Okay, fine, that cliffhanger was not as it seemed… sigh.
His vision darkened, but because it was covered! By a hammer!
Yes, in an instant, a giant gray hammer suddenly appeared in front of his face and was likely to smash it to a pulp if the hammer succeeded in touching it. Its gargantuan size-more than ready to dish out the heat.
However, to the contrary, it didnt touch his face! At all!
Why? Because it was stopped. How was it stopped? With black, hot, goop.
Yep… goop.
Okay, okay, fine. It was actually tar. Yes, that kind of tar; the sticky, oozy, and black mess.
It popped and smoked as the heat made Ran sweat slightly. Its smell-pungent-had assaulted Rans nose and entered his lungs, causing him to throw a light cough every now and again.
It had made a wall right in front of him.
Yet, even though the hammer was a lot bigger, and I mean a lot bigger, the tar slowed its previous rocketing speed to a snail's crawl.
Then, with a slight jerking motion, dozens of hands made of tar oozed out from the wall and ripped the hammer into pieces.
"YOU!!!" The husky voice snarled as it spoke, its ferocity almost visibly manifesting in the air.
"What 'you', I can't let you ruin a toy of mine, can I?" Another voice spokeout, one that was oddly familiar, in response.
Ran, who was in the middle of all this, seemed to be caught in someone's crosshairs?
"You-YOU-need to stay out of this! Or… you'll end up just like your little "toy" here." The coarse voice yelled at the opposer in a condescending tone, though only a snort was heard afterward.
Then, in the distance of Rans vision, which was a couple miles out, big flashes of gray and black light started to collide. The shockwaves created reached all the way to where Ran was and it shook the sand beneath his feet.
Of course, it wouldn't be just this. The two collided for a few seconds, creating reverberations, before the gray shot out in Rans direction!
"S**t!" Ran knew he was done for. After killing Bane here, someone wanted revenge and seeing the speed at which they approached, it was useless to think of escaping. He was all out of juice, both metaphorically and literally, and the person who's comin is someone he couldn't beat.
Seeing the hammer that was easily over ten meters in size, the pressure it gave off before being destroyed was enough to give Ran a severe headache. The collisions as well as the speed of encroachment, all of these told Ran the person who came for revenge was someone that was a true powerhouse.
All of these thoughts circled Rans head and the few seconds it took to form and contemplate them, the gray light had already arrived in front of him.
Ran involuntarily shivered when he looked in front of him.
There, just a couple feet away from him, a figure stood silently, staring menacingly. His eyes bloodshot, full set of canine teeth-bared and bloodied. Lips curled into a hideous snarl and wisps of steam flowed from the scrunched up, devilish, nose.
The previous blue eyes were staring at Ran as if he had just killed his family and pierced into his body; it was like he was desperately searching for the reason his brother was laying on the sand, in two, in the first place.
His body grew more and more tense as the gray hairs on his body stood on end. He looked down and saw the split Bane. He gazed upon Banes lifeless eyes and his own softened. His face shriveled up as if he had aged decades as he now held Banes' still warm hand.
After a brief period of silence, he shut Banes eyes before he directly put his corpse within his storage space. He stood back up before, again, looking directly at Ran.
He slowly breathed in before clenching his fists tightly. He opted not to say anything as no words would be able to describe how he felt; his forehead began to flicker as a gray light shone from within.
The next second, an overbearing presence descended on the area as an entirely gray silhouette flickered in and out of existence behind the wolf.
It appeared exactly like the wolf, standing on two legs, though it had no clothes on nor any visible features attributing to any particular sex besides the appearance of more bulk.
The gray silhouette clenched its flickering hands as it stared at Ran with its gray and oozy eyes; it had no pupils to speak of, being completely gray like the rest of its body.
At that moment, the gray, slimy, figure completely solidified and the overbearing aura increased in strength.
Cough.
Ran coughed as blood was spat from his mouth, his vision once again beginning to darken; he knelt as he clutched his chest, his soul heart fluctuated from the disturbance outside.
However… Before he lost consciousness, he saw another silhouette flicker and solidify in front of him.
It was completely black, and appeared very similar to the wolf's gray figure. It was oozing and slime seemed to seep out from some kind of gummy membrane that held the figure together, though the figure itself didn't seem to like being here; as did the gray wolf's figure.
The black figure turned its head and looked at Ran; it smiled strangely at him before looking back at the gray figure in front of the wolf with its black eyes.
"M-mentor?"
The next second, right before Ran fainted, he saw something else.
The sand beneath him shook vigorously before the area surrounding him suddenly turned black.
The previous sand was nowhere to be found and all that's left is a black ooze that had a bad smell.
The tar moved like a whirlpool, slowly and in a methodical manner.
Seeing this, both the wolf's and the look-alike gray figure's expression changed. They both suddenly charged ferociously, turning the already fine sand finer.
Seeing this, the black figures expression also changed dramatically. It flicked its oozy fingers; and the whirlpool of tar suddenly stopped to a standstill.
The stillness only lasted for an instant before it sloshed around and from within the tar, dozens of goopy black hands grabbed every part of his body before yanking him into it's dark depths.
The last thing he knew before he fainted was the slight pain of being dragged forcefully somewhere and the utter silence that the darkness brought along with it.