Dark Portents (Gear)

[VeraC]

October 31st, OE 102
???, ???
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11:00pm

It was only seconds as Granzon traveled through space, bending reality to its will. It ferried its occupant through the world itself, before arriving at a place familiar to the both of them. The machine landed gently within the somewhat confined space, the room they were in hardly built large enough with the expectations of bringing mobile weapons within. Granzon took a knee and opened its cockpit hatch, allowing Tian Di to exit from the machine and descend to the ground. She landed one foot after another, her contact with the ground sending an eerie echo throughout the room.

It was dark and musty within, Tian Di pulling out a flashlight and turning it on to shine some light on her current situation. Walls of black stone lined the room, angled up to the roof almost as if the place was a cave rather than any kind of man-made structure. There was little of note, banners and tapestries that walls once donned now nonexistent. She shined the light over to the Granzon, its armor looking damaged and burnt, no doubt a result of the Earth Cradle’s seemingly self-destructive assault. She then shined the light down and reactively covered her nose and mouth with the sleeve of her cloak as she saw the floor. Blood splattered all over the ground… though whatever bodies that perhaps once lined the floors werenow removed from the premise.

“...Just what happened here?”

She took a breath to calm herself, before stepping forward into the dark, flashlight held at the ready to light up her path.

She still remembered the way around the labyrinth-like hallways, though the current situation didn’t make it any easier to venture forth. It had always been quiet, but this was simply eerily quiet, enough to send shivers up and down her spine as she ever-so cautiously tread forward. Upon reaching another room, she shined the light in and saw little more than a repeat of the first room. Fully plundered with bloodstains strewn across the floor and walls. Some massacre had occurred here, and somehow she doubted it was the directory that was responsible for it.

She could understand them confiscating what items were present, but despite all these bloodstains, there wasn’t any sign of conflict. It was peculiar, though there was little more for her to do here so she carried on.

However the longer she did, the more the atmosphere began to weigh on her shoulders, the past memories, all the thoughts, experiences, everything came slowly flowing back into her mind; though it hadn’t even been a year, it was all nostalgic, in a traumatic-sort of way. She tried to stuff her emotions and feelings back down, but she couldn’t say she didn’t feel uncomfortable.

She ventured deeper and deeper down the halls, the silent solitude keeping her wits about her, though with the lack of humans present, the souls of the dead more than seemed capable of haunting this place.

Tian Di wasn’t just roaming mindlessly, there was a reason she came back here; in search of some information that was never divulged to her, neither by Lao, Vayne, nor Xander. Deeper and deeper she went, reaching the depths of the inner sanctum. It was here that she could find what she was looking for. As she arrived, the door was still sealed shut, no sign of it having opened in quite some time. Though the Directory may have swept through the entire facility, she doubted they’d get past here.

She placed her hand to the door and channeled her prana into the mechanism hidden within. An area accessible only by the top ranking officials of the Cult, Tian Di too had access, being the vessel of their benefactor-god. That said she was never allowed to venture in by herself, always either with Vayne or Lao, usually participating in high-level meetings.

The mechanism seemed sure to recognize Tian Di’s signature, responding in kind, the doors beginning to shift, sliding open and revealing the final sanctum of the Forbidden City. Within, there were no signs of blood; nothing touched. Preserved since her time leaving for Team Upsilon.

Certainly she would find something here.

 

[GEAR]

The rustle of parchment.

The soft light of a candle.

The old ways, he thought, were still the best. Or, perhaps, he was merely a creature of habit.

Just, he thought wryly, like everyone else. As if he needed to be reminded once again his reputation was undeserved.

Lao Xi Feng closed the scroll, and breathed a weary sigh.

He'd gathered everything he needed, and the Great Wall was only a couple hours' drive from here. He had to admit, he was dragging his heels, searching for any reason to slow his pace.

Some things, necessary as they were, he was... reluctant to call upon. But, if he had learned anything, it was better to have excessive power than to be powerless. Such was the reasoning in the Granzon's design-

At the thought of it, he paused, a hand running gently over the stubble that had accumulated on his features.

Tian Di, he thought, must yet live. He wondered-

...No.

The thought was dismissed. His presence, certainly, would never be welcomed by her. Not after everything that had happened. Everything he had done. Still...

He looked down at the book tucked firmly under his arm. Unlike the others, ti was clearly newer, and written in fine, neat print.

TOP SECRET
PROJECT GRANZON - KABBALAH SYSTEM​

He had a duty, he knew, to ensure that this made it into her hands somehow.

Scathelocke and his damnable pack of hope-drunk fools weren't about to allow the Granzon to walk free unmolested. They'd take it out just to spite him, to one-up the old teacher - the only question was when. Already his mind was shuffling possibilities, plans, ways to safely deliver this vital information, when behind him was a click.

Instantly, training took over. The sorceror whirled, words of an incantation already on his lips, a ball of fire blossoming into being in his palm as he prepared to incinerate whoever had followed him into-

But the words... died in his throat, as he saw her.

 

[VeraC]

In the bleak chamber, Tian Di felt it, an eerie presence that set her senses afire.

She was not alone within these somber confines; there existed no visible trace of another's presence, only the spectral hum of arcane essence permeating the air, an elusive hint of an uninvited specter. But who could it possibly be? Amongst the assembly of elders and lofty figures of the accursed cult, most had met gruesome ends, languished behind cold iron bars, or been swallowed whole by the stygian void...

Could it be Gramps?

It seemed the most plausible, for all others she had known were ensnared in the clutches of death. She ventured forth, each step a hesitant cadence, her breath held in anticipation. She turned each corner with trepidation, traversing the dim-lit passages, bracing herself for whatever malefic secrets might unveil themselves.

Yet, the verity that awaited her, no measure of preparation could have steeled her for. The man stood before her, his visage obscured by the curtain of time. The contours of his form, his very essence, so chillingly familiar... and yet, he had long been consigned to the realm of the deceased.

Was he a phantom? A spirit from the netherworld summoned to torment her?

Caught in a rapturous trance, she beheld the man. As he turned to meet her gaze, she acted on primal instinct, her hands clapping together in a sinister rhythm. Her lithe figure crouched to the ground, palms pressed against the cold stone floor, channeling the arcane energies through her frame. From the very earth beneath, grotesque golems of fiendish mien ascended, their hulking forms dwarfing even the stature of Lao, devoted sentinels that assumed a vigilant stance around their mistress.

Tian Di regarded the man with an air of hostility, yet beneath that veneer lay a deeper emotion—a primal dread that eclipsed all others. Memories long entombed in the shadowed recesses of her psyche were resurrected by his presence. Memories of servitude under the God of Destruction, culminating in her harrowing brush with assimilation into the very being.

In the midst of her enmity, an eerie hesitance clung to her, an inner conflict born of uncertainty. Was the man before her a corporeal entity, or perhaps a revenant of her own making, or merely a figment of her unraveling sanity? A cacophony of inquiries churned within, yet the first utterance to escape her trembling lips was a single, desperate query:

"...How?"

 

[GEAR]

Lao was silent - uncharacteristically so, as he had never been a man who seemed to not know the right thing to say, at exactly the right time. Even his appearance was bereft of his typical slick, spotless facade he had worn whether it was dealing with the cult, or driving a knife slowly into the heart of the Directory. The ball of flame in his hand extinguished, and he drew his hand close, massaging his palm gently as he eyed her wearily.

"...You've improved."

He said, finally.

Lao's eyes were on the golems. Admiring their form. Their architecture. Even her own movements flowed smoother, her steps bolder, her incantation pitch-perfect.

"I'm glad to see you have not neglected your studies in my... absence."

He tried to laugh... but a hard lump had formed in his throat. He was struggling. He was fighting a battle against himself that he could not win. Years upon years, all the terrible deeds he had committed, all for nothing. All to die in vain, his soul destined to be ripped asunder for a millenia. All he felt now was remorse welling up within, sweeping everything else aside like a black tide.

The face, the embodiment of his regrets stared back at him from behind her golems.

It must have been a peculiar sight to Tian Di, the way his features moved. How his throat bobbed, the hoarseness in his voice as he brought a hand to his forehead, as if to hide his eyes from view.

"Though I have no right... None... at all. To call you... anything, now." He said, haltingly.

Plip.

The first tear shed in over a millenia dropped to the floor, as Lao Xi Feng closed his eyes.

"Tian Di."

 

[VeraC]

She halted in her tracks, attentive to the man's utterances. Though his praise was a rarity, to Tian Di, it sounded as hollow as the abyss itself. It was an oddity—a facet of Lao she had never glimpsed before. Yet, it stirred within her little empathy or sympathy, for any internal torments he might have endured seemed well-deserved, a rightful penance for sins long accumulated.

"I was just beginning to fathom life beyond the confines of my cage."

She countered, her voice laced with anguish, like a child fleeing the specters of her past, dreading their return to ensnare her in an unrelenting abyss where no gleam of light could penetrate.

Her gaze remained fixed upon the man, a sentinel guard of her towering golems surrounding her, maintaining vigilance. Yet, as she observed his tear-stained visage, an enigmatic sensation coursed through her.

Lao, the unyielding monolith who perpetually concealed his true emotions, his thoughts hidden like dark secrets, was now shedding tears. She blinked in astonishment, scarcely believing her own eyes.

"There exists a mountain of questions I harbor for you."

She conceded, her tone laced with skepticism.

"But the weightier inquiry is whether trust can ever be entrusted to one such as you?"

The discourse had to commence, though her circumstances once more found her bereft of allies, marooned in isolation. The notion of him being counted among her allies was one she begrudgingly entertained, yet desperation had an uncanny way of shadowing her every move.

 

[GEAR]

"No."

The reply was immediate, and curt. Lao tried to regain some of his composure, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked like one of those old statues, trying to invoke an air of sobriety and majesty, only for the face to throw the whole thing off. He was a mess.

"Who better than you, Tian Di, to know how many backs I plunged the knife into? I taught you better than to trust freely, did I not?"

A short, cynical laugh. Like steam escaping a boiling kettle on the verge of exploding.

"Know only that I live not of my own accord. Were I given a choice, I would gladly - willingly - allow myself to be tormented in the deepest pits of Hell for all eternity. Nobody is more deserving of such a fate than I."

He shook his head, slowly. As if a lifetime of mistakes were flashing before his eyes. How many years had he wasted, chasing a futile, feckless dream that would have terminated with the death of the girl before him? And then, he wondered, what? Would the world truly have been remade as he desired? Would he have found the peace he had so long sought since his fall into the darkness? Something, now, told him that no - he would not.

The hands of fate moved, after all, in strange ways.

"I betrayed myself. My beliefs. My everything - all for nothing. I am a clown, a failure in every possible sense. A pawn. A tool. If taking my life would grant you some small measure of satisfaction, closure, pleasure, whatever it may be - I offer it freely."

There was not a trace of irony, or humor in his voice.. and Lao regarded Tian Di with the same steely eyed gaze as he often had, except now, there was something else. No, he felt no desperation, no need to be excused of his sins. He would not beg. He would simply offer what he had, what he had been forced to accept by Scathelocke - this life, his own flesh and blood, that it might even momentarily sate whatever desire for vengeance she might feel. What else could he do? If anything, she would be doing him a favor by returning him to his rightly-deserved punishment.

Lao Xi Feng was not a man to cling to a life he had not earned. Not, at least, without good reason - and preventing the apostles of Gragios from latching on to his former student was, it seemed, reason enough for him to endure...

But only if she would tolerate his presence.

 

[VeraC]

"It's Gragios, huh?"

Tian Di's voice bore the edge of doubt and anger as she scrutinized the man before her. There was a transformation in his essence, a shift from the shroud of Volkruss's darkness that had long enshrouded him. Now, an unfamiliar yet equally potent force gripped his very being.

"Ironic, isn't it?"

A weary sigh escaped her lips, but this time it carried the weight of her anguish, her head trembling in disbelief and exhaustion. The room seemed to close in around her, as the man's presence thrust her into a maelstrom of emotions. The visage of Lao, forever changed, unleashed a tempest of torment within her.

For all the deeds Lao had wrought in his lifetime, from their shared history to the nightmares he had unleashed upon her, she found herself reliving the horrors of the past with each glance at the man before her. The room felt stifling, her heart raced as old traumas resurfaced, and a suffocating despair gripped her.

Was this his karmic reckoning? To be reborn as a thrall to a god he once sought to obliterate, compelled to actions against his very will? The thought was unbearable, for it brought back memories of her own enslavement, her forced servitude to the God of Destruction.

Her heart yearned to resent him for the pain and suffering he had caused, the torment he had unleashed upon the world. The dark abyss that had once consumed him now threatened to consume her as well, a maelstrom of anger and loathing. But deep down, beneath the layers of her anger, an inner turmoil persisted.

“Such torment would be fitting for one like you.”

Her voice quivered, and tears welled up in her eyes. She could feel the weight of the past bearing down on her, and the agony she had long buried clawed its way to the surface. Her arms trembled as they clutched her chest, her heart aching.

"...But death is the coward's refuge."

Her voice quivered as she spoke. She felt the weight of her own indecision, threatening to cause her legs buckle underneath, the battle within her soul raging continuously. Her eyes remained fixed on the man, his fall from grace stark and undeniable. Was he truly resentful? Had he made a revelation post death? Was it influence from Gragios? A trap to ensure her?

"Is your death all you can offer?"

She gazed at the book he clutched, quite possibly the redemption of his renewed existence. Her prior stern exterior slowly began to crumble as she spoke, her voice raw and vulnerable, tinged with an element of longing she herself couldn't fully comprehend.

"If you genuinely seek redemption..."

She murmured, her voice softening.

"..Seize the life bestowed upon you and make him rue the day he brought you back."

With a simple gesture, the golems shifted aside, creating a path for her to step forward. As she extended her hand towards the man, Tian Di remained trapped in the liminal space between hatred and acceptance. The struggle within her was far from over, and her decision hung in the balance, like a pendulum swaying between two worlds. For her to make a conclusive decision, to trust him or not, she would need to see the man’s actions and where they lead him.

"Such a visage befits you not."

If he could provide her with aid, she would at least take advantage of it.

 

[GEAR]

Lao listened, with closed eyes. His eyes were turned inward, searchingly. Tian Di's words rang true.

They sounded familiar, somehow. As if an old friend had once spoken something similar. That he was too serious, too much of a perfectionist, to see the error of his own ways when emotions flared. Always, always had he tempered such emotions, believing such unreliable things were better buried deep down...

Only, of course, for them to take root.

(Kusanagi. Isn't that what you would say?)

His eyes, it felt, were open for the first time in a long, long while.

He bowed his head, in gratitude... and crossed an arm over his chest. It was a surprisingly sincere gesture.

​

"Then I, Lao Xi Feng... Swear to dedicate this life to healing the harm I have caused.

Not to violence, nor vengeance,... but to the path of righteousness I once walked."

With those words, he rose to his full height once more. There was a more subdued aura to him, now. His path was now clear, and with it came certainty. Things had come full circle, bringing him back to the place he had lost his way. The world, he thought, was yet still full of small mercies.

Perhaps, when all this was done, he would tell her of the old times. Of when he had walked with his head held high, alongside his companions. When they had been worthy of being called "heroes".

His mind now more at ease, he proffered her the slender book he had been rooting around for earlier.

"It may surprise you to hear that I had no intention of remaining in the thrall of Shiva Volkruss forever. Even though the Great Destroyer has succumbed to the void, there is still a way for us to draw upon its power safely."