The wind blew through his hair, and Andrei gasped as he felt at his neck, at the cold metal that had ensnared it. He was in that ideal, rusted red world that Ra had grown so accustomed to in his time with the boy, and he was caught by the dragon now, the evidence having tightened as he felt at it. A chain wrapped around him, causing his veins to bulge and drawing a quiet "Grk-!" from deep down in Andrei's core.
It was at that moment that he noticed the scenery had changed. Ra's world had expanded. He stood across from the dragon once more, his feet steady atop a flat rooftop. Ra stood opposed to him, on a neighboring rooftop just a few inches shorter than the one Andrei stood upon, and Ra's feet shifted as he glared upwards. The rusted world's red winds billowed more ferociously as the two seemed to soar higher and higher into the sky, the rooftops they had been positioned upon nearly even piercing the clouds. Where they were, it seemed as though the alleyway, and the courtyard, were so far away. It was an eerie familiarity which Andrei now missed.
His eyes glinted with chimeric red as he gazed upon Ra's form now. The charred scales of the dragon before him seemed to have changed with the world, now bound in two chains which were slung over each shoulder. Robes draped over his hips left his upper body exposed, and revealed only hints of the musculature beneath them. Andrei saw now that the shackles and chains at Ra's wrists now held the burning, fire-forged effigies of crowns older than Andrei himself. Molten gold glared at Andrei from the eyes on Ra's head, and his twinned, flaming ponytails were now accompanied by a natural crown of twisting, gnarled horns.
The angel of destruction stared at the boy, Andrei, whatever he was to him, and he stared back. Neither seemed to know, even though both were all too intimately aware of one another's thoughts, what the other was thinking at that moment. Shards of tough gravel tore through the air as Ra's voice echoed through the open air and bounced off of the hollow buildings beneath their feet. "This feeling... It's new, but also familiar." He took the stance he did when he fought, and glared at Andrei even more intensely. "I don't understand it, and neither do you. I think though... we can help one another if we don't hold back here, where nothing is at risk for you."
With a crack of his neck, Andrei instinctively tried to reach for his sword, and as he did so, the tightness of the chains around his neck loosened. He grasped at air as he swiped his hand across his side, finding no blade, and he gulped as his eyes darkened. With a sigh, his dark leathers began to catch in the wind as well, as the jet-black wings of energy which he had discovered revealed themselves to Andrei once more. His voice was quiet, shuddering as he came to terms with what he had been expecting. "You don't understand, you're right." Andrei's lowered head raised slowly to meet Ra's gaze, just barely. "Nothing is ever going to be free. Not for us, and not for risks. Either way, I don't think I've got a choice now."
The wind blew through her hair, and Vivian growled quietly as it nipped at her shoulders and stomach, the few spots not covered by fur or thick leather clothing. She flicked her tail and felt her hardened furs stand on end as lightning struck the world around her, and thunder boomed in the landscape of her mind. A bead of sweat made itself known to her, and she pushed it aside with her thoughts, only for it to drop from her brow. Her eyes focused on it as it seemed to levitate before her, then at the world beyond her view. A black world, devoid of the simple joys she prided herself in enjoying. A jungle whose life was only outlined by the voltaic deep blues and golds which surrounded each and every thing.
Vivian shuddered as the breeze chilled her to the bone, and tears pricked at her eyes as she realized that she was trapped in this place, a place she wasn't unfamiliar with. At one point, the poor soul was here every night of her life, fighting with the monster that resided here. Tension began to climb as the lightning grew more frequent, and a static began to build in the air. Every time Vivian had arrived here, a certain dread filled up within her. Once again, it began to fill her body as the plasma-conductive trees began to part, and the jungle gave way to the path of the beast Geryon.
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CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD
Action- BOUND THE WORLD - After falling from the sky in a blaze of glory, without so much as a memory to his name, and cleaving a path through the whole of the Tokyo Dead Zone with the discovery of his nature as a half-human half-Chimera, a monster from a...
