Post by StarTithe on Aug 8, 2006 20:04:22 GMT -5
I just thought I'd post here teh logs fromt eh end of the wrold for those members that missed it. So, Here goes.
Springmoon growled at Mengsel angrily, teeth bared, wings spread so as to increase her size. "Mengsel, I am tired of your presence and your troublemaking in this forest." Her body assumed a fighting stance, and she bent, ready to spring, flickers of supernatural blue fire licking at her toes.
Mengsel laughs easily - a deeply-toned, mirthless sound. "My Lady, presence I might understand, but troublemaking? I have done nothing of the sort. Why, I have even refrained from killing the foxes that have annoyed me beyond my general tolerance levels." He rises as the wite Vixen does, nine tails rippling behind him in their typical wavelike pattern. "And yet you still single me out." Mengsel places one forepaw forward - not to step, but to give a mock bow. At its lowest point, he peers up at Springmoon with a smirk. "Shall we dance, dear Lady?"
Springmoon circled Mengsel, snarling and barking out a fierce cry. " You have soiled the purity of the land with your mere presence! You have broken the laws of hospitality, you have led creatures against me, you have introduced chaos and mayhem! I can't allow this!" The fox's wings flapped; the tongues of blue flame licked to the tops of her paws. "Yes, dear sir," she said, her voice cold with hate, "I am ready to dance."
Mengsel laughs just as readily as before, pacing evenly to face Springmoon as she walks, across the diameter of the circle. "Purity in a land ruled by one who destroyed her own sisters? Broken the laws of hospitality by offering care to those you do not give it to when they will not conform? I did not lead them; they came to me after seeing you for what you are." He stops and faces Spring, the pendant around his neck swinging from its cord. "Ladies first."
Springmoon's tails flicked with anticipation, each of the nine appendages throwing off sparkles of light. At Mengsel's first move, she would bare her fangs and jump upon him, beating her wings so that the downdraft would force the male downward. Her fighting plan was to grasp for his throat and kill him the old-fashioned way, with a bloodstained muzzle to prove her victory. She would wait, then, until she had tired him enough for that. "Choices are choices. I make decisions for the well-being of the entire forest, not just for those who are closest to me. Nothing can be taken back." She pushed forward, lunging towards Mengsel with her wings spread, to glide and attack his right wing. Her goal was to weaken him as she would a bird, pulling him down as if he were game.
Mengsel's face is drawn into a rare contortion, displaying a hatred to match Springmoon's for a single moment; and then he is swept into the battle, and his features assume their customary, unreadable blankness. He twists away to his left, allowing Springmoon to grasp the feathery layer of his wing but little of the flesh beneath. Capable of charging his entire body with static, it isn't too difficult to direct it all to one place - those feathers that she grasps. With his new position, Spring would land on his middle section, on the right side. He flares the feathered appendage outward, regardless of what happens with the electricity, to relieve some of the pressure Spring's body puts on him, and moves forward. A slight strain for the delicate limb, but a wing is only for flight. It wouldn't kill him to have it broken. He snaps towards her haunch, lips curled back to reveal his teeth.
Springmoon clamped her teeth down wherever they would land, feeling for the wingfeathers. Just big game. Just big game. She would pull on the wing in an attempt to stretch the muscles and rip the bone from the socket. If she suceeded, Mengsel would be severely hampered by the useless appendage. Her flames were licking and undulating along her tails and the length of her legs, and the heat would make it painful for her opponent to grab her. The electricity surged through her teeth, causing her body to go rigid and temporarily locking her muscles, paralyzing her. Still, she threw all her weight into the feathers, searching for purchase. The snap at her haunch drew blood, but she barely felt the pain.
Mengsel immediately closes his wing again once he feels the feathers and a painful patch of flesh remove themselves from his body during his forward motion and Spring's senseless tearing; her teeth would thus find the skin beneath the longer orange flight feathers. When she doesn't retalliate on his attack towards her rear half, he attacks with renewed vigor and leaves her to fiddle with his side, taking the moment she's stunned to his advantage.
Shinkasuigetsu slunk out from the woods, a phantom shadow. She had vanished for a long while, only to re-emerge and find her one companion was locked in mortal combat with another. Eyes narrowed upon the white female. No doubt it was Springmoon, the one whom Mengsel has spoken of, previously. Quietly, she sat at the edge of the void, her single tail writhing behind her.
Springmoon's muscular control returned to her body, and she snarled through her teeth, lashing outward with her flaming hindpaws. The blue flames were extremely hot, and if the superheated claws made contact with the foe's flesh, they would singe off the fur and cause the skin to blister, and char Mengsel's body. Perhaps a stray flame would set him on fire.
Mengsel makes not a sound, even as one of the paws connects with one of his forelegs, flame eating away at the black fur of his shin and the force knocking the limb from beneath him, sending him scrambling for his balance. An error, on his part, and nothing more; Mengsel is unphased, and his blistering foreleg is quickly coated within a numbing case of ice. He releases all holds on Springmoon's body, allowing his slight stumble to merge into a slightly awkward leap away. All four paws positioned on the ground once more (though he mildly favors the scorched left limb as it slowly starts to numb), Meng whirls to face Spring and meet any oncoming attacks, also moving forward to lash at the Vixen's most readily acessable biting point, be it shoulder, muzzle, or elsewhere. Going along with the firey trend, each of his teeth glows with concentrated heat.
Springmoon fell to the ground, dislodged from the wing and taking with her a few feathers. She spits them viciously out on the ground, the flames now covering her entire body. Her fiery coat, however, causes the motion of her wings to be considerably slower, although she beats them to send out searing wind. On four steady paws she assumes a fighting stance, showing her teeth and snarling. Head lowered, and again in a crouch ready to leap, she watches her opponent. She is comsumed with anger, covered with fury freom head to toe, just as she is covered with flames.
Mengsel leaps backwards, muzzle steaming as ice breifly coats it to extinguish the singing fur there, as well as remedy mildly burnt lips. He braces all four paws against the ground, watching
Springmoon steadily, emotionlessly. Ice still coats his left foreleg, which bears his weight - though slightly less than the other legs carry. He bears the wind in silence, ice once more conforming to his will and cooling his flesh. "My Lady, you seem a bit heated - if you'll pardon the pun." His 'holier-than-thou' smirk slowly lights up his face. "You truly are frustrated with my innocent care towards those you have abandoned for 'turning,' aren't you.
(I believe I'm missing one or more here, anyone wanna help?)
Mengsel quirks a brow. "Evil, my Lady? I am the Ambassador, come to bring true Peace to the land, to end the reign of one who would kill even those bound by flesh and blood. You should thank me for being here to end your misery." Mengsel stops speaking once the Vixen moves, and his entire body becomes surrounded by ice, made surprisingly mobile by joints crafted from frigid water, held to his skin by magic to leave no gaps as he leaps forward, angling himself so that Spring meets with the flesh between shoulder and neck while he snaps at her right shoulder; an angry hiss emits from the ice around his body, continuing while the element is constantly replenished. Of course, this doesn't get along very well with the charge in Springmoon's teeth; his jaws clamp closed forcefully by the jolt, with or without Spring's flesh, and his muscles go rigid, as Spring's had earlier on.
Springmoon growls through her clenched teeth. "Ambassador? Ambassador? I never killed my sisters. I prevented them from killing others. Ursurper!" She used her hindpaws to again lash out at his icy coat, channeling as much fire as she could into her feet. The attacks did little damage to either of the combatants, so she began to do what she least wanted to; that was to call forth all the strength she possessed and fire a blast powerful enough to vaporize Mengsel, ice and all. With a snarl she lets go of him, backing off. Her eyes glow, and a mist forms about her mouth
Mengsel draws away as Springmoon does, leaving puddles in his wake. His limbs twitch with occasional spasms, remnants of the shock. He merely stands for several moments, awaiting an attack on his stunned state - and yet it never comes. Recovering himself, Mengsel draws his attention to the fem's muzzle and its curious accumulation. And, once more, laughter trickles from between his lips - though this time those lips are painful with burns. "Ah, at last, you are serious..." Yes... Get angry... Angrier.. "Perhaps you did not kill your sisters, but you certainly could have dealt with them in a better manner, don't you think?" Mengsel takes a few steps backwards, shadows writhing and darkening the color around his orange paws; the ebony tendrils slither up his limbs slowly. "And it does not change the fact that you have cast Kitsune in need away carelessly."
Springmoon's shoulder was torn, though the fangs did not penetrate very far beneath the skin. Her fur, previously white like new-fallen snow and throwing off light like a beetle's wing, was matted; the wound bled profusely. It seems to glimmer with an eerie light, blue like the vixen's eyes. Her eyes, now, were glowing white-hot, and a shaft of light pierced the mist surrounding her form. At once, it seems as if beams of energy are trickling down from t stars and diffusing into the air around her. "Deciever! You Silver-tounged liar, Mengsel. Do you know what you did? Have you any idea?" Her breath is heavy, her head hung low. It appears that a body of light is building in her throat. "You disrupted the sanity and security that this world once was. You tipped the scales of symmetry by adding one more variable to the equation."
Mengsel snickers, almost inaudiably. "There is no Life without Death; there is no Light without the Darkness; there can be no Sanity without Chaos." By now the darkness has consumed the majority of Mengsel's body, counteracting all traces of the light from Springmoon once it crosses the invisible line between the two Avatars. Like angry snakes, the shadows writhe around him with faint, but distinct, hisses. "I did indeed tip the scales - but it is not symmetry disrupted, it is symmetry Created." The mass of blackness continues to grow, beginning to concentrate in a tiny, marble-sized sphere in front of his chest, just above where his pennant dangles.
Springmoon's mouth was filled with the blazing light, a ball of energy wrapped up inside one small fox. She would soon release the thing, a ball that glowed brightly, whiter than anything else ever seen on the face of the earth. She would release it soon, directed exactly at Mengsel. It was made purely of the stuff that holds the world together. "Mengsel, when one symmetry fails another is created, but it not necessarily the preferred balance. I tell you this; I was given this world by my mother to protect from anything that might harm it. I love this world, Mengsel, and to keep it from whatever dire thing you seek to create, I would let it die." The light burns and emits a faint, ethereal song.
Shinkasuigetsu blinked, her tail swaying. For that one blink, her single tail split into numerous tails, and then it was whole again. What she was witnessing was epic, without a doubt. This day would be the day of Mengsel's new reign. Oh, yes, she was quite confidant in him, wasn't she?
Mengsel lifts his head high, golden eyes locked on Springmoon. He looks about as noble as a nine-tailed fox, burned, scraped, and feather-rumpled can look. Like rain trickling into a parched river bed, life seeps into his blank face; his eyes glow faintly within the dark around him, both literally and metaphorically. What emotion? Thrill. Elation. The feeling that comes when one feels his point has been driven home, and cannot be disputed any further. As the shadows and the orb continue their growth, so does the noise they emit - the unmistakable sound of hisses of pain, screeches of agony to which Mengsel adds his own low, rumbling voice, repeating previous words. "There can be no Life without Death."
Springmoon pulls back her head, looking for all the world like some crazed, brilliant kamikaze goddess, ready to sacrifice everything to create everything anew. Like a mouser with prey held tight and ready for presentation. She realized fully that the attack she was planning had immense destructive power, but she had done it before. Her eyes blazed, and beams of light flashed, concentrated and laserlike, through her wound, as if the light within her could stand to be kept hidden no more. With that, she let fly the jet of energy, pure and blazing, within it the strength of her very soul. "There can be no death without life."
Mengsel's body is at last entirely consumed by darkness, leaving only the dim amber sparks to mark where his face lies within; the sphere, large as a melon, suddenly contracts and shrinks into little more than a pinprick-sized dot amongst a final angst-filled cry, seeming to draw away the shadows beneath each tree, each rock, into this miniature black hole. And then it errupts into a flurry of tentacles, groping at the light sent forth from Springmoon; many are lost, but as they are torn away the outline of a central pillar of pure and unadulterated blackness can be glimpsed among the slithering mass, making its way for Springmoon.
[#] The two forces of energy rip at eachother, each propelled by desperate will. They form an immensely large orb, one that twists and turns, raging, pulsating and angry. Evenly matched, they emit a faint, grey light. The air is filled with screeching, cries of anguish and anger emenate frm the ball.
[#] Suddenly, within an instant, the sphere does a curuious thing; it seems to shrink, then blossoms outward with a terrible roar. All has ended. Dapplewood is gone, replaced with the stark lines of the world's web, a parallel dimension supporting this one.
[#] There is a blinding flash of white light and fog,followed by absolute darkness. Dapplewood has been destroyed by the fierce blasts of energy...
[#] With no warning, two beings of immense energy had entered the forest. One was the father of Mengsel, weho had sent his son on the dire mission. The other was the Sun, and mother of all things, Asla.
Asla: What have you done? You've destroyed everything.
Najidiius: Speak for yourself.
Springmoon was speechless, her mouth hanging wide open, utterly spent. Her heart clouded with sickening disappointment; she had not destroyed her foe, but she had destroyed her protectorate. At least, now, there was nothing to take and nothing to save.
Asla let out a mournful cry. " Springmoon, my daughter, I set you out to rule over this land justly and firmly. I set you out to protect it from darkness, and what have you done? You have let it fall into a grey place, where there is nothing left; nothing to live and nothing to die, nothing but the web I created to lay the world on. You have failed, daughter, for you have protected this land, and in that, failed to preserve it."
Mengsel studies the eerie blackness from the corners of his eyes, fatigue grasping at his body - something he dares not show in front of his Father, much less Springmoon and Asla. He dips his head slightly, towards Najidiius. "My Father, all I have done has been in hopes of achieving what you sent me here for... I have wronged you, but only with the truest intentions." Mengsel blinks a few times - the only outward sign of the pain that comes with speaking and further exerting himself. "Forgive me, Master, or kill me, as your will may be." His head is lowered further, eyes closed and mind too numb to find any further speech.
Najidiius growls harshly. "You have let yourself fail before your enemies, son. Killing you would only return you to a place under my paw. I doubt, though, that you would be of any use to me." He turned to Asla, glaring at her angrily. "Sister, we have both had our children fail us miserably. They neglected their duties. Together, shall we punish them?"
Asla kept her face turned from Najidiius. "I will never accept you as kin, child of The Pit. with you, I agree. There is no punishment that is harsh enough to chasten these two." She then turned, and drew herself up regally; changing her mind and deciding that it wasn't enough to be aloof anymore, she stared striaght into the eyes of the one whom she despised the most. "I mark these two." She flashed with a glitter of gold and light, then disappeared."
Springmoon growled at Mengsel angrily, teeth bared, wings spread so as to increase her size. "Mengsel, I am tired of your presence and your troublemaking in this forest." Her body assumed a fighting stance, and she bent, ready to spring, flickers of supernatural blue fire licking at her toes.
Mengsel laughs easily - a deeply-toned, mirthless sound. "My Lady, presence I might understand, but troublemaking? I have done nothing of the sort. Why, I have even refrained from killing the foxes that have annoyed me beyond my general tolerance levels." He rises as the wite Vixen does, nine tails rippling behind him in their typical wavelike pattern. "And yet you still single me out." Mengsel places one forepaw forward - not to step, but to give a mock bow. At its lowest point, he peers up at Springmoon with a smirk. "Shall we dance, dear Lady?"
Springmoon circled Mengsel, snarling and barking out a fierce cry. " You have soiled the purity of the land with your mere presence! You have broken the laws of hospitality, you have led creatures against me, you have introduced chaos and mayhem! I can't allow this!" The fox's wings flapped; the tongues of blue flame licked to the tops of her paws. "Yes, dear sir," she said, her voice cold with hate, "I am ready to dance."
Mengsel laughs just as readily as before, pacing evenly to face Springmoon as she walks, across the diameter of the circle. "Purity in a land ruled by one who destroyed her own sisters? Broken the laws of hospitality by offering care to those you do not give it to when they will not conform? I did not lead them; they came to me after seeing you for what you are." He stops and faces Spring, the pendant around his neck swinging from its cord. "Ladies first."
Springmoon's tails flicked with anticipation, each of the nine appendages throwing off sparkles of light. At Mengsel's first move, she would bare her fangs and jump upon him, beating her wings so that the downdraft would force the male downward. Her fighting plan was to grasp for his throat and kill him the old-fashioned way, with a bloodstained muzzle to prove her victory. She would wait, then, until she had tired him enough for that. "Choices are choices. I make decisions for the well-being of the entire forest, not just for those who are closest to me. Nothing can be taken back." She pushed forward, lunging towards Mengsel with her wings spread, to glide and attack his right wing. Her goal was to weaken him as she would a bird, pulling him down as if he were game.
Mengsel's face is drawn into a rare contortion, displaying a hatred to match Springmoon's for a single moment; and then he is swept into the battle, and his features assume their customary, unreadable blankness. He twists away to his left, allowing Springmoon to grasp the feathery layer of his wing but little of the flesh beneath. Capable of charging his entire body with static, it isn't too difficult to direct it all to one place - those feathers that she grasps. With his new position, Spring would land on his middle section, on the right side. He flares the feathered appendage outward, regardless of what happens with the electricity, to relieve some of the pressure Spring's body puts on him, and moves forward. A slight strain for the delicate limb, but a wing is only for flight. It wouldn't kill him to have it broken. He snaps towards her haunch, lips curled back to reveal his teeth.
Springmoon clamped her teeth down wherever they would land, feeling for the wingfeathers. Just big game. Just big game. She would pull on the wing in an attempt to stretch the muscles and rip the bone from the socket. If she suceeded, Mengsel would be severely hampered by the useless appendage. Her flames were licking and undulating along her tails and the length of her legs, and the heat would make it painful for her opponent to grab her. The electricity surged through her teeth, causing her body to go rigid and temporarily locking her muscles, paralyzing her. Still, she threw all her weight into the feathers, searching for purchase. The snap at her haunch drew blood, but she barely felt the pain.
Mengsel immediately closes his wing again once he feels the feathers and a painful patch of flesh remove themselves from his body during his forward motion and Spring's senseless tearing; her teeth would thus find the skin beneath the longer orange flight feathers. When she doesn't retalliate on his attack towards her rear half, he attacks with renewed vigor and leaves her to fiddle with his side, taking the moment she's stunned to his advantage.
Shinkasuigetsu slunk out from the woods, a phantom shadow. She had vanished for a long while, only to re-emerge and find her one companion was locked in mortal combat with another. Eyes narrowed upon the white female. No doubt it was Springmoon, the one whom Mengsel has spoken of, previously. Quietly, she sat at the edge of the void, her single tail writhing behind her.
Springmoon's muscular control returned to her body, and she snarled through her teeth, lashing outward with her flaming hindpaws. The blue flames were extremely hot, and if the superheated claws made contact with the foe's flesh, they would singe off the fur and cause the skin to blister, and char Mengsel's body. Perhaps a stray flame would set him on fire.
Mengsel makes not a sound, even as one of the paws connects with one of his forelegs, flame eating away at the black fur of his shin and the force knocking the limb from beneath him, sending him scrambling for his balance. An error, on his part, and nothing more; Mengsel is unphased, and his blistering foreleg is quickly coated within a numbing case of ice. He releases all holds on Springmoon's body, allowing his slight stumble to merge into a slightly awkward leap away. All four paws positioned on the ground once more (though he mildly favors the scorched left limb as it slowly starts to numb), Meng whirls to face Spring and meet any oncoming attacks, also moving forward to lash at the Vixen's most readily acessable biting point, be it shoulder, muzzle, or elsewhere. Going along with the firey trend, each of his teeth glows with concentrated heat.
Springmoon fell to the ground, dislodged from the wing and taking with her a few feathers. She spits them viciously out on the ground, the flames now covering her entire body. Her fiery coat, however, causes the motion of her wings to be considerably slower, although she beats them to send out searing wind. On four steady paws she assumes a fighting stance, showing her teeth and snarling. Head lowered, and again in a crouch ready to leap, she watches her opponent. She is comsumed with anger, covered with fury freom head to toe, just as she is covered with flames.
Mengsel leaps backwards, muzzle steaming as ice breifly coats it to extinguish the singing fur there, as well as remedy mildly burnt lips. He braces all four paws against the ground, watching
Springmoon steadily, emotionlessly. Ice still coats his left foreleg, which bears his weight - though slightly less than the other legs carry. He bears the wind in silence, ice once more conforming to his will and cooling his flesh. "My Lady, you seem a bit heated - if you'll pardon the pun." His 'holier-than-thou' smirk slowly lights up his face. "You truly are frustrated with my innocent care towards those you have abandoned for 'turning,' aren't you.
(I believe I'm missing one or more here, anyone wanna help?)
Mengsel quirks a brow. "Evil, my Lady? I am the Ambassador, come to bring true Peace to the land, to end the reign of one who would kill even those bound by flesh and blood. You should thank me for being here to end your misery." Mengsel stops speaking once the Vixen moves, and his entire body becomes surrounded by ice, made surprisingly mobile by joints crafted from frigid water, held to his skin by magic to leave no gaps as he leaps forward, angling himself so that Spring meets with the flesh between shoulder and neck while he snaps at her right shoulder; an angry hiss emits from the ice around his body, continuing while the element is constantly replenished. Of course, this doesn't get along very well with the charge in Springmoon's teeth; his jaws clamp closed forcefully by the jolt, with or without Spring's flesh, and his muscles go rigid, as Spring's had earlier on.
Springmoon growls through her clenched teeth. "Ambassador? Ambassador? I never killed my sisters. I prevented them from killing others. Ursurper!" She used her hindpaws to again lash out at his icy coat, channeling as much fire as she could into her feet. The attacks did little damage to either of the combatants, so she began to do what she least wanted to; that was to call forth all the strength she possessed and fire a blast powerful enough to vaporize Mengsel, ice and all. With a snarl she lets go of him, backing off. Her eyes glow, and a mist forms about her mouth
Mengsel draws away as Springmoon does, leaving puddles in his wake. His limbs twitch with occasional spasms, remnants of the shock. He merely stands for several moments, awaiting an attack on his stunned state - and yet it never comes. Recovering himself, Mengsel draws his attention to the fem's muzzle and its curious accumulation. And, once more, laughter trickles from between his lips - though this time those lips are painful with burns. "Ah, at last, you are serious..." Yes... Get angry... Angrier.. "Perhaps you did not kill your sisters, but you certainly could have dealt with them in a better manner, don't you think?" Mengsel takes a few steps backwards, shadows writhing and darkening the color around his orange paws; the ebony tendrils slither up his limbs slowly. "And it does not change the fact that you have cast Kitsune in need away carelessly."
Springmoon's shoulder was torn, though the fangs did not penetrate very far beneath the skin. Her fur, previously white like new-fallen snow and throwing off light like a beetle's wing, was matted; the wound bled profusely. It seems to glimmer with an eerie light, blue like the vixen's eyes. Her eyes, now, were glowing white-hot, and a shaft of light pierced the mist surrounding her form. At once, it seems as if beams of energy are trickling down from t stars and diffusing into the air around her. "Deciever! You Silver-tounged liar, Mengsel. Do you know what you did? Have you any idea?" Her breath is heavy, her head hung low. It appears that a body of light is building in her throat. "You disrupted the sanity and security that this world once was. You tipped the scales of symmetry by adding one more variable to the equation."
Mengsel snickers, almost inaudiably. "There is no Life without Death; there is no Light without the Darkness; there can be no Sanity without Chaos." By now the darkness has consumed the majority of Mengsel's body, counteracting all traces of the light from Springmoon once it crosses the invisible line between the two Avatars. Like angry snakes, the shadows writhe around him with faint, but distinct, hisses. "I did indeed tip the scales - but it is not symmetry disrupted, it is symmetry Created." The mass of blackness continues to grow, beginning to concentrate in a tiny, marble-sized sphere in front of his chest, just above where his pennant dangles.
Springmoon's mouth was filled with the blazing light, a ball of energy wrapped up inside one small fox. She would soon release the thing, a ball that glowed brightly, whiter than anything else ever seen on the face of the earth. She would release it soon, directed exactly at Mengsel. It was made purely of the stuff that holds the world together. "Mengsel, when one symmetry fails another is created, but it not necessarily the preferred balance. I tell you this; I was given this world by my mother to protect from anything that might harm it. I love this world, Mengsel, and to keep it from whatever dire thing you seek to create, I would let it die." The light burns and emits a faint, ethereal song.
Shinkasuigetsu blinked, her tail swaying. For that one blink, her single tail split into numerous tails, and then it was whole again. What she was witnessing was epic, without a doubt. This day would be the day of Mengsel's new reign. Oh, yes, she was quite confidant in him, wasn't she?
Mengsel lifts his head high, golden eyes locked on Springmoon. He looks about as noble as a nine-tailed fox, burned, scraped, and feather-rumpled can look. Like rain trickling into a parched river bed, life seeps into his blank face; his eyes glow faintly within the dark around him, both literally and metaphorically. What emotion? Thrill. Elation. The feeling that comes when one feels his point has been driven home, and cannot be disputed any further. As the shadows and the orb continue their growth, so does the noise they emit - the unmistakable sound of hisses of pain, screeches of agony to which Mengsel adds his own low, rumbling voice, repeating previous words. "There can be no Life without Death."
Springmoon pulls back her head, looking for all the world like some crazed, brilliant kamikaze goddess, ready to sacrifice everything to create everything anew. Like a mouser with prey held tight and ready for presentation. She realized fully that the attack she was planning had immense destructive power, but she had done it before. Her eyes blazed, and beams of light flashed, concentrated and laserlike, through her wound, as if the light within her could stand to be kept hidden no more. With that, she let fly the jet of energy, pure and blazing, within it the strength of her very soul. "There can be no death without life."
Mengsel's body is at last entirely consumed by darkness, leaving only the dim amber sparks to mark where his face lies within; the sphere, large as a melon, suddenly contracts and shrinks into little more than a pinprick-sized dot amongst a final angst-filled cry, seeming to draw away the shadows beneath each tree, each rock, into this miniature black hole. And then it errupts into a flurry of tentacles, groping at the light sent forth from Springmoon; many are lost, but as they are torn away the outline of a central pillar of pure and unadulterated blackness can be glimpsed among the slithering mass, making its way for Springmoon.
[#] The two forces of energy rip at eachother, each propelled by desperate will. They form an immensely large orb, one that twists and turns, raging, pulsating and angry. Evenly matched, they emit a faint, grey light. The air is filled with screeching, cries of anguish and anger emenate frm the ball.
[#] Suddenly, within an instant, the sphere does a curuious thing; it seems to shrink, then blossoms outward with a terrible roar. All has ended. Dapplewood is gone, replaced with the stark lines of the world's web, a parallel dimension supporting this one.
[#] There is a blinding flash of white light and fog,followed by absolute darkness. Dapplewood has been destroyed by the fierce blasts of energy...
[#] With no warning, two beings of immense energy had entered the forest. One was the father of Mengsel, weho had sent his son on the dire mission. The other was the Sun, and mother of all things, Asla.
Asla: What have you done? You've destroyed everything.
Najidiius: Speak for yourself.
Springmoon was speechless, her mouth hanging wide open, utterly spent. Her heart clouded with sickening disappointment; she had not destroyed her foe, but she had destroyed her protectorate. At least, now, there was nothing to take and nothing to save.
Asla let out a mournful cry. " Springmoon, my daughter, I set you out to rule over this land justly and firmly. I set you out to protect it from darkness, and what have you done? You have let it fall into a grey place, where there is nothing left; nothing to live and nothing to die, nothing but the web I created to lay the world on. You have failed, daughter, for you have protected this land, and in that, failed to preserve it."
Mengsel studies the eerie blackness from the corners of his eyes, fatigue grasping at his body - something he dares not show in front of his Father, much less Springmoon and Asla. He dips his head slightly, towards Najidiius. "My Father, all I have done has been in hopes of achieving what you sent me here for... I have wronged you, but only with the truest intentions." Mengsel blinks a few times - the only outward sign of the pain that comes with speaking and further exerting himself. "Forgive me, Master, or kill me, as your will may be." His head is lowered further, eyes closed and mind too numb to find any further speech.
Najidiius growls harshly. "You have let yourself fail before your enemies, son. Killing you would only return you to a place under my paw. I doubt, though, that you would be of any use to me." He turned to Asla, glaring at her angrily. "Sister, we have both had our children fail us miserably. They neglected their duties. Together, shall we punish them?"
Asla kept her face turned from Najidiius. "I will never accept you as kin, child of The Pit. with you, I agree. There is no punishment that is harsh enough to chasten these two." She then turned, and drew herself up regally; changing her mind and deciding that it wasn't enough to be aloof anymore, she stared striaght into the eyes of the one whom she despised the most. "I mark these two." She flashed with a glitter of gold and light, then disappeared."