Disclaimer - I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or its Intellectual Property. This is all just so that I can take my maladaptive daydreaming and turn it into something so that it does not ruin the rest of my day.
DoorMan #78
Ta-Lo [February 17, 2008]
–Colin Baxter–
"Well, that's not good," He said to himself as they continued to fly at medium speeds, fleeing from the incoming swarm of Demon Dragons that now filled the small hole in the fog he was creating with the small sustained blast of the Kinetic Lasers.
Honestly, things were not looking too good at the moment. The fog was relentless, and so were the Demon Dragons behind him, and while he could, with a bang, take out most of them, it would drain him severely. Who knows what level of forces they had surrounding that mountain because that thing seemed to be the thing they were guarding and what provoked this response because he ended up decorating that giant mountain with a slash.
Jin'Ya was not responding, no portals, no GPS or magical honing spell to navigate him back to the tropical heaven that was Ta-Lo instead of this demon infested hellscape.
"Uh, Shuri?" His voice hesitant, as he continued to wrack his brain for any ideas to get out of this predicament without flying too fast lest they completely lose their way, "I think there might be a problem."
"Might be?" Shuri snapped as she aimed her hand at the hoard behind them and with a whining sound, sent what looked like a small white arrow, aimed precisely at the flying Demons who were closer to them, taking out one after the other, only this time she was using much less powerful shots so there were no ejected flaming Arc Rings, yet.
His stamina, on the other hand, while vast, was also draining quite rapidly, having to coordinate multiple Door openings at the same time whilst also wracking his mental faculties as to how they could get out of this predicament he had put the Princess, Soon to be Queen, in.
Multiple applications of his powers always took more effort than it was worth it, especially if he had to coordinate everything instead of just the output. Modulating output was fine but if he had to open and close the Doors, on top of stabilising the Air Door enough for an operational flight? That took some real effort.
He wagered that he had maybe 10-12 more hours of the current sustained loads he was under but the kicker was that at any point, he might have to escalate the power levels or enter an even more stressful situation, requiring more power and mental gymnastics.
"Hell of a tour, huh?" he quipped back as he had to swerve heavily to the right, a veritable explosion of Air snapping the entire Door to the right as he blasted apart the invisible flying Demon that had, once again, gotten alarmingly close before he could sense the little currents in the air.
"Are you mad?!" Why did he have a hunch that Shuri was probably just a few steps away from aiming one of her lasers at him?
______xx_____
–Jin'Ya–
"I assume this is a strategy that you employed on my domain without informing me?" The Water Dragon spoke in his mind, not loud but still, the intent behind the voice was enough for him to realise that the Master of Ta-Lo was not happy about being left in the dark about something that was coming alarmingly close to setting free an Ancient Dark One. None of them wanted to see that happen but some things he couldn't say without being sure that no one was listening.
Before he could say something in justification though, the Red Matron, the Parasite, spoke up, bluntly, without any care for future relationships, "I wouldn't be so uptight if I were you. Look who's the one who loosened the seal enough for the Dark One to awaken."
The Water Dragon fell silent as he had no reply to that. The granddaughter of the Village Chief, the one named Ying Nan, lay dead near the seal, her soul sucked in to be used as nourishment for the Dark One residing within, providing enough energy to combat the Water Dragon for its hold on the pocket dimension.
Thankfully, the Water Dragon was a lot stronger due to the regular Chi infusions but even then, it added a battle they were previously not expecting, taking away significant combat prowess from one of the only three beings in this place he expected to be able to participate in the fight ahead of them.
The portal, the one tinged with the dirty energies of Hell continued to spin in place, expanding ever so slowly, releasing energies so vile that life itself began withering around the portal, forcing the Water Dragon to quarantine that area and pull all the Water in the Great Lake away from the portal.
"While I do not like the insinuation, I admit that Ying Nan has succumbed to something she trained all of her life to resist. So, forgive me if I am not in a forgiving mood today."
Wow, that was…..aggressive.
He had not expected the Water Dragon to give off such bloodlust, something that was usually reserved for the more battle hungry(read: foolish) members of the Draconic lineages.
Water Dragons, as far as his extensive knowledge went, were not known for their battle hungry nature. They were known for extensive masteries over a wide discipline of magic, mostly support in nature and notorious for being hard to find due to their elusive nature, wherein they spent most of their time hidden, learning new magics.
Magics that, while supportive in nature, made them absolute monsters to fight as they almost certainly had something that could directly counteract your main attacking attribute.
His head perked up as he felt something from Jin'Ya, a mental message. He blocked it for the moment, as per the instructions he received from the Ancient One. The woman was not someone he could cross, not without incurring massive soul damage anyway and it was not like she would hurt Colin on purpose anyway.
The entire village behind them was evacuated by now, sealed in bunkers reinforced by Colin to become truly sealed spaces, having enough resources for the entire Ta-Lo's population, to last at least a week. More than enough time to decide if abandoning the entire pocket dimension was necessary or not.
"You do realise that this might just shatter this space if we are not careful? Because whoever comes through that portal might not be as careful as we are in acknowledging your sovereignty over this space." The Red Matron spoke the question that was on his mind as all three of them floated, alert, waiting for anything to come out of that hole.
There was a moment of silence before the Water Dragon spoke, "While I have come to love this place as my home and had just about resigned myself to die here, meeting the LifeGiver has given me options and time. So, while I urge you to exercise caution, if the time or the opportunity comes, feel free to ignore any restraints, as I will focus on safeguarding my people."
He nodded at that, as did the Red Matron, mostly because doing so was a very important decision for the Water Dragon as this pocket dimension was built from the very essence of the Water Dragon, essentially acting as a second body. Destroying it would hurt the Water Dragon, no matter how much stronger it had gotten from Colin's continuous Chi infusions.
Silence reigned once more as they watched the seal mountain light up in purple fire, as the portal in front of it continued to expand at a steady pace, as if unafraid and uncaring about the situation here, unhurried.
He snorted as he resisted the urge to let go of his restraints and sent a bolt of maddening energy through the portal. It might not affect the Hell Lords or any beings near that level but the vast majority of the forces of Hell would be afflicted by his curse, turning them on each other and even on their own bodies, resulting in cannibalism and more.
Pretty much a death sentence for any army not well versed in psionic defenses of the highest order, one of the many things that made him a nightmare to deal with, and why no being alive had ever seen him use it because merely seeing him use it was enough to send most beings into a bout of madness, usually resulting in them killing anyone and anything around them and then killing themselves.
A pretty nasty escalation technique, Colin called it after forbidding him from ever using it near any human, understandably.
The thing was, they couldn't spook any of their would be attackers from fleeing, despite the chances of that happening being pretty slim due to their egos being too big as opposed to their powers.
So, all three of them waited patiently, keeping an eye on their surroundings, ready for any surprises.
The one most surprised today was destined to be Colin though, of that, he was certain.
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