Gluttony Fang

      Threats against her person weren’t unfamiliar. Hell, they were par for the course at this point in her life. Very rare were the ones she might actually take seriously, and rarer still were ones where she’d actually relish the attempt. Hazama’s falls under the latter, and she favors him with a grin as he makes it, then turns her attention to the man in front of her. From beneath that familiar cloak, only the inscrutable set of Asuka’s mouth is visible at her current angle, making her heave a snarl at even seeing that much.             It’s entirely too familiar, even when it’s not quite right.            Now if there was one thing I-no hated, it was how no matter what the situation, the Man known as the Gearmaker had several defenses to hide behind– be they people or actual shields. The one thrown up by the little girl had barely posed a challenge once she’d set her mind to destroying it, but Asuka’s own? An absolute pain in the ass. On top of (she felt it before she saw it) the field of his attacks was being set up under their very feet. Not much an obstacle for a woman who didn’t need to touch the ground, but considering the sheer scope of the blasts…           “Eyes up, Commander– we’ve got projectiles coming!”           The light hover she usually takes would be useless in this, so she grips Marlene and takes to the air, ducking around the first of an oncoming wave of projectiles as Asuka’s hands finally lifted. Well, it’s not Proteus Universe, but even so, it’s something to be avoided. Taking damage is something she needs to avoid if she wants to take the bastard down. Unfortunately, the beams of magic he’s shooting are forcing her back, and when she finally has an opening to dash forward, it’s directly into one of his damn Walls, which while she effectively knocks it over with her charge, still stops her momentum enough for the next round of magical attacks. 

          “Quit your fucking hiding and let me get my hands around your scrawny neck, asshole-!”

That familiar pulsing that coursed through every inch of his being confirms that he’s currently operating at 100% efficiency. Ah, if only he could grasp some kind of hint behind what it was that had originally prevented him from accessing the power of his own vessel. Oh well, he could always try to dive into that later. A streak of light aimed directly towards his head prompts the commander to shift his body weight to the side, his abdomen folding sideways in an inhuman manner that brought him close to the ground as the projectile missed it’s mark.

❝My, my. Straight for the kill? You’re certainly no Trinity Glasfille. She’d have preferred talking my head off, rather than blowing it off.❞

❝If only she took after you!❞

The snake head of Ouroboros launched towards his target, aiming to bind her in place and keep her relatively in one piece. The more damage he did to her, the less pure of a specimen she’d be, after all. However, I-No’s words cause his eyes to shift below his feet, and not a moment too soon. He hadn’t been able to analyze this magic in the short timeframe between it’s formation and activation, but he could tell that it was bad news.

Ouroboros suddenly curves upwards halfway through it’s trajectory, speeding towards the sky quickly enough that the chain appeared to be little more than a green flash of light. And then it grips. It seemingly grips nothing tangible, yet it manages to pull the entirety of Hazama’s being into the air while it’s head remained fixed in place. The barrage of attacks narrowly misses his person and he can’t help but be impressed. Just what kind of monsters lived in his little secretary’s world?

     With the Black Beast down below, Ragna the Bloodedge was certain that the worst of his troubles had already reached the main island. With the help of plenty of other allies to keep the Beast at bay, it was time for Ragna to head on up to the floating island to scout out new dangers. He needed to find a way to end all of this… Was it possible for one man to handle it? Either way, he was going to find out.

     But that was until a much more dangerous threat became manifest. This was a problem that the Grim Reaper couldn’t ignore. The self-proclaimed God that threatened to destroy countless realities… Susano’o. That monster was now locked in combat with Ragna the Bloodedge, destroying any structure around them with their reckless attacks.

          ”Is this all the power you can muster? Insufficient. It is not enough, Ragna the Bloodedge… Challenging a God is insulting as is– but this? How dare you mock me with your weakness?!” Another strike– another building utterly devastated by the blow. The Reaper could barely block it in time, yet was still sent flying off. This was going nowhere… He needed to activate the BlazBlue. But the risk…

❝Oh my~ Flying into another man’s arms? What would your beloved little vampire think? Well, not that there’d be anything between you two to begin with.❞

      Having only seen their power in bits and pieces, the odd glow surrounding him is new. Part of her would very much like to sit and pick apart his Chord Signature if he’d let her (he probably wouldn’t), but a larger part of her is more curious about what tricks he might now have up his sleeves. So rather than voice the thought (which she would without hesitation because the way it sounds would be enough to irk him) she simply observes and picks apart the bits of him she can from that.            What she does gather only serves to make her more curious.           As she opens her mouth to comment on the frankly absurd amount of magical energy he can channel compared to the average, he turns that grinning face in her direction and she pauses. The tone of his voice is surprising, and it’s that so much what he says but the relish with which he speaks it that leaves her wide-eyed. Her surprise lasts all of a portion of a second, a manic, startled giggle working out of her throat, hands reaching out to his lapels and yanking him toward her. Her mouth slams against his, quick and messy and voracious before she pulls away again, still laughing.           “There you are,” she croons, fingers releasing his lapels to instead grip his chin lightly, delight lighting her features. Seeing him– the real him– properly is almost better than anticipated. “So, this is the kind of thing that flips your switch, huh?” She isn’t sure of the exact reason, or even the extent, but this is the closest thing to emotion she’s seen on him and it’s thrilling. 

          “If it’ll keep that look on your face, I’ll pin these motherfuckers to the closest flat surface with their own bones,” she murmurs, voice low. Drawing the brim of her hat down over her eyes, she sets her sights on the effigy of the Gearmaker, mouth twitching into her own steady, sadistic grin. “Starting with this son of a bitch right here–!”           Her path is paved quickly. Almost too quickly to see, guitar swinging in a wide arc across what should have been That Man’s hooded head and shoulders. It meets a barrier rather than a body, formed strangely in comparison to how she’s used to, and she follows its source to the other figure. She meets green eyes with a cant of her head, and voice dropping lower into a snarl, bites out:            “This isn’t your fight, so back the fuck off–!” 

Her chaotic whims seem to have caught the snake in her whirling vortex once again. There is little resistance that comes when I-No’s hands grab a hold of him, though neither is there any real feedback when her lips crash into his own. He remains eerily still, almost like a life-sized doll, his eyes frozen in place and staring right through her. The only signs of ‘life’, the aura pulsating around every portion of his being, adds warmth to the passionate exchange that most would have back off from. Of course, she wasn’t like most people.

His posture is straightened once again when she finally distances herself. However, the manic expression remains on his face. For all intents and purposes, her little display of ‘affection’ had brought him back to his senses. At least enough to actually have a proper hold on his urges, as opposed to letting them overwhelm him.

❝I’ll deal with her later.❞

If that sounded vaguely like a threat, then he probably hadn’t conveyed it well enough. Because it was absolutely a threat. Call it riding the high of his power trip, but he felt like taking a more hands on approach in examining everything that had garnered his curiosity thus far. Who knows, perhaps she wouldn’t even mind being torn apart as long as it meant satisfying him.

A flash of light causes him to fold over backwards, his head practically touching the floor from how far his body had bent. Of course, if it took on that form, then it stood to reason that it’smagic would be of the same caliber as her. He couldn’t afford to take her lightly. Any member of the six heroes posed a legitimate threat to him, fake or not.

❝Restriction 666, release--❞

He freezes instantly, the joy of discovery momentarily halted by a sudden sense of defeat. He’d been forced to experience this regularly ever since he’d run into her. The defeat in question being the fact that she repeatedly seems to know more about him than he ever cared to let most people know.

@cruelviper​

      “Mmmmmmm, now this is more like it…”           Lounging against Marlene’s back, I-no’s body bobs and sways with the flying instrument’s faint motions. Stretching her arms over her head, she swivels on a hip, guitar bobbing upward so she can lean backward over it. Reaching out with an outstretched hand to tap at the underside of a pale chin, she doesn’t await a reaction before sitting up in a single, sinuous motion, tugging the brim of her own hat lower. One leg crossing over the other, one hand braced against the back of her guitar, head tilting to peer at him with delight tugging her lips into that mischievous smile. Around them, light sears, and enemies slip down in droves, eager to kill or be killed.           She couldn’t imagine a better stage.           “Not really the comeback tour I wanted, but I’ll take it for now. This place has me so pent up,” the emphasis on the words is faint, but there, eyes sliding over him as she rolls one shoulder up. “But I gotta say, I’m almost more interested in watching you cut loose.”            The laugh that follows is cut short, and her head swivels slowly, scanning the area for the familiar presence. Adrenaline courses through her, making her tense and slip from Marlene to stand on her own two feet. Gripping the neck of the instrument tightly, she hears the strings creak beneath her grip as she finally spots him. The sight of that familiar hooded form makes her teeth clench and her eyes narrow, the tension seeping into every part of her body. It’s not him, she knows, it couldn’t be, because he would never fall to something like this without a fight.            Even knowing that doesn’t stop her from grinning around her grit teeth, a frighteningly broad smile topped by the gleam of her shifting eyes.            “What’s this? A private performance…?” Her eyes land on another figure, slighter, but still hooded, approaching from the opposite direction. “Oh, come on, you know polyharmony’s not really my thing.” Her lip curls, instrument flipping in her hand to hover before her, fingers pressed to the strings. Looking over at Hazama, she cocks her head at their second audience member, raising a brow.

❝Fascinating..❞

By now, the words spoken to him had become little more than white noise. In fact, even the return of the walking grimoire’s capabilities had failed to truly register to him. The phenomenon that was currently pouring down from the sky was of far greater interest to him. A veritable explosion of chaos and death, taking physical form to cleanse this island of those their invaders considered their enemies. However, it was the form that had taken that truly garnered the man’s interest.

Though most of the entities that spawned from the abyss were foreign to him, he could make it figures that were unmistakably familiar to him. Those who had adorned uniforms belonging to sector 7 took off to fight anything that was in their path, though seemed to be drawn towards certain places in particular. And what’s more.. There were members of the librarium among the swirling chaos as well. Neither side seemed to come to blows with one another. Instead, they sought out those native to this island particularly. Had they no will of their own? Clearly they weren’t the same as him.

What’s more, the ominous presence he could feel from a distance was one anyone from his world could have recognized. The way his body reacted, as if being pulled towards it, made it clear that it was as close to the genuine article as could be. The Black Beast, in the flesh, going off in yet another direction. And with neither the NOL or Sector 7 paying them any mind. It had become clear that these weren’t beings brought from his world, but some kind of forgery. Though, the possibility of them stemming from a different timeline couldn’t be entirely disputed.

His body glowed a feint hint of green. His curiosity having been piqued in a way that it hadn’t in a long time. Just how was NULL capable of creating nearly identical beings of such caliber with such ease? He needed to know. He had to get his hands on the perpetrators. Or at least one of their little minions and dissect them until he had the answers he sought. Every fiber of him craved to have a deeper understanding of what made these invaders tick. The ecstasy of uncovering their secrets and finding a way to use them to his advantage. The euphoria of having so many new toys to play with was--

❝Oh?❞

There was something about the tone of his voice that was far different than it had been at any point during his stay in this world. Even more curious were the movements of his body. Whereas he often moved with a kind of stiff elegance and grace, his body now rose from it’s crouched position with as sort of chaotic fluidity. His smile had widened to such a degree that his already unsettling features now bordered the uncanny, making his face appear even more snake-like than before.

His vessel had become particularly sensitive due to his heightened levels of excitement, which finally alerted him to the situation he now found himself in. Two of these strange enemies had found their way to him and his partner, it seemed. One of which bearing a striking resemblance to one he actively tried to block from his memories.

          “So… that’s how it is, huh?“ Once again, he faces a force that threatens to erase a possibility that displeases them… While he has his own reservations about lending any kind of help to the Stars of Isola, this choice was simply too easy for him– they have become the lesser of two evils at this moment. Even if the ones in charge were lying about those true motives, Ragna can’t ignore even the slightest chance that it could happen. Once again, he’s decided to take up his sword for the sake of others.

His voice rings out so close that the words might as well have been whispered into the man’s ears. While the Grimm reaper no doubt hardened his resolve and prepared to do what needed to be done, it seemed that he’d provided another an opening to approach him and catch him unawares. A voice that the reaper was undoubtedly intimately familiar with.