So this is my first story really. it's just an idea. A reincarnation of a person from Earth with middling knowledge of 40k (just like me) and who has their soul fused with that of a Kryptonian was reincarnated in 40k. How does the world of 40k change when the son of the first hero is strutting around in the grim future of 40k? With knowledge from Krypton. That super duper multi-galaxy empire of superhumans. Pretty crack premise. I've seen very few Superman x 40k fanfics surprisingly enough. But then again I get it in a way. grimderp is grimderp. Superman doesn't fit. But I think it's interesting so.
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Light of the 40th century
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Chapter 1
New
Light of the 40th century
Deep in the primordial void where neither light nor darkness painted creation. Where concepts originated and from whence they ceased. In the void both above and below the infinitum of the Absolutionism where unclaimed souls go to die, a golden soul pulsed with light. Thrum by thrum it resisted the great erasure but the soul was fragmented. Wave by wave in the place in which time did not exist the soul was weakened. Few can resist the great void but this soul had done so for ages untold. However, even it could not last forever, and thus the cracks in its foundation. But it was not the only soul in this primeval void. A small blue soul which started to evaporate in mere moments after being subjected to the void flew as fast as it could and collided with that golden soul. And, like glue the blue wisp filled the cracks blending with the greater soul from two into one. And just like that ages without limit number nor name passed until another entered the fray. One with a soul so alike to that original golden soul it was frightening. Rather than an innocuous wisp or a shapeless orb, this one was composed enough to take the shape of a man. The truest paragon, a man with a bright red S emblazoned on his chest. The very first hero and last son of Krypton, a harbinger of a new era, Kal-El. In that timeless place at the end of infinity, the greatest hero's soul stood tattered over the golden soul before him. That constant smile that had carried him through battle after battle and war after war was no longer true. It was a smile of habit and not happiness, the last stand of a long-dead paragon. And yet as he looked upon this blended soul tears stung his eyes. He reached out and embraced the wispy soul softly and through cracked lips he spoke
"I wanted to be your hero… but I should've known better. To stay a hero or become a monster. Faced with two options somehow this father of yours did both. Ignia was her name, she had a will to burn the world extinguished far too fast. Just like your own, before you could even enter this world. To break me as they always tried, and I'm sad to say they both succeeded and failed. They are gone now but so are you. I won nothing and so once again I fought. Legions of demons died in my fists, angels crushed under my heel, endless, humbled before my might. All for you. I will give you a chance to write your own story, a chance to ignite your will just like your mother.. Just like me."
"You know we never named you, your mother's name meant great flame and both you and I are El's. As presumptuous as it may be, before I send you off I want to name you. Go forth and live well, son of mine. Burn the world, Rao."
…
On a distant planet in Ultima segmentum light gathered in a dark cave that blended soul constructing a form around itself based on the lineage passed down by Kal-El. The body of a Kryptonian at the age of five. Knowledge was supplanted in the boy's soul to help him survive in whatever world he may end up in. Kal had no choice in where he'd go. However, what Kal did not know was that the soul of his unborn child was mixed with another. A small soul whose persistence kept that golden soul from being erased. This affected that body as well. In the dank must of the cave, the unblemished body had completed its genesis. With a body rather large for a five-year-old with light brown skin and silvery white hair that reached down to his feet the boy lay naked and asleep. His facial features could only be described as regal or heroic, a trait inherited from his father, however, there was wildness there as well an inexplicable trace of savagery between his brows, the shape of his eyes like that of a beast. As he yawned he exposed oddly sharp teeth and opening his eyes he exposed his orange-gold eyes. Two burning orbs reminiscent of infernal stars that would never be extinguished. And so the child of the last son of Krypton and the beastly Ignia awoke to the world.
…
'I awoke to complete darkness which as I'm sure you'd know is creepy as a particular clown in a sewer who lures little boys with raincoats on. Last I remember I was on my way to pick up some Oreos and then that truck crashed into that minivan. And then the minivan exploded for whatever fucking when some debris hit the streetlight next to me which fell on my head? Danm! If you wanted to get me truck-kun you could've just done that straight up. What kinda contrived manure did you have to go through to try and be different? Also, why am I so small, I remember being larger than this. At least I think I was? I can't remember too much about that time.'
"Well, Hopefully, I'm not in a womb because if I am Ma, gotta get some serious shit checked out in here."
Moving forward to the titanic slab of granite which seemingly blocked off the cave from the outside world the small Kryptonian leveraged his comparatively small body with his legs to the ground and his back on the lower part of the boulder.
"Heave - ho, Heave - ho" Rocking back and forth the young kryptonian shook the granite, its loosening accompanied by a horrid grinding that echoed throughout the dank cave. Luckily for him even with no sunlight, Kryptonians had quintuple the muscle density compared to their weaker sister race, so he could designate himself as a buff baby. The boulder grinded against the granite before falling and rolling down the hill revealing the sight of the outside world. The cave flooded with a warm red light that seemed to fill every corner of his body. A dark black sea seemed to stretch out far past the rolling hills filled with faint red and purple flora. Giant tree-like structures seemed to touch the lowest layer of the sky, the branches growing as if they were wicker baskets, plastered with a strange blue-black biomass similar to creep from those old Starcraft games. Plants drifted along the abnormally thick purple sky like algae in the ocean and creatures resembling an unholy mix between a centipede, dragonfly, and lemur swarmed around the large green floating plants. And in the distant dark ocean, a titanic fin displaced thousands of gallons of water before receding back into the sea. All in all 'well it's not as bad as ancient Krypton at least, but a yellow or blue sun would have been better. Fate is a rather cruel mistress. Actually, why do I know about two planets instead of just one.' Assuming he was a reincarnate he should have memories of either Earth or Krypton but he knew much of both worlds. Why? Regardless, for the moment survival is my first priority. I can have an existential crisis when I'm not on an alien planet with demon whales and black seas.' He moved forward out of the cave into the world. 'So my first order of business should be finding food. Kryptonians can go a max of a year and a half without food but it certainly wouldn't be pleasant. Not to mention I am currently a strangely mobile child. Those stats are for adults, I may not last that long. Who was it that said there weren't any advantages to having your species evolve on a hellscape of a world?
'But the question is what should I do? Regardless of why I am here or otherwise I have to survive. But then again what if everything on the planet is poisonous? There's so much I don't know. But if I'm gonna live I have to eat. I won't go out starving plus dying is gay.'
Scaling down the mountain with the crevices in the rock the boy used his small size to his advantage jumping from ledge to ledge. And using the intermittent branches and trees that grew out of the mountain in order to base himself. All the while the bottom got closer and closer. Landing on another tree branch he got ready to use that as a base to jump to another ledge. Unfortunately, that branch buckled under the weight of the 6-year-old. Then again he was 5 times heavier than your average kid. Obesity was in fact a disease.
His back collided with the hard granite sending his small body into a spiral, he tried to gain his bearings but gravity pushed him faster and faster down the mountain slope. However, he wasn't totally helpless, balling his body up into the turtle position he was able to shrink his center of gravity. And kicking out with a single leg he was able to launch himself avoiding the stalagmites near the bottom of the mountain. But in the process crashing into a tree near the bottom. Attempting to grab onto the bark the Kryptonian skinned his hands making the craggy bark slick with blood. But he achieved what he had set out to do and slowed his descent. But he was strongly pushing his fingers piercing the bark and he slowly ascended the tree. Upon making it to three branches which created something like a pseudo bed Rao laid down and darkness eclipsed his vision.
The world seemed to be composed of a multitude of colored dots as my eyelids parted from one another. My mind was slow but my body was not. My hands had already recovered a great deal, likely due to the sunlight, either that or my natural healing factor. Kryptonian physiology it seemed regardless of a yellow sun or not was a good deal better than that of humankind, wish I had this back on earth instead of paying a Bitcoin to get a stubbed toe looked at. Regardless no matter how good his body was it wouldn't matter if he turned into alien feed. Now while he technically wasn't sure about the existence of land predators on the planet, considering the atmosphere is full of enough oxygen to give birth to such titanic plants and from the decent amounts of sunlight and flora it would be a fool's errand to not believe that the planet had predators of that sort. Not to mention he'd been reincarnated on a planet that specifically doesn't give him superpowers. Suffice it to say he's about as lucky as a Disney villain, in other words not lucky at all. Funnily enough, thinking back didn't they all die horrible deaths?
His eyes glazed over for a second before he began knocking furiously on the wood below him.
You know cause you can never actually be safe. But that was enough thinking for the night he'd rest up for the challenges the next day would bring to his door-tree? The darkness once again flooded his vision, however this time it was welcome.
----
The red sun shined directly into his eyes, however, it did not impair his vision in any way and in fact, it felt comfortable. Sometimes he had to remind himself he was basically a walking plant. The branches warmed the small of his back and the rather smooth rubbery barks tactile sensation reminded him of turf. What turf was for exactly he couldn't remember but he liked the feeling. It would have been a perfect morning, if not for the thing staring down at him which looked like the child of a spider and Cthulhu born out of wedlock. Rather than three abdominal parts it had 5 and instead of hair it was filled with uncomfortably fleshy feelers which seemed to almost mimic human hands. Its head was a multitude of tubes arising from an empty gap lined in teeth. There were hundreds of them dripping with something each crowned by an eye. Eyes that opened to absorb shit, like who the fuck made this thing. Is god even real!
The alien creature triggered in him feelings of disgust he didn't even know he had like nigh nascent trypophobia, aside from the fear he felt an inexplicable urge to destroy the thing before his eyes. Partly because it was ugly and mostly because the stuff it was dripping was acid! It Was going to melt him after it finished the prey in its grasp. Luckily it seemed to lack the web-making talents that spiders back home had. It was likely the powerful and semi-long feelers were going to make up for it though.
Making no sudden noise he inched his way to the far right of the branch, slowly shimmying with his back and legs, only stopping when the unholy thing would stop to take a break from its mutilated corpse. Unfortunately, he failed to account for the fact that this was in fact a tree and that trees had loose branches. A branch decided that this would be the perfect moment to breach its structural integrity and fall down to the ground. The alien creature then abruptly snapped its head in his direction, despite its lack of ears. He paused and stared at the thing and it stared at him back. Red stained its mandibles as its tubes danced through the air. And so he moved.
He abruptly swung his feet over the edge of the branch he was standing on, catching himself with a singular arm. Just in time as the centipede lite creature moved with world-blurring speed striking where his head once was. Shimmying along the branch with his hands till he was behind it he swung himself back up. Shattering a branch with a well-placed punch he grabbed onto the resulting stick and pierced forward towards the back of its head.
He missed.
The creature seemed to be strangely aware of its surroundings, It swung a scythe-like claw at him and unfortunately, his resulting dodge didn't free him from the resulting damage. A cut opened up on the boy's toned torso. But the blood clotted quickly and the pain barely registered. But that was the first blade not the last. Multiple kept swinging at the boy, but he could see them moving. And he attempted to dodge but oftentimes his body couldn't keep up with his mind. Numerous cuts opened up on his body until he looked like a puppet with bad red stitching to keep it from falling apart. But all the while Rao analyzed the creature, It seemed to have a thick carapace, of the sort that a random branch wouldn't do much to it. But no carbon-based creature could be completely armored, well unless you were a Martian or Kryptonian or Czarnian, but that was beside the point. Its body could move which meant there were gaps in the armor in the first place. Right, the scythe appendages are actually legs. Which meant to move them so fast there must be a gap there, an armpit analog. But in order to stab it there with the branch he would have to stop the leg from swinging and unfortunately there was nothing in the surrounding that could stop the leg. The tree trunk was feet away from the two fighters. So he'd sacrifice himself to live.
'This body of mine will heal accordingly, I'm a child of the stars after all.'
Rao could see the next scythe closely; he focused on it, and rather than move his blood-soaked body out of the way, he remained there, letting himself be stabbed in the abdomen. He knew nothing about his physiology aside from his ability to absorb energy, mostly stellar radiation however he knew that despite their similar externals the internals were very different. But regardless he led the leg to pierce his body around the area where a human's kidney would be out of caution. The pain was sharp and instantaneous. The alien's eyes narrowed with what Rao interpreted as a cruel delight after its first true connecting hit drew out a pained scream from him. But despite the pain in his body, his mind remained acute. He remembered in the past that he did not think like this but for some reason, it was different now. Driving this fight was anger and not fear. Bloodlust and not merely survival, it was the instincts of a predator. Kryptonians evolved on a deathworld and they battled their way to the very top of the food chain. Then after that, they fought for thousands of years becoming an empire that conquered galaxies. Humanity was similar. Both were races that birthed conquerors. Rao was merely true to his lineage.
With a rapid twist, he used his left leg to pin the other scythe appendage of the creature to the branch and he sandwiched the appendage in his body even deeper under his right arm as he pierced the sharp branch into what was essentially its armpit. The unholy lifeform let out an ear-shattering shriek as the tubes lined with acid reached for Rao's face marring his flesh. But the boys' eyes were hazed with unending ferocity and violence. He opened his mouth exposing his fangs and bit and tore at the tubes while he shoved deeper into its insectoid body. On the fringes of his consciousness, he felt the flesh and viscera and organs of the creature give way before his weapon. He could hear its cries of pain and the strange sploshing sounds that came from its injured form. But he didn't care. He just wanted this fucking thing dead. Rao angled the stick in its body piercing towards the thing most resembling its skull where the tubes emerged from. He pierced something and it burst with an audible pop, a strange sensation he could feel through his weapon and the tubes went limp. But he did not stop pushing. The stick moved forward piercing out its face causing gray matter and purple blood to spray all over Rao. marking his acid marred visage in blood and gore. But even then the Kryptonian did not stop. In his rage, he stabbed it over and over and over. Till purple flesh and blood dyed the tree branch purple. Till the acrimonious sent of bile and other liquids filled the vicinity. Till the corpse was nothing but a pile of flesh and cracked carapace filled with holes. Pieces of tentacle and intestine had attached themselves to him during his rampage. At that moment Rao looked every bit the reification of the rage of Krypton. The anger of the last glimmering light of a dead world!!
Deep in the primordial void where neither light nor darkness painted creation. Where concepts originated and from whence they ceased. In the void both above and below the infinitum of the Absolutionism where unclaimed souls go to die, a golden soul pulsed with light. Thrum by thrum it resisted the great erasure but the soul was fragmented. Wave by wave in the place in which time did not exist the soul was weakened. Few can resist the great void but this soul had done so for ages untold. However, even it could not last forever, and thus the cracks in its foundation. But it was not the only soul in this primeval void. A small blue soul which started to evaporate in mere moments after being subjected to the void flew as fast as it could and collided with that golden soul. And, like glue the blue wisp filled the cracks blending with the greater soul from two into one. And just like that ages without limit number nor name passed until another entered the fray. One with a soul so alike to that original golden soul it was frightening. Rather than an innocuous wisp or a shapeless orb, this one was composed enough to take the shape of a man. The truest paragon, a man with a bright red S emblazoned on his chest. The very first hero and last son of Krypton, a harbinger of a new era, Kal-El. In that timeless place at the end of infinity, the greatest hero's soul stood tattered over the golden soul before him. That constant smile that had carried him through battle after battle and war after war was no longer true. It was a smile of habit and not happiness, the last stand of a long-dead paragon. And yet as he looked upon this blended soul tears stung his eyes. He reached out and embraced the wispy soul softly and through cracked lips he spoke
"I wanted to be your hero… but I should've known better. To stay a hero or become a monster. Faced with two options somehow this father of yours did both. Ignia was her name, she had a will to burn the world extinguished far too fast. Just like your own, before you could even enter this world. To break me as they always tried, and I'm sad to say they both succeeded and failed. They are gone now but so are you. I won nothing and so once again I fought. Legions of demons died in my fists, angels crushed under my heel, endless, humbled before my might. All for you. I will give you a chance to write your own story, a chance to ignite your will just like your mother.. Just like me."
"You know we never named you, your mother's name meant great flame and both you and I are El's. As presumptuous as it may be, before I send you off I want to name you. Go forth and live well, son of mine. Burn the world, Rao."
…
On a distant planet in Ultima segmentum light gathered in a dark cave that blended soul constructing a form around itself based on the lineage passed down by Kal-El. The body of a Kryptonian at the age of five. Knowledge was supplanted in the boy's soul to help him survive in whatever world he may end up in. Kal had no choice in where he'd go. However, what Kal did not know was that the soul of his unborn child was mixed with another. A small soul whose persistence kept that golden soul from being erased. This affected that body as well. In the dank must of the cave, the unblemished body had completed its genesis. With a body rather large for a five-year-old with light brown skin and silvery white hair that reached down to his feet the boy lay naked and asleep. His facial features could only be described as regal or heroic, a trait inherited from his father, however, there was wildness there as well an inexplicable trace of savagery between his brows, the shape of his eyes like that of a beast. As he yawned he exposed oddly sharp teeth and opening his eyes he exposed his orange-gold eyes. Two burning orbs reminiscent of infernal stars that would never be extinguished. And so the child of the last son of Krypton and the beastly Ignia awoke to the world.
…
'I awoke to complete darkness which as I'm sure you'd know is creepy as a particular clown in a sewer who lures little boys with raincoats on. Last I remember I was on my way to pick up some Oreos and then that truck crashed into that minivan. And then the minivan exploded for whatever fucking when some debris hit the streetlight next to me which fell on my head? Danm! If you wanted to get me truck-kun you could've just done that straight up. What kinda contrived manure did you have to go through to try and be different? Also, why am I so small, I remember being larger than this. At least I think I was? I can't remember too much about that time.'
"Well, Hopefully, I'm not in a womb because if I am Ma, gotta get some serious shit checked out in here."
Moving forward to the titanic slab of granite which seemingly blocked off the cave from the outside world the small Kryptonian leveraged his comparatively small body with his legs to the ground and his back on the lower part of the boulder.
"Heave - ho, Heave - ho" Rocking back and forth the young kryptonian shook the granite, its loosening accompanied by a horrid grinding that echoed throughout the dank cave. Luckily for him even with no sunlight, Kryptonians had quintuple the muscle density compared to their weaker sister race, so he could designate himself as a buff baby. The boulder grinded against the granite before falling and rolling down the hill revealing the sight of the outside world. The cave flooded with a warm red light that seemed to fill every corner of his body. A dark black sea seemed to stretch out far past the rolling hills filled with faint red and purple flora. Giant tree-like structures seemed to touch the lowest layer of the sky, the branches growing as if they were wicker baskets, plastered with a strange blue-black biomass similar to creep from those old Starcraft games. Plants drifted along the abnormally thick purple sky like algae in the ocean and creatures resembling an unholy mix between a centipede, dragonfly, and lemur swarmed around the large green floating plants. And in the distant dark ocean, a titanic fin displaced thousands of gallons of water before receding back into the sea. All in all 'well it's not as bad as ancient Krypton at least, but a yellow or blue sun would have been better. Fate is a rather cruel mistress. Actually, why do I know about two planets instead of just one.' Assuming he was a reincarnate he should have memories of either Earth or Krypton but he knew much of both worlds. Why? Regardless, for the moment survival is my first priority. I can have an existential crisis when I'm not on an alien planet with demon whales and black seas.' He moved forward out of the cave into the world. 'So my first order of business should be finding food. Kryptonians can go a max of a year and a half without food but it certainly wouldn't be pleasant. Not to mention I am currently a strangely mobile child. Those stats are for adults, I may not last that long. Who was it that said there weren't any advantages to having your species evolve on a hellscape of a world?
'But the question is what should I do? Regardless of why I am here or otherwise I have to survive. But then again what if everything on the planet is poisonous? There's so much I don't know. But if I'm gonna live I have to eat. I won't go out starving plus dying is gay.'
Scaling down the mountain with the crevices in the rock the boy used his small size to his advantage jumping from ledge to ledge. And using the intermittent branches and trees that grew out of the mountain in order to base himself. All the while the bottom got closer and closer. Landing on another tree branch he got ready to use that as a base to jump to another ledge. Unfortunately, that branch buckled under the weight of the 6-year-old. Then again he was 5 times heavier than your average kid. Obesity was in fact a disease.
His back collided with the hard granite sending his small body into a spiral, he tried to gain his bearings but gravity pushed him faster and faster down the mountain slope. However, he wasn't totally helpless, balling his body up into the turtle position he was able to shrink his center of gravity. And kicking out with a single leg he was able to launch himself avoiding the stalagmites near the bottom of the mountain. But in the process crashing into a tree near the bottom. Attempting to grab onto the bark the Kryptonian skinned his hands making the craggy bark slick with blood. But he achieved what he had set out to do and slowed his descent. But he was strongly pushing his fingers piercing the bark and he slowly ascended the tree. Upon making it to three branches which created something like a pseudo bed Rao laid down and darkness eclipsed his vision.
The world seemed to be composed of a multitude of colored dots as my eyelids parted from one another. My mind was slow but my body was not. My hands had already recovered a great deal, likely due to the sunlight, either that or my natural healing factor. Kryptonian physiology it seemed regardless of a yellow sun or not was a good deal better than that of humankind, wish I had this back on earth instead of paying a Bitcoin to get a stubbed toe looked at. Regardless no matter how good his body was it wouldn't matter if he turned into alien feed. Now while he technically wasn't sure about the existence of land predators on the planet, considering the atmosphere is full of enough oxygen to give birth to such titanic plants and from the decent amounts of sunlight and flora it would be a fool's errand to not believe that the planet had predators of that sort. Not to mention he'd been reincarnated on a planet that specifically doesn't give him superpowers. Suffice it to say he's about as lucky as a Disney villain, in other words not lucky at all. Funnily enough, thinking back didn't they all die horrible deaths?
His eyes glazed over for a second before he began knocking furiously on the wood below him.
You know cause you can never actually be safe. But that was enough thinking for the night he'd rest up for the challenges the next day would bring to his door-tree? The darkness once again flooded his vision, however this time it was welcome.
----
The red sun shined directly into his eyes, however, it did not impair his vision in any way and in fact, it felt comfortable. Sometimes he had to remind himself he was basically a walking plant. The branches warmed the small of his back and the rather smooth rubbery barks tactile sensation reminded him of turf. What turf was for exactly he couldn't remember but he liked the feeling. It would have been a perfect morning, if not for the thing staring down at him which looked like the child of a spider and Cthulhu born out of wedlock. Rather than three abdominal parts it had 5 and instead of hair it was filled with uncomfortably fleshy feelers which seemed to almost mimic human hands. Its head was a multitude of tubes arising from an empty gap lined in teeth. There were hundreds of them dripping with something each crowned by an eye. Eyes that opened to absorb shit, like who the fuck made this thing. Is god even real!
The alien creature triggered in him feelings of disgust he didn't even know he had like nigh nascent trypophobia, aside from the fear he felt an inexplicable urge to destroy the thing before his eyes. Partly because it was ugly and mostly because the stuff it was dripping was acid! It Was going to melt him after it finished the prey in its grasp. Luckily it seemed to lack the web-making talents that spiders back home had. It was likely the powerful and semi-long feelers were going to make up for it though.
Making no sudden noise he inched his way to the far right of the branch, slowly shimmying with his back and legs, only stopping when the unholy thing would stop to take a break from its mutilated corpse. Unfortunately, he failed to account for the fact that this was in fact a tree and that trees had loose branches. A branch decided that this would be the perfect moment to breach its structural integrity and fall down to the ground. The alien creature then abruptly snapped its head in his direction, despite its lack of ears. He paused and stared at the thing and it stared at him back. Red stained its mandibles as its tubes danced through the air. And so he moved.
He abruptly swung his feet over the edge of the branch he was standing on, catching himself with a singular arm. Just in time as the centipede lite creature moved with world-blurring speed striking where his head once was. Shimmying along the branch with his hands till he was behind it he swung himself back up. Shattering a branch with a well-placed punch he grabbed onto the resulting stick and pierced forward towards the back of its head.
He missed.
The creature seemed to be strangely aware of its surroundings, It swung a scythe-like claw at him and unfortunately, his resulting dodge didn't free him from the resulting damage. A cut opened up on the boy's toned torso. But the blood clotted quickly and the pain barely registered. But that was the first blade not the last. Multiple kept swinging at the boy, but he could see them moving. And he attempted to dodge but oftentimes his body couldn't keep up with his mind. Numerous cuts opened up on his body until he looked like a puppet with bad red stitching to keep it from falling apart. But all the while Rao analyzed the creature, It seemed to have a thick carapace, of the sort that a random branch wouldn't do much to it. But no carbon-based creature could be completely armored, well unless you were a Martian or Kryptonian or Czarnian, but that was beside the point. Its body could move which meant there were gaps in the armor in the first place. Right, the scythe appendages are actually legs. Which meant to move them so fast there must be a gap there, an armpit analog. But in order to stab it there with the branch he would have to stop the leg from swinging and unfortunately there was nothing in the surrounding that could stop the leg. The tree trunk was feet away from the two fighters. So he'd sacrifice himself to live.
'This body of mine will heal accordingly, I'm a child of the stars after all.'
Rao could see the next scythe closely; he focused on it, and rather than move his blood-soaked body out of the way, he remained there, letting himself be stabbed in the abdomen. He knew nothing about his physiology aside from his ability to absorb energy, mostly stellar radiation however he knew that despite their similar externals the internals were very different. But regardless he led the leg to pierce his body around the area where a human's kidney would be out of caution. The pain was sharp and instantaneous. The alien's eyes narrowed with what Rao interpreted as a cruel delight after its first true connecting hit drew out a pained scream from him. But despite the pain in his body, his mind remained acute. He remembered in the past that he did not think like this but for some reason, it was different now. Driving this fight was anger and not fear. Bloodlust and not merely survival, it was the instincts of a predator. Kryptonians evolved on a deathworld and they battled their way to the very top of the food chain. Then after that, they fought for thousands of years becoming an empire that conquered galaxies. Humanity was similar. Both were races that birthed conquerors. Rao was merely true to his lineage.
With a rapid twist, he used his left leg to pin the other scythe appendage of the creature to the branch and he sandwiched the appendage in his body even deeper under his right arm as he pierced the sharp branch into what was essentially its armpit. The unholy lifeform let out an ear-shattering shriek as the tubes lined with acid reached for Rao's face marring his flesh. But the boys' eyes were hazed with unending ferocity and violence. He opened his mouth exposing his fangs and bit and tore at the tubes while he shoved deeper into its insectoid body. On the fringes of his consciousness, he felt the flesh and viscera and organs of the creature give way before his weapon. He could hear its cries of pain and the strange sploshing sounds that came from its injured form. But he didn't care. He just wanted this fucking thing dead. Rao angled the stick in its body piercing towards the thing most resembling its skull where the tubes emerged from. He pierced something and it burst with an audible pop, a strange sensation he could feel through his weapon and the tubes went limp. But he did not stop pushing. The stick moved forward piercing out its face causing gray matter and purple blood to spray all over Rao. marking his acid marred visage in blood and gore. But even then the Kryptonian did not stop. In his rage, he stabbed it over and over and over. Till purple flesh and blood dyed the tree branch purple. Till the acrimonious sent of bile and other liquids filled the vicinity. Till the corpse was nothing but a pile of flesh and cracked carapace filled with holes. Pieces of tentacle and intestine had attached themselves to him during his rampage. At that moment Rao looked every bit the reification of the rage of Krypton. The anger of the last glimmering light of a dead world!!
Chapter 2
New
THE LAST
"Koff, ahem-ackkkkk pfft. Gahhhh what the actual fuck. I swear only I could manage to fall asleep in alien guts. Did I not knock the tree hard with this Disney antagonist ass luck. I'm not a cheap whore but the world seems intent on absolutely railing me. Fucking pedo."
The sky rumbled at this moment as if it was angered by Rao's choice of wording. But the Kryptonian didn't care give, me your best shot bitch.' He started to stand reaching back to brace himself on the trunk. He failed. The tree was slick with alien guts from his unnecessary rampage leading to him slipping and busting his shit. 'It's always the tailbone fuck.'
Rao rubbed his lower back as he sat there on the branch. It was a beautiful day, purple clouds had rolled in the red sunlight that filtered through them and gave the forest a mystical haze. In the distance, the black sea looked rather picturesque contrasting harmoniously with white-brown shores. A giant jellyfish adjacent creature with a beak drifting across the sky blotting out the clouds. All in all, what the actual fuck was that! He moved quickly shifting his tired body over to the corpse he started to cover himself in purple blood and guts. The corpse had rotted quickly, it was a not actually unpleasant stench. He guessed the bacteria on this planet weren't quite as stinky as the ones on the good ol' blue marble. But if these creatures had evolved here this smell should translate to don't fucking eat this or you'll grow sickly.
Rao felt the flesh squelch as he grabbed handfuls and smeared them over his bare body, making sure to avoid his right side in case of infection. Not that it'd help much. The slick sensation made the boys' skin crawl as if tiny little parasites were pulling at every nook and cranny of him. He felt his scalp contract as the blood got into his hair. But he kept going, the Bullyfish(that was its name now) was drifting over this way because of course it was, anything to make the day worse right? A beak meant it ate shit he didn't want to be eaten so he increased the application of his dead spider camo. As the bloated shadow which seemed to blot out the sky grew ever closer, Rao pulled fragments of the broken carapce over his prone form. Just barely in time as well, you'd something that fucking big would be slow, but no, never that'd be too convenient. If Rao were to look out of the small gaps in the carapace now he'd see the massive form was only a few meters away casting a great shadow with its enormity. It drifted a bit aimlessly and for a moment it seemed as if it'd pass but unfortunately for him, it stopped right over his tree. Gray-green tentacles which boasted a rough texture similar to that of elephant skin seemed to meander over the tree. They contracted nastily as they oozed a strange porous yellow liquid. A cacophony of pulpy and slick sounds that could only come from the vilest of life forms got louder and louder as the distance between them and Rao decreased inch by inch. That concert of sounds got ever the more chaotic as its tentacles moved to the branch decorated by last night's violence. At this moment Rao was seized by panic. His eyes widened veins bulged on his face as the whites of his eyes became a red akin to the sun, shaded with madness. His pupils contracted and his body tensed. But he was not afraid, no he was battle-ready. He would not die, for he was the last.
But his mind seemed to glow at that moment. Just as when he first appeared in the cave streams of knowledge seemed to enter his mind. As such he listened to what he was told, Rao breathed in slowly as the echoes became clearer. His body loosened as his eyes began to dim. In and out, in and out his breathing slowed rhythmically until he breathed no more. Beat by beat his heart lost its vitality.
BA-THUMP, BA-THUMP, BA-Thump, ba-thump, ba-thum-, ba-.
Rao began to die.
With a sudden burst of unsuspecting speed, the tentacle slapped the carapace off Rao as if it was aware of his hiding from the start. Three separate tentacles snaked over his form in a predatory fashion dripping unceasingly as they contracted over him. Seemingly eager for him to wake. They nudged his body rocking the three branches with the force they put in. However, as they nudged at him mindlessly upon sensing a lack of movement the tentacles began to drift off into the distance again. At this moment Raos' eyes began to shine again and his heart began to beat slowly.
'Whoooosh crunnch'
as if it had heard his breath the tentacles had snaked back seeing if they had missed anything in the area. Rao went silent once more. But as the sun reached higher in the sky, the bullyfish seemed to move on disappointedly. But Rao did not falter he waited even more until the creature had reached the horizon before his eyes regained their light.
'Well, that shit would have saved me when I was fighting for my fucking life yesterday. This is hell on Earth it's easier to scream, to be afraid. But it seems I lack that ability. Fuck is wrong with me.' With a sigh, Rao went over what had happened when faced with the fat fuck that was the bullyfish.
Similarly to the first day he woke up knowledge seemed to fill his mind when faced with certain situations. Like his elementary knowledge of races with a carapace when under the pressure of battle yesterday. Right then and there knowledge from the house of El seemed to fill his mind. That man went through the exercises of a certain technique in the school of Torquasm Vo teaching control over the life energy in one's form to become as innocuous as the mountains and rivers through suppressing the life energy in one's body. He was patient and gentle and his form breathed a warmth into Rao he didn't even know he lacked. And yet for all the warmth that person brought, he couldn't even remember his face, not completely at least it was hazy and indistinct like a reflection upon turbid water. So close to being clear and yet distorted every time he looked back in his thoughts. Nonetheless, he had no doubt this person was great. That they were special in a way others weren't they seemed to emit light like a star. A big shot so to say. He remembered back on earth there was someone who said to him, that if you look into a crowd and notice someone in particular as if they were the only one in the crowd, but that person looks back into a crowd you may be in and sees not individuals but rather a group. Then that person is out of your reach. A bigshot, that was the type of person that figure seemed to be. But… ah who told him that again? Without concrete memories, without true experiences was he even a person? Son of Krypton? Son of Earth? Son of light, Son of War? Just who - just why.
Rao leaned his head back on the branch with exhaustion. Uncaring of the purple and yellow that stained his body. The hair colored by his struggles swayed across his eyes wispily reflecting the blood-red sun. He was a child of the stars, usually sunbathing like this should have felt good. But at this moment Rao couldn't help but feel this sun was a bit cold, a bit empty, and a bit hollow.
______
Far from his resident tree fires reflected off primitive windows as screams echoed out in a village. The pelts and carapace of creatures were hung about wooden pikes as a warning to any rival clan who may come about their territory. A simple arch that served as the entrance to the village was crowned by a somewhat humanoid skull. Larger than what should be possible however unless that person was a fucking Nephilim. The architecture was bad even as far as primitive cultures go. Wooden shacks that seemed more piled and smashed together by random logs and immense strength rather than actual woodwork. Purple-blue grass seemed to sway happily as the black soil seemed to jump up and down with the beats of the drum and the roars of the village's inhabitants. It was primal and it was free. They screamed their existence into the sky clashing under crimson light laughing and fighting and playing without a care. One of this clan tilted their head back in and let out an exhilarated roar. It was the hunt.
_____
Rao tilted his head back and let out an exasperated sigh. 'I think and so therefore I am. No point in bitching and moaning over what I cannot change. I have no intention of dying here regardless. Nah fuck that I have no intention of dying at all.'
The Kryptonian grinned wildly as he turned his head in the direction where the jellyfish left. If he squinted hard enough he could still see its shadow on the horizon. Just like that thing that had tried to kill him the day before, he'd only live by being ferocious. Thinking too much would impede him. He didn't know too much about himself but he knew of Krypton. Despite his memories of his planet, he was well aware he was the last. Out of all the hazy memories in his mind, this one was distinct. He couldn't die. If he died Krypton died. He was bearing a world upon his back. The responsibility was not lost on him, not completely. He felt a strange nagging in the back of his mind as if he wasn't meant to put so much importance on Krypton. As if he was… wrong for it. It was a strange feeling but it seemed to arise from good intentions. To be honest he had no idea how to live with being the last but at the very least he knew he couldn't die. As for these strange emotions and feelings, he was nary of them as well. But one thing was clear to him as Rao, the last light of Krypton he would not go silently into the night. Kill everything that tried to kill him that was his duty as the last. If it tried to break him then he'd just break it first. To survive.
"I shall shatter you…"
He would do what he had to do to make it in this world. To survive now and deal with the rest later but now it was time to lock in. Rao snickered as he began to assess his body. With a sigh, he lifted his right arm to glance at his waist. He had previously wiped away as much rotting alien spider blood from it as he could but the bullyfish had dripped its love liquid making his efforts useless regardless. The cut had clotted like the others on his body with no clear signs of infection so that was good, the Kryptonian body was no fucking joke and it hadn't failed him in battle either. It seemed he had bet right and there was nothing particularly important in that place where a kidney would be. I mean whose realllyyy hurt by coughing up a little blood now and then? The boy lifted his hand roaming the left side of his face where acid scars would have been left behind from the spiders' last mad attack. Actually thinking about it he should come up with a name for that thing too. Really lean into the explorer Christopher Columbus act here. But luckily as his thoughts meandered on, he felt his flesh was smooth.
"Whooooooweee"
The boy's chest which was holding a breath in unintentionally seemed to deflate at the moment. I mean who could blame him no one wants to be ugly. Everyone knows ugly people live life on hard difficulty.
'No sirree there's a reason I played Elden ring on easy mode. Path of least resistance bitch, if you choose the hard way you just fighting nature at that point. I'm going to get off this planet seduce women with this face and my badass Kryptonian bod and live forever as the god-emperor (not the worm kind) on some random blue sun planet.'
With a content smirk, his hand slid over to the right side of his face before feeling a small scar under his right eye. He froze.
"Fuck!"
You didn't knock on wood bitch. Rao in his ignorance of good luck rituals proceeded to roll around and bich and moan for a solid three minutes about his ruined face.
" What the fuuuccckkk should just sow myself an alien straw hat, build a spaceship with a ram head, and set sail for the stars. Become a fucking space pirate and call myself Mugiwara, it's not like anyone knows what the fuck that means in this universe anyway. Maybe I'll meet a big ass green alien with a horrible sense of direction to be my first crewmate."
Rao snorted with mild amusement at the thought. But his wounds had healed nicely and his thoughts weren't completely without merit.
"Hmmm"
Rao reached up wrapping his hands around a particularly thick branch a little up above him in the boughs of the tree. With a heave and a swell of his arms, he leaned back as the branch cracked free with a long groan and sigh. What he could only assume to be insects chittered in the background as he flipped the branch he broke off and shoved his nails into the inside of it cracking it in half as it splintered under his ministrations.
"As I thought."
He grinned a bit as he stroked his nonexistent beard. Inside he could see strong straight yellowish fiber, similar to the willow trees back on earth 'I should be able to fashion myself some simple clothes out of this. I'm tired of fighting like a neanderthal. The last son of Krypton swinging on insects with his dick out. I'd never hear the end of it.'
With mirth, the very naked boy got to work. Using his fangs to fashion a piece of wood into something like a needle he broke off a few more branches and began to weave the fibers into a cloak and what amounted to a skirt. At first, he was of the mind to make something like pants or underwear. But then he realized in his brief yellow schoolbus moment that he was in fact a man with two balls that would chafe like a motherfucker on alien tree fibers. Imagine getting a splinter in your ballsack...
Once again Rao's eyes glazed over and instead of knocking he started straight up punching the shit out of the wooden trunk. Because knocking wasn't enough as shown by past events. After his brief but very necessary sidequest, Rao began to weave the cloak and skirt again. He expected it to take a while.
It didn't.
His hands worked with a strange dexterity and Rao furrowed his brows in confusion.
"I'm pretty sure I never sowed shit before so why am I so dexterous… with my hands… Fuck was I actually a cheap whore. Nah nahhh it's just Kryptonian talent yeah that's it definitely, totally."
The cheap whore continued sowing until the skirt and cloak were complete. He had created a few loops to tie the simple cloak to his shoulders with a long piece of fiber. He had created similar loops in the waistline of his skirt in order to tie it around himself. Reaching down he took a good look at the skirt it was a pretty nice patchwork sown together with perfectly geometric small overlapping squares being the pattern. With a smile, he wrapped it around his waist tying it quickly to get away from perpetual nudity. Soon after and with a sudden movement and flourish he tied the cape around his shoulders as he looked towards the west, the direction of the sea. Red light reflected off his silvery hair and his eyes looked a bit more dark than they did when he first appeared in this world. The dark sea and his pupils seemed to reflect one another as his gaze stilled and became a bit more solemn. A gust of wind blew his straw yellow cape out behind him and the sun behind his would look as a halo if there was an observer. Right now he was silent as he took in the breadth of the world. The wideness of the sea. And the height of the sky. The strangeness of it all. Painted with so many interesting colors. So many things untouched and unseen by the hands of men. A world that was full to the brim. A world with a history. And he wondered if he too had a history. If he too could fill himself with as many things as this planet. Experience after experience, laugh after laugh, tear after tear, shout after shout. The things he was lacking could he rebuild them… Rao the child who bore the name of a god sat silently pondering. But pondering was for the past and the last had no time for that, as Rao moved and began to climb down the tree in his search for food the sun seemed to move just a tad bit faster across the sky. Onward to the future, as it always does. He had decided, he'd make this his dream for now to rebuild it all or make it anew. Himself.
"Because after all dreams save us, isn't that right pops?"
Rao said it unknowingly and it seemed to go from his memory quickly. As if he couldn't remember his very own words. That faint nagging remained in the back of his mind. Sitting on a tree branch he began to thread together a rope to help him descend the tree with the fibers. It took him a while as he had to make it long enough but he succeeded eventually. Wrapping it around the most stable branch he could find he put all his weight on the fiber in preparation for descending the tree.
It snapped.
Once again he forgot the fact that he was in fact obese. The average 6-year-old could weigh up to 60 pounds he was a bit over 300 pounds. The world blurred in his vision as he fell fast enough for there to be a slight whistle audible. For some reason before hitting the ground, he thought of... a caseoh? he didn't know what that was but it tickled him, well as much as it could before he hit the ground hard.
"Just like a drill, I'll kill that damn jellyfish. Drills to the future…" Rao muttered to himself as he rolled around aimlessly on the forest floor probably with a bad case of CTE.
Wait what the fuck do drills have to do with anything???
___
Chapter 3
New
First Spear of Rao: Rann'Tha
Rao rolled onto his back and looked up stunned, he really had to remember the fact that his IBM put him at morbidly obese. Which was completely fair as he had just nearly died from breaking a big ass tree branch once more. If shit kept up like this he'd have someone write rest in pies on his gravestone. There was no way he had nearly died twice now from this. Propping his arms next to his head with a sharp huff the boy flipped onto his feet.
"Eat your heart out spiderman, I'm coming for your job." Rubbing his nose with pride he looked at his surroundings. The bottom of the forest was filled with blue-black flexible-looking grass. Trees stood creepily in the distance under the red light of the sun. looking like wicker effigies swaying with the sigh of the wind. Yellow sap stained the trees erupting stutteringly like pus out of an infected wound. Small pebbles littered the forest from the cliff nearby. Orange puddles seemed to appear intermittently as he looked on and they almost seemed to … bubble?
"No fucking shot, is it carbonated?!"
With light steps, Rao whistled across the grass to one of the puddles. Sticking his finger in with an excited expression, only to regret his actions immensely immediately.
"Urgghhh, HooolllYyyy RAAaaO FUcking tHe STAaRs." He yelped looking at his fingers it was as if they had been worn away through consistent shaving. The muscles on the tip of his finger were clear and the nerves were also exposed to the air bringing in fresh and clear waves of pain every second. His finger pulsed as he brought it against his chest cradling it as he staggered away from the puddle of what he had thought was natural Fanta only for it to have been acid.
'In, hindsight that was a bit obvious' With a sigh he brought some of the twine he had brought with him to create a weapon.
"Hooo, Hooo" Rao blew gently on his finger as he wrapped up the acid-worn extremity in the twine. It was likely better to leave it exposed for it to heal faster considering more sunlight meant faster recovery. But he couldn't afford that sort of pain while attempting to hunt in this world filled with God's aborted hanger babies. As he tied off his wound his white hair swayed obscuring his vision in the dun light of the red sun. It was a bit annoying. As he finished his third go around of his finger tying it tightly with pressure to help stake off the pain he took some more twine and held up his hair into a high ponytail, dividing his hair into two strands which he began to tie a knot with them. Gently moving the keratin construct he tucked the loose strands under the knot. And he secured the bun with twine and poked a small stick he had filed with his fangs through it to keep it stable. Only a few strands hung about his face clearing his vision. And he looked rather dashing if he didn't say so himself. Well if he could see himself.
"I truly am the light Rao gifted upon this world." The boy preened and strutted around like a peacock forgetting he was dirty as shit, covered in alien slime, and had a finger that looked like he had put it through a pencil sharpener. But the cloaked Kryptonian had to comfort himself in some way about his currently subpar appearance.
"I look like a better Sokka. Just need to get that low taper fade and I'll be good." With a haughty grin he said "I'll indeed master the art of backbending just like you" he bowed to nothing solemnly as if thanking his master. It's needless to say that he got no play back on Earth. None, zero, goose eggs, nada. Women would part like the seas before Moses when he came around. This was the reason. But finally, he began to get to work. Grass crunched loudly under his footfalls as he hummed an old Kryptonian nursery rhyme. His vision danced across the surroundings looking for a suitable tip. For what you ask? To the very first weapon of both humanity and Krypton. To a weapon needed by weaker lifeforms when confronting the strong. Range. He was making a spear, the creatures of this planet had so far in proven themselves to have extreme levels of durability and physical strength. Either that or being so big he simply lacked the ability to fight against them, at least while he was tired and injured. A small- no a large part of him didn't want to admit that he lacked the ability to deal with that ugly mutated sperm cell resultant jellyfish with his body alone. A strange sense of pride welled up inside him that was quickly looked over. Finally, his eyes alighted. A stand-out piece of stone-like material that was more of a rusted orange and black compared to the grayer pebbles in his surroundings. It stood out not only for its color but because of the reflective nearly glass-like sharp edge. He could grind down wood with his fangs but stones were a no-go. He had suffered the effects of poor dental health on Earth and there was no evil tool-wielding dentist to fix his mouth on random alien planet 101. Shaking his head he grabbed the small stone from the ground running the fingers of his left hand none of which were damaged over the edge. The rock tore a bit into his epidermis leaving a bead of blood welled up on his left pointer finger. A broad grin covered his face as he looked at the stone. Grabbing his twine and a particularly long and straight stick he had filed down like a determined beaver previously he continued humming as he got to building his first weapon in this world. The high notes of the rhyme about the high god of krypton rung out among the chattering of insects as Rao ground an even sharper edge with the help of the softer gray stones. He did his best to make small groves on the rock where he could tie twine. Using his fingers he created a small notch roughly the size of the rock on the top of the stick. After completing his grooves in the stone he proceeded to tie the stone to the pitch-black stick. Looking at his finished spear the shit-eating grin widened even more across his face. 'I'll have to give it a name, the first weapon of mine can't be nameless. After all, I'll become an emperor and a legend one day. Every single part of my story needs to be filled with greatness so I can awe the fools in the future. To fill myself up as well to create my past.' his smile faded before appearing once again.
"Well, I'll think about it later." With a stretch reaching his arms into the sky and a slight yawn rao continued ever deeper into the forest.
"Shhhrrhhr, shrrhhrhh" The bushes rustled intensely as a small group of creatures appeared visibly among the forest. Rao, quickly made his move diving behind a nearby cluster of trees and peeking through a small gap to observe their form. They had two heads each and their flesh looked desiccated as if they had all the water sucked out of them at birth. They resembled Canids but they boasted six legs rather than two resembling the Hackerns of ancient Krypton. As they opened their mouth to growl into the surroundings Rao was able to see 3 rows of razor-sharp teeth and a strange hump at the top of their mouth. They had two toes for each foot and rather than claws it looked as if they had stingers instead. Their tails were long and seemingly easily maneuverable. Covered in bone spurs in a fashion similar to a thagomizer the creatures were true predators. On the bright side, however, they weren't exceedingly large only around the size of a large dog each.
The five creatures prowled about the area sniffing the ground as they came nearer to the cluster of trees Rao hid behind. But Rao was not unwise, using the technique he had against the bullyfish he suppressed his breath, and his signs of life and presence became as innocuous as a mountain or river or tree. As if he was a part of nature rather than a living, moving thing. But before they according to his previous luck found him and a battle ensued the Hackerns(he'd call them that from now on) took two looks at his tree before running off into the distance as if they were afraid of something. Rao's eyes imperceptibly widened at the sight, but thinking that perhaps there was a larger predator around he remained nigh catatonic for another hour before releasing his technique. Jumping from behind the cluster of trees Rao like the immature brat he was stuck out his tongue and started to curse
"Fucking rip-off Walmart hackerns you that afraid of a deadman. Bitch ass planet, bitch ass predators. At least you have eyes and can see Mount Tai. I, your grandfather would have killed all of you within a moment." Needless be it to say the creatures hadn't seen him at all. After his second daily spout of arrogance, he searched around looking for the real reason the creatures had ran out so suddenly even after supposedly picking up on his scent. Turning around he faced the front of the cluster of trees finding that on the black bark was a liquid. But it wasn't the yellow sap of the trees no. Rather it was black and thick. A more deep black than that of the bark of the trees resembling the sea in the distance. However, it was too viscous. From what he had seen when he first looked at the sea it seemed to aside from its color be normal water at least in viscosity as he saw how it rushed off the whale in waves. And it's not like it was the boiling sea of krypton. But this gunk on the trees was like slime in its consistency. After his experience with the Fanta acid puddles, he had no desire to touch the strange substance. But if it could keep away hackerns it was valuable.
"Hmmmm"
Hopping onto a branch on the tree parallel to the one with the gunk on it he tore out some of the lush leaves of the tree and took out his handy needle and twine. Luckily the leaves were large likely adapted to catch as much of the faint red sunlight as possible. He tore the leaves apart and threaded the pieces together to create a simple leaf bag. The overlapping leaf vein patterns seemed to glitter in the light after he was through. Taking a stick lying on the wayside he scraped the gunk into his puch making sure that none of it got on him just in case. After finishing he tied his bag and hung it around a loop on his skirt.
" What should I even hunt, I likely can't take five hackers at once. And if they're pack animals they might have an alpha. Back on Earth and Krypton the alphas are usually the parents of the pack and are thus significantly larger. I'm not about to throw hands with an elephant-sized predator on a fucking red sun planet."
He continued talking to himself wondering if he was doomed to either starve to death or get eaten on this world. And to date, he had yet to see a single fruit of any kind. Above the sky, he saw the floating plants which were filled with some sort of gas being surrounded by lifeforms eating something off of it. That was probably the closest this planet had to fruit but he currently lacked the ability to get that high into the air. But he didn't want to complain too much after being rather lucky with the gunk scaring off the Hackerns. Otherwise next thing he knew he'd be accidentally hung from a vine while jumping from a tree. Shaking his head with mirth he continued looking for a meal. But his luck seemed to be a tad bit too good today. From the tree ahead of him a creature seemed to drop from among the purple leaves flipping in the air and landing on it's singular foot. Yet one foot similar to the Bi Fang from chinese mythology, it was a small thing its body shape eerily similar to that of a kiwi bird. But rather than two wings it had four and they were vertical to its body rather than horizontal. Its beak was also strange seemingly opening in four ways rather than one. Similar to that monster off stranger things but with keratin rather than flesh. It had one singular eye that was distinctly large and black apart from the clear whites of its eyes. With a shake in the boughs of the tree, two other of these strange creatures dropped from the tree flipping and landing on their feet. They had awkward necks and seemingly no natural weapons. Such creatures were definitely incapable of flight with the way their wings were shaped. A snicker sounded from his mouth as he looked at the admittedly cute evolutionary fuckups. He wandered out with his spear at the ready, prepared to finally catch some food for the first time. But the birds looked at him with no fear.
"Cooo, Coooo"
They bounded towards him on their little feet bounding around his legs. Purple dust the same color as their fur rose from their bodies and seemed to give the surroundings a mystical veneer. At this moment to Rao, the little birds looked like Fae more than anything else. Rao let his spear down hiding it in his cloak. The little birds seemed to coo even harder as they hopped off into the distance regularly turning their heads as if they wanted him to follow.
He did.
His eyes softened as he looked at the creatures. It had taken its toll on him, loneliness that was. It had only been a few days but the memories of people and the constant life-and-death situations he had been forced to go through echoed through his psyche making his desire for companionship of some sort ever stronger. It was why he had gotten into the habit of talking to himself and preening as if joking with some imaginary audience. Stroking his empty pride in a pointless attempt at avoiding thinking about his situation. But the little fae were cute and the dog people on both Earth and Krypton always claimed they were better than people. Maybe he could be a bird person?
He followed them until they reached a… flap in the ground. It seemed as if some sort of fungus or plant or strange membrane had grown over a part of the earth. The three birds hopped around it happily as it bulged nastily. He was prepared to leave if things got nasty. But the dust remained in the surroundings and the Fae looked especially cute at the moment. Suddenly the bulging stopped and the membrane popped but no lifeform emerged from the ground. But rather it was a gust of yellow-gray gas. The little creatures spread their seemingly flightless wings and hopped into the upward gust. Their four wings allowing them to completely control their movement in the four horizontal directions while keeping their bodies vertical to the ground.
"My bad I wasn't familiar with your game." Maybe he was the evolutionary fuck up for thinking a creature had adapted for no reason at all. Sickly purple lights emanated from the sky as the birds went to poke and attack the plants that hovered in the sky. He thought it was a bit sad that they were leaving like this but they had given him ideas. Actually… with a start, he lifted his head after the caws of the birds reached his ears once they had finished their meal. They wanted him to follow. Looking at the gust of wind which slowly seemed to be weakening he shrugged his shoulders with a smile.
"No time like the present I suppose."
Taking off his tightly woven cloak he jumped into the wind and found himself stable. The air was thick almost like water, it was the type of gas you expected to find on Jupiter or something of that sort. Looking up he noticed the gas seemed to have formed a small cloud that slowly drifted downwards which made sense as this gas was definitely heavier than air. His cloak and the gust carried him up towards the cloud where they floated in perpetual excitement for his arrival. Expelling even more of the purple dust from their feathers in response. With a soft smile, he indulged in their cuteness as the cloud floated down to a place he had completely no idea about. But it didn't matter much the fae wouldn't lead him anywhere bad.
The cloud drifted downwards into a small valley it had been led across certain airstreams by the birds as if they were used to the act. It was interesting seeing them navigate the skies, he wondered if he could replicate it. He noticed that upon the forming of airstreams, the light was warped by the thick gas in a specific direction. He had a few in his memory already. Once he got to a safe place after finding some goddam food he could start a map of the airstreams and find more of those gas membranes on the ground. It was an effective way to travel. But his thoughts came to an end as a sea of green moss-covered rocks entered his vision. They landed right on the outside of the valley as they hopped down the slope to go deeper. He naturally followed, lowering his body near the ground he extended his right leg and bent his left knee sliding down a more mud-laden path as strands of his hair whipped across his face. The smell of the moss was rather sour, he wrinkled his nose in minor disgust as he reached the bottom of the valley. There was nothing but a cave and what looked like oddly smooth rock steles jutting up from the ground in the valley. He looked at the birds who went over to a corner to pick at the bones of some creatures he noticed after looking a bit more closely that the bones seemed to still have flesh attached to them.
"Is this what you brought me here for? A home and is this a place where creatures frequent. A good hunting spot?"
He looked around in confusion before hearing a great rumble behind him. The shock seemed to clear his system.
"Ah…"
He felt like Lex Luthor in that one meme back on earth. Rao realized that he had followed three random birds from his home base god knows how far to a random valley. That he had planned on killing them just before they had started emitting that purple dust from their feathers. The creatures were badly adapted to hunt and while they could target floating plants via the gusts the species couldn't have evolved solely to eat that way or they wouldn't have survived competition. So what was another way for them to get food without hunting? That's right a symbiotic relationship. Preferably with a powerful predator. They used their fucking pixie dust to lead him into a trap. That was the natural weapon he had made fun of them for lacking beforehand. They seemed to eat the leftovers of the creature in question. While all this was going through his mind the rumbling and shaking grew louder and louder and Rao dived to the right moving his body so fluidly it seemed as if he had slithered across the floor to take cover behind a stone outcropping. Right behind him, a creature blurred crashing into the valley wall and the pile of bones scattering them and making the Fae hop away hurriedly with fear their caws echoing ceaselessly off the enclosed walls of the valley.
Peeking from behind the stele he looked at the creature in question and his eyes widened in shock and self ridicule.
"Of course, I'm going to have to fight a fucking elephant-sized predator on a red sun world. Alone, like who the fuck do you think I am, Vandal savage!"
Indeed it was a lifeform around as tall as an African bull elephant at the shoulder but it was undoubtedly longer. It had the body of an apex predator even under its shaggy fur colored the same shade of mossy green as the rocks in the valley he could tell it had a bulging vivacious musculature. Spines like that of a hedgehog lined its body in random spots. It likely rubbed itself against the stone outcroppings which was why they were so smooth he gandered. It had a short and stout neck without much range of motion and four small beady eyes. Its jaws seemed to make up most of its head and he was confident that this thing's brain was smaller than that of a T-rex on Earth. It opened its mouth and let out a mind-shatteringly loud roar.
"SHHRREEEEOOONNKKKKKKKKK"
"Oh hell no!" That pissed him off, that was Godzilla's roar this bum-ass random alien creature didn't get to imitate him! But his thoughts were pointless. The creature heard his exclamation and snapped its head towards him. With the clack of claws against stone the creature's legs bulged as it set off to devour the young Kryptonian. Rao's eyes sharpened as he dashed to the left of the stele putting it between him and the creature.
It wasn't enough.
The tail he had failed to observe before whistled around the other side of the stele crushing his chest and knocking him backward, his back impacting against another stele with a sharp pain that woke his hazy mind up. With a wheeze, he looked upwards, and almost as if it was waiting for him it was right before his eyes. Its claw raised with the intent to crush him into the earth.
But he would not be crushed, pushing off the balls of his feet Rao rolled beneath the paw avoiding being crushed at the last moment. Whipping out his spear with his left hand he thrust towards its soft underbelly. The flesh gave way to the spear but it was stopped by layers of contracting muscle. A whistle sounded in his ear as he quickly yanked out the spear and flattened himself against the earth to avoid being clubbed again. Blood dripped from his chin as he wheezed but he had no time to rest. The beast had begun to move backward attempting to trample him to death underneath it.
'Is that…' Rao clawed along the ground silently as possible to the large cave. The creature turned upon feeling nothing underneath it caught him crawling along the ground. However, at this point, Rao immediately rolled into a tumble and right up onto his feet. Weaving around the steles getting ever closer to the cave with his fastest speed as the creature collided clumsily into the stone. In the cave, there were two stone steles that were too narrow for the beast to get through wholly. He dived into the cave and the dumbass creature still followed but suddenly it lifted its foot with a vengeance as if it was aware of his mockery and slapped the stone hard. Stone folded and cracked beneath its might and Rao tripped scraping his knees on hard stone. The creature began to accelerate slobbering menacingly as it took the opportunity to catch up. But opportunities were not for it alone. The cracks lined the cave walls exposing a small pool of bubbling orange material to the right of the cave. The beast rushed forth with a rumble but Rao was prepared, with a bound he rolled away from its first bite and erupted with a strength he didn't know he had. He leaped up to the left cave wall and angled himself upon that wall within a fraction of a second before jumping off of it to the left side of the creature. He thrust his spear into its neck with quickness and force like never seen before.
It didn't pierce through completely, but that was not his goal. With a mournful cry the creature was shoved by 300+ pounds of 6-year-old Kryptonian to the right. It staggered, its paw sliding into the orange pool of acid resultant of its own attacks. At this moment Rao's golden eyes were shaded by madness. Grabbing his spear he stabbed again and again without pause as the creature flinched from the acid burning through its paw. One stab crushed the upper left eye of the creature. But he didn't stop stabbing despite having done sufficient damage. His face could only be called predatory at that moment. It wasn't enough for him. Not yet.
But changes are sudden and a quill from the creature shot forth piercing through his shoulder sending him flying 30 meters farther into the cave.
"I SHALL SHATTER YOU!"
"SHHHREEOOONNKK"
The creature responded to his insane yell with a roar of its own. Veins bulged upon its form as it rushed forth with a ferocity it lacked before. And despite that, its gait was off. Its right paw having been injured had weakened it even if just a bit. However Rao had a giant quill in his shoulder he was no better. And yet at this moment when faced with death, he seemed to feel nothing at all. The steles were right behind him he had to hold it off once more.
"AHHHHHHH"
He cried with not fear but rage as he thrust his spear towards its left side which he had injured before to throw it off. But he was not lucky this time. Hardship had found Rao once more, and the twine on his spear snapped. The full bulk of the creature slammed into him and blood erupted from his mouth due to the impact. It viscously coated his chest and chin with a curtain of crimson. Its jaws widened and in a decrepit mockery of a smile it slammed forward right between the steles, its shoulders managing to get through as its paw slammed the near-catatonic Kryptonian into the wall. Three deep claw marks were carved into his left arm from that very same attack. But his plan half worked and its waist got stuck in-between the stones.
The beast tried to angle itself to get to the injured Kryptonian. Its mouth opened to snap up his leg. But Rao kicked up his foot impacting its nose making it rear back. Taking the wooden part of the spear he crawled and shoved it into the creature's gums hard. Forcing its mouth open and with a scream-
______
At that moment Rao covered in blood seemed to see another world. It was a wide platform about 300 meters across. It was made up of not stone but rather a smooth dull blue crystal that glittered under the light of the sun. It was surrounded by water which undulated gently with the faint zephyr. Pillars were spaced around the platform every 10 meters. Around one was a baby Drang one of the dragons of Krypton standing out for its serpentine shape compared to that of other dragons. In the center of the platform were two things. One was another pillar with a strange symbol carved atop it. A crest it seemed like with an S in its center. He knew many of the crests of krypton and yet he could not remember this one. The other was not truly a thing but a person. The same person as last time, the big shot. And just like that time, he could not truly see this person's face, the big shot wore a training gi and slowly rose to their feet and they spoke.
" Torquasm Vo and Rao are large schools. Rao is generalized as physical combat and Vo as mental combat. But that's not completely true, Vo helps us get in touch with the energy that emits from every one of our cells. We draw out this energy and use it to enhance us in Rao. These schools of thought and combat are interconnected as all things are." The man turned towards him with a warm smile.
"All things are alive in a way. Especially for us who live and breathe. We are whole beings made up of a multitude of other living beings. Made up of organelles passed from our ancestors in the distant past. We are the result of billions of years in the crucible of war and death and most importantly love. Our cells hold the memory of all of our progenitors. They hold the secret of life itself. An energy that bubbled up from the forge that was evolution. Qi so it is called."
Nothing changed in his form but then he said Qi it was as if he seemed to gain an unbearable presence, as if his life level had fundamentally changed. He was elevated, he was mighty.
"Our house has specific techniques, they are the techniques of the house of El. I will teach you this today. The name and history of the technique are as important as the technique itself. When one understands why a move came into existence only then can they master it and only then can they advance it."
He breathed out slowly and powerfully like a Drang.
"In our culture, we worship the high god Rao. In the beginning of the universe, Rao was the first light who stood against the darkness. The first star and the progenitor of all stars. He faced down the darkness that veiled creation with hatred. And he took his spear and pierced the endless void. This strike slaughtered darkness and let lights aside from Rao himself come into existence."
He lowered his body his right leg pivoted outwards and his body became transparent in Raos' vision. Qi arose from his gut and flowed into his legs. He could see the muscles of his legs bulge as the ki traveled downwards. After hitting the soles of his feet it rebounded clashing with downward flowing qi but this did not destroy the muscle in fact with masterful control this qi became even stronger some remaining strengthening his legs. It flowed back through his core to his extended arm. The muscle fibers on his arm became as hard as steel as they were filled with clashing and violent qi. His palm was open and his fingers were tightly clamped together as the qi reached a crescendo of violence in his arm. And suddenly like teleportation, he reappeared 10 feet to the right his arm having pierced through stone like soft tofu.
"This is the first spear of Rao this is—"
_______
Rao imitating all the actions the man in his mind did screamed out.
"RANN'THA"
With a speed so fast it could be compared to teleportation the boy burst forth, he could feel the muscles in his legs tear but he cared not. His arm shattered tooth and skull the cadaverous roof of its mouth broke before his might. The stomach-flipping stench of rotting flesh from its mouth hit him in the face and he remained unwavering. The squelch of disgustingly warm flesh enveloped his arm. But his will stood as a monolith, for he had known the hardships of the world. If someone was there to observe this moment they would not think he looked like a boy but rather as a living incarnation of the weapon of a deity. Blood splattered in the dank cave. And before the light left his eyes Rao spoke.
"I said I would shatter you…"
And then the darkness came.
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