less space per floor. There was a notable open shaft with long, marble columns open to the exterior of the tower that went up and down the full circumference, making it all open to the rest of Las Noches and providing quite the view. However this meant that to climb up, as there were no more stairs at this juncture, Twilight and her team would have to use Hirenkyaku to form reishi under their feet to leap up from point to point. Doors surrounded the exterior of the inner column of the tower, with no indication as to which door might lead anywhere, so Sugarcoat's X-Ray was key to working out where to go, which as it turned out was the very top level of the tower.
There was a small platform at this door, only large enough for two people to stand on, so the other girls had to wait on lower platforms below while Twilight and Sugarcoat got to the door, which had the thickest ward on it yet. The door was a block of solid stone with ornate gold handles shaped like eagle wings. Crossing the door in multiple places were chains of gold, and Twilight could feel the intense reishi packed into each chain. These were made by Guto's power, rather than just fancy mundane chains, and they carried in them potent protective wards.
"If the wall's weren't warded I could use the X-Ray to get us through, just you and me," Sugarcoat said, frowning. Her expression had grown ever darker the closer they got to Fleur de Lis' location, "And I really want to try. She's not looking good."
Twilight bit her lower lip, thinking fast. "Just how bad is it? Fleur, I mean. Is she injured? Could she still walk, or fight, once we free her?" Getting out of the tower should, in theory, be easier than getting in, but if things went wrong she'd have to account for it if Fleur was or wasn't in any condition to move or defend herself. Sugarcoat's eyes couldn't be read behind her visor, but her lips were pressed tight and thin.
"I don't know. The injuries look surface level, but she looks completely out of it. How's the door looking? You and Midnight going to be able to crack it?"
Midnight had already been partially taking over in Twilight's mind, rising to the surface to more closely probe the warded door with magical tendrils of inquiry. Twilight heard her mental companion muttering like a lapping of waves on the shores of the beach. "Too entwined maybe here...? No, that'll set off that cluster there... and these all are mixed in with that matrices over there which triggers... oh, that's twisted. I almost respect the paranoia of this Guto. Literally so much as breathing on this door with anything other than the key to opening it would trigger an exposition strong enough to erase almost anyone presently here. Except you and me, of course, Twilight, because we are amazing. So instead of disarming this ward I suggest we wreath ourselves in defensive magic and just hammer it down. We'll survive the explosion."
Twilight's face blanched, "What about the girls!?"
She heard Midnight's amused mental chuckle, "Well we'll have them head down a few floors for safety, of course."
"And Fleur? If she's on the other side..."
Twilight could all but feel Midnight's rolling wave of frustration as she sighed, "Aaaah, fine, fine! I guess we are here to save the useless idiot who got captured. Not sure why you care so much, given she's been nothing but trouble and tried to kill your friends in the past, but sure, we'll find an alternative to the amazing method of just bashing this stupid door down like it deserves for being so... frustratingly obstructing."
Shifting her gaze towards the wall on either side of the door, Twilight asked aloud, "Are the wards as complex on the wall as they are on the door?"
Sugarcoat answered roughly at the same time as Midnight's voice did.
"Nearly as much, but still no."
"Enough of a difference that normally we could disarm them, but any tampering will still trigger the explosive trap on the door itself."
Twilight thought hard about it, and with the magical sight spell Midnight had woven over them she examined the dense layers of energy passing through the door and walls. A few quick clarifying questions to Midnight pointed out the likely spot where a ward pass of some sort was meant to open the door, like a pulsating node of glowing, interwoven wire around the door handles. She then used that to follow the lines of energy to the trap itself, a contained and condensed node of power that hummed in the center of the door. The trap itself, unlike the wards, wasn't complicated. Guto had more or less focused a series of multiple Ceros into the door and fused them with the chains so that any attempt to open or force the door without the right key and all the destructive energy would trigger at once in a direct line from the door. Midnight's assessment was fairly accurate. Twilight could survive the blast with a decent use of Blut Vene and magical protection, but any of her team would get incinerated. Sugarcoat might escape with the power of the X-Ray, at least. That wasn't too much of an issue because Twilight could just have them back off a few floors. The problem was that they didn't know if the back blast of the trap might hurt Fleur, who sounded like she was already in bad shape.
But now that I can see and understand the components of the trap... then I can use the Variable on it.
"Sugarcoat, take everyone else and head down to two or three floors. I'm going to try something."
Just then there was a rumble through the tower, and all the girls glanced over to look through the exterior columns to see a massive blast of swirling blue and pulsating red power bust out of the ground not far from the base of the tower. Twilight recognized the reiatsu of a Gran Rey Cero, although this one felt a bit different to Twilight's senses. She could also tell that it was Gilda's spirit energy that was firing this blast of power that rose from somewhere underground and rose into the air. Just what was happening down there?
"Man, feels like that chick is having a hell of a fight," Indigo Zap said with a voice tinged with multiple emotions, as if she couldn't decide if she wanted Gilda to actually win whatever combat was occurring.
"Uh, guys, is it me or is that blast now raining acid on everything?" said Lemon Zest, just a moment before the red acid rain started splattering around the open air columns. Before the drops of acid could get on anyone, or especially the door itself to trigger the trap, Twilight threw up a glittering, magical dome of teal and purple magic that encompassed herself, her team, and the door.
While this served to protect them from the bits of acid, that didn't stop other drops of the red acidic rain from getting on other parts of the wall, which started to eat through. And while those parts of the wall weren't trapped, they were certainly warded, and as Twilight watched, the melting parts of the wall triggered those wards, and suddenly loud alarm bells started to ring through the entire tower.
"Oh hell..." Twilight and Midnight said both out loud and mentally at the same time.
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I'm confident that Fluttershy and Pinkie, with a bit of assistance from Gilda, can handle Guto and Hydia. Adagio and co, meanwhile, will likely have a harder time, as Fenice is still new to her full powers. Plus, they're going up against Catrina, who is higher ranked, and they're outnumbered. It wouldn't surprise me if the three of them fled through the cross gate.
11722187
If so, that will make things really interesting
… can someone’s human alternate steal their inheritance?
11722206
Probably not, since ponies and humans do not share a soul
11722643
But how simaler are their souls?
11722777
A good question.
I’d say similar, nearly identical, but not so much that the Relics can’t tell them apart.
Damn, this will not earn Gilda any points with the Shadowbolts.
Count on Chrysalis to make the situation more disturbing than it has right to be. While the Equestria is not defenseless, who knows how many creatures will end up as Hollow meals before they'll be repelled.
I must say, I did not expect the upgrades. Grogar's been busy. Wonder who else got them.
And sweet, we'll see both Hydia and Catrina in action. Both which we know really little about.
Grogar
11722187
On a brighter note, Catrina's like the President of Chrysalis' Hate-club, and her G1 version reformed at the end. She might end up as an ally, at some point. Plus, Rep seems like a reasonable individual.
Its official. Adagio has gone full tsundere.
11722187
Good opportunity for Adagio to pick up her inheritance and really ruin a few afternoons. The real fun starts when Sunset gets back into Equestria and jams her inheritance into the already ridiculous mishmash of powers swirling around inside the hougyouku. Because we all know Sunset's an inheritor.
11726738
While the laws of anime power ups do strongly suggest sunset is an inheritor, there is a case to be made for themes of defying destiny to make it so that sunset’s powers are all earns through hard work, and not birthright.
11730692
It could go either way. Depends on what themes are getting pushed. Since Sunset already has plenty of Equestrian magic in the mix, being an inheritor might not add anything so much as change the balance of her powers. Then again, the inheritor powers might be distinct from general Equestrian magic. Add in the power she's already probably passively absorbing from the beast realm and her zanpako spirits are gonna have to form a bucket brigade. Having three interlinked realms makes me wonder if the requirements for the position of soul monarch might be a bit different here than they were in the anime. Instead of SR/Quincy/Hollow, maybe it's Equestrian/Beast/Human(which I suppose would be any combination of SR/Quincy/Hollow). Probably not, it's hard to tell if the soul queen was the progenitor of the beast and Equestrian pantheons as well, or they were all distinct while still interacting to a degree.
11730782
Don't forget Hell Chains that attached themselves to her throne. She might get a boost like Ichigo in the Hell Movie. And besides her natural Equestrian Magic, she also has magic from her Geode.
Personally, I like the idea Sunset is not an Inheritor, just a randow soul that got really strong, but, yeah, it can go any way.
Nice title.
11730822
Eh, Soul King in canon, Soul Queen in the story. When talking about/comparing the two I figured I'd split the difference. As for the hell chains, I'm of the mind that that's going to play a role in how they actually get INTO hell, as well as saving Rarity. Sunset being able to summon hell gates at will is a scary thought, let alone that she might develop the ability to get hell to yank people.
11726738
I honestly think that Sunset is going to wind up beingThe next Soul Queen in the end. There's been some people suggesting Sci Twi for that role,but I don't think it fits at all with the heavy foreshadowing given with the assassin's vison of Quincy King Sombra eventually dying in some way leading to a new era.
It would be a nice way to parallel her journey(both in this fic and in the canon EQG movies) with her foil Princess Twilight and how she eventually became an alicorn. I really dislike the idea of Sunset being an Inheritor. Not just because she doesn't need it unlike the Equestria cast to keep up in battle,but all that build up would be way less satisfying IMO if Sunset just suddenly has Inheritor powers "because destiny" despite showing no signs of that and not gaining her own unique power distinct from that. It's more likely IMO,that once she reaches Equestria,she turns into an alicorn fully
11733749
I wouldn't really be surprised if she ascends upon entering Equestria or soon thereafter. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already an alicorn and just doesn't know it yet. That doesn't preclude her being an inheritor. Inheritors were just prominent alicorns from history that squirreled away some power and knowledge (and a large amount of their personality in some cases) for their future incarnations. We'll just have to wait and see. The Beast Realm arc's probably not going to be a short one. I imagine it'll be a while before we see Sunset back in Equestria.
Gilda finaly standing up and sticking it to the man. I love it. But seriously, it's good to see Gilda recognizing how awful life in Las Noches is and finding the will to do something about it.
Well that's not good.