Chapter Forty-Five (The Witcher)
The only reason the world did not melt outright was because it had been covered in a thick sheet of permafrost. It still did melt. The ground itself melted into molten lava abruptly as the Slivers gathered around my body and adapted to the burning heat of a supernova's core, the billions of Celsius hitting my frame becoming a scorching heat, but not a vaporizing one as thick reddish-brown scales took over.
The vast emptiness of space welcomed us both, Yamamoto on the offensive and I on the defensive as a blade of rough steel with a pennon wrapped around its hilt materialized from the thin Aether at my silent command. I slashed forth with it as it crossed with the one made of pure flames. Yamamoto's heat would have vaporized any lesser Planeswalker, or forced them to retreat. To me, it was like staring at an open oven. The feeling was there, but it was bearable if one put his mind to it. Five more swords emerged from my back to join the pennon blade one in holding back the Shinigami's own, each of them brimming with two-colored blades.
Six-armed as I was, I still ended up being pushed back by miles as Yamamoto disappeared nimbly, slashing at me from countless angles with a speed and precision that only my countless eyes and alteration of time allowed me to catch and deflect. No sound echoed in the absence of air, and yet the clangor of the swords still rippled across the air in waves that threatened to break the very space in-between ourselves.
In the emptiness of the void I silently avoided the incoming slash, only for the flames to twist themselves into spirals and whirlpools, reaching for my eyes with deadly precision. Frozen blocks of ice materialized as Sliver heads of light blue and white formed from my shoulders, the ice itself exploding with an audible pop as oxygen formed from the impact. Yamamoto's next swing pushed past me, and sliced in half the nearby moon, which cracked apart and began to separate.
A long whip-like tail left my right leg as I spun, barbs rupturing and shifting through time and space to strike in all directions and all places at the same time. The invisible armor of flames of Yamamoto melted the barbs made of the strongest material I could summon forth before they could hurt him, and as he gripped upon the melting flesh of my leg-tail, I burst the flesh around it into maws and fangs, caustic liquids of undoubtedly deadly nature spraying over him.
The heat made the liquids explode, the vaporous gases attracted to his frame as he disappeared, reappearing with grace and finesse behind me and moving a single hand in an upward gesture. A massive pillar of bursting star cores detonated in rapid succession in a downward path towards me, and as it did, I slammed both of my hands together and howled as the thrumming of the Hive answered my call, the forged link between Planes awakening the countless hungry entities that devoured countless worlds at my command.
The flames descended upon the gaping maws of the Slivers, the heat mixing and intertwining with their flesh as countless were charred just to properly channel said devastating heat and countless more died while holding it confined until it could be properly digested. It split evenly among the countless Hive Worlds, the Planar Barriers between them linked all among themselves and none others.
Heated winds left the countless pores of my sweating body, thick white haze crafting a breathable atmosphere the size of a planet, which quickly began to turn to ice due to the cold of space.
My body was singed, and yet burned brightly of a light of its own as my eyes narrowed in firm determination, my six blades standing at the ready as I rushed forth, pushing myself onward. With slick and precise motions, Yamamoto's sword parried all blows, easily letting them glance off his blade without even once managing to pass through his defenses. Muscles tightened and reformed, ripped and grew stronger as energy burned itself into the miracle of creation. The speed increased until normal human eyes could no longer see the strikes, and as the burning friction of the blades against the air crafted thunder-like echoes, the pressure between the strikes reached a seemingly impassable limit.
And then it broke right through it.
The resounding blast sent both Yamamoto and I backwards, the oxygen that had been turning to ice melting itself as it began to spin around the newly born core of a nascent star, even as a seventh blade formed from a seventh arm. This one was spiral-shaped, and whispered darkly as fog seemed to leave its hilt.
Yamamoto strengthened his stance as his muscles began to turn reddish, Mana gathering all across his body as flames spread evenly over his hair and through his eyes. I burst with gems and powerful crystals, Slivers of all species awakening within the confines of my frame as I clutched on to the seven blades with a single hand, the pressure exercised enough to meld them all together into a singular entity that was the death of fashion to behold, and yet seemingly unparalleled in power.
When it crashed against the fiery blade of Yamamoto, it creaked under the strain.
Bursts of primal energy gathered in my left hand as Mana thickly poured into existence to form a blinding sizzling bolt of energy. It struck through the intertwined blades, sending Yamamoto to fly backwards as I lowered my shaking right arm.
I took deep breaths even though there was no air to breathe, and then flapped my wings forward, countless copies of myself materializing from thin aether by my sides. A large hole spread through my chest as I widened my eyes, only for the wound to close abruptly, even as the other copies disappeared when struck by the same attack. Yamamoto's whole being burned incandescently as he lifted his left hand in the air, a titanic sun forming overhead with all of its heat and power.
Shields of White Mana formed all across my frame as I kept flying forth, impacting through the surface of the sun thrice as hot as a normal one would ever be, reaching past the utterly absurd levels and bursting right through its core, past it, and out the other way where Yamamoto was waiting to swing down his blade. I intercepted it with my bare hands and grabbed on to it with my fingers, roaring as I surrounded his frame, and his sun armor, with my countless hungry fangs, tentacles and talons.
Tentacles were clearly the weakness of Japanese people.
He burned right through them, pushing myself down as my back actually hit the surface of the planet we had just left, cracking apart the ground as the snow that had once been ever-present had already been replaced with scorched molten magma. I stood back up, exhaling deeply as I cracked my neck to the right and to the left, my right hand lifted up in the sky to recall back the seven swords I had used.
"Have you had enough of a beating, youngsters?" Yamamoto asked, his sword gently resting on his shoulder, "We can go on for days if you'd like. This world's time...it goes by faster than mine, does it not?"
I grinned. "One day equals one second."
"Oh oh oh," Yamamoto laughed cheerfully, flexing his left arm as flames erupted all across his veins. "Then I guess we can truly go all out!"
"I'd like that, but unfortunately I did ask for a sparring and not a beat down," I replied nonchalantly as a pipsqueak voice suddenly caught my interest.
"Grand Master!" Yukibey whined from a nearby rock that seemed cooler than the rest of the surrounding area. His eyes were actually filled with tears. "The Entropy levels are off the charts! Grand Master!" he whined quite thoroughly, "You broke the Entropy Engine!" he outright began to cry. "How can I face Kyubey-Sempai after this!? I should report to be recycled! Grand Master! Whyyyyy..." Yukibey cried out, his fluffy tail swishing right and left quickly as he shook his head.
"Also, he'd probably die of a heart attack, the poor thing," I continued smoothly, extending a hand to summon the Incubator into my arms. The creature unfortunately melted immediately, especially since I was still venting off the excessive heat. He reformed a split-second later atop my head, hugging it tightly. "Guess we can conclude it's a draw and move on with our lives."
Yamamoto sighed, his appearance returning to that of the old, wise captain of the Gotei's divisions. "Would you like some tea?" he asked next, opening a portal to his right.
I shrugged, and then followed him through.
"Do you have Earl Grey?" I asked.
"I have Matcha," Yamamoto answered roughly, his eyes burning with the blaze of a man in his prime defending his favorite drink.
"Just as long as you don't do the whole tea ceremony thing, please," I said as we both reappeared inside Yamamoto's office, the tatami below our feet spontaneously starting to burn as the papers on the nearby desk vaporized to ashes, the walls starting to melt in turn. As we both rushed to stomp the flames out and cool the atmosphere with magic, we blinked in unison at having forgotten just how high our spirits had soared...
And then we began to laugh at how silly we were about it.
"So, how are things going?" I asked as I took a seat on a nearby pillow, watching the old man take a seat in front of me. He pulled a string by his side twice, and then huffed, shrugging lightly.
"They are going quite well," Yamamoto replied with a neutral tone. I raised an eyebrow at the absolutely meaningless declaration, and plopped my chin on the open palm of my right hand.
When Yamamoto's lieutenant Chojiro stepped inside, he did not look surprised to see me. On the plus side, his blend of black tea leaves was astonishingly delicious.
We were left alone soon after, and as I took a long sip of hot tea, I exhaled in relief. I spat out some space dust that had gathered in my larynx, and watched with fascination as it seemed to have held magnetic properties, judging by how quickly it went on to hit the hilt of Yamamoto's sword with a metallic clink.
The Commander of the Gotei thirteen used his thumb and index finger to burn the metallic smudge off, leaving his sword in pristine conditions.
"I would ask of you a favor," he said in the end. "A Planeswalker who should have showed up a week ago hasn't come and sent no word about it. I believe she might have encountered trouble along the way."
I blinked, and then narrowed my eyes.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Miss La Arwall," Yamamoto said.
I stared at Yamamoto a bit, my eyes snapping shut as I exhaled loudly.
"The law is the law," Yamamoto continued.
"I know, I'm the one who made those laws!" I whined. "I could just let her be," I continued, standing up while sipping tea as I began to walk in circles. "That damn pacifist—killing is unjustifiable my ass—good for nothing vegetarian...I'm even allergic to lion fur," I groaned. "But fine! I, the merciful Tyrant, shall seek her out and if she's been killed, I'll find the guilty party and annihilate them from existence after torturing them for countless decades."
Yamamoto raised an eyebrow.
"I did that once," I answered his unspoken question. "And the guy was a serial child killer."
Yamamoto, most aptly, said nothing.
Even he had a soft spot for children.
Only monsters didn't have soft spots for children.