Ates and Aguna were but inches apart. Zao's blade ribbed through Aguna's forearm and split it from finger to elbow.
Aguna howled in pain and when the Crusher blade was coming once more, Ates was willing to sacrifice himself for his brother. Wu Hai's attack was coming down and strong force came down from the heavens, it impacted them all. The ground shattered beneath them into jagged rocks.
Vector was forced to hold Mursayade back, the others covered their mouths.
The force was so strong that Wu Hai had been nearly crushed under the strain of the pressure. Ates and Aguna were snuffed out, their bodies turned to spirit stones and fell to the soil, sinking.
Gripping the Crusher's handle, Wu Hai did his best to get up but there was nothing he could do, a boot came crashing down against his face. His face was used to dig a hole that drafted his body into the bedrock and the ground flung its way out.
'Pak' Wu Hai felt like his whole body was broken, he was limp like a wet towel and someone had picked him up.
Kuzunoha made a motion for the group to move but Vector shook his head and held her back. They would only be leaping to their deaths. Vira wanted to scream but Noyuki covered her mouth and cried quietly instead while they watched.
"Oh?" There was surprise in the voice but the figure was shrouded by a red light. "You're still alive, interesting.. Not a bad seed, not a bad seed at all. To think you bested these three that had shown such promise all by yourself.."
Wu Hai was struggling to breathe, there were too many treasures in his body, in his hands. Wu Hai's storage rings disappeared into the weapon and he swung his broken arm to stab at the figure that held his neck like a chicken.
"Defiant still? That's okay, we can beat that out of you later." With a hacking motion, Wu Hai's forearm and right wrist were cleaved from his body and fell to the ground. The blade flew away and crashed into the dirt. "Know your place, you belong to me now.."
The Red light appeared once more, the red figure's hand was still clasping Wu Hai's throat. In an instant, they had vanished.
Wu Hai was gone.
"NO!" Vira and Kuzunoha both started to cry uncontrollably. Wu Hai had been taken mid-victory.
Noyuki went to grab the crusher blade and Wu Hai's severed arm while Vector held Mursayade. Kneeling down beside it, she too started to cry.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
The Red figure was still holding Wu Hai in his hands for some time, he kept a steady pressure as to not kill him. "Do not resist, you lost your choices the moment you appeared before me. All that exists, exists for me."
A formation came down in front of them both and Wu Hai was thrown inside of a small cell. All of his bones felt like they had been fractured, it was taking everything in his power to regenerate but the speed in which he could do so was dramatically stunted. He couldn't even muster the strength to speak.
"You have questions, don't bother asking them. For now, just treat this as the moment of your rebirth. From today onward you will become what I make of you and serve me in the future." A small pill was thrown into his mouth. Wu Hai was powerless to stop him. "Heal your arm but know that there is no escape from this place or your destiny, I don't keep imperfect things." The red figure seemed blurry the closer Wu Hai tried to look, he lost consciousness.
'What is this?' Wu Hai felt the burning sensation in his body, fluids accumulated around the wound rather quickly and then, his arm began to regrow. 'I don't feel any energy from the pill..' There was no energy at all, it only healed his body. Slowly the rest of the broken bones began to mend, there were so many fractures that it had taken less time to regrow the arm.
Wu Hai screamed in pain throughout the whole process. The source of the Pills refinement was not his energy or an energy that was supplemented within the pill itself. 'That Bastard!' Wu Hai felt himself grow weaker, there was no telling how much or what of his that had been taken.
Stretching his arms out, he came into contact with the shield, it burned at his fingers, there were formations above and below, each wall was saturated with them and only the space in the middle that was surrounded by a shield of some sort was he allowed to remain.
It was as if he was standing under a stage light, the heat was directed on Wu Hai from all sides.
'What does he want with me!?' Wu Hai tried to power up but nothing happened. He couldn't manifest any energies. 'What is this!!' He wanted to yell, he wanted to escape but he couldn't even channel a single flicker of energy and was being completely suppressed.
"Unremarkable offspring with diluted Bloodlines, you might have been able to slay them but I believe it was merely a stroke of luck and bad coordination on their part. You don't seem like you're that powerful, more like a high ranking cult member or some guru and thus.. you lacked the strength." A coarse voice sounded in the hallway and footsteps got louder as another figure that was slightly shorter unmasked and approached the edge of the formation.
"My name is a Ajennic, I wanted you to see my face immediately. That way you can put a face to the man who will skin you alive ten thousand times for slaying my children." In that moment, Wu Hai met Ajennic's eye. "Good, G.." Words were caught in his throat. "What is that?"
Ajennic pointed to Wu Hai's forehead. "Sun Mark?" He stood up and left the room, he felt repulsed at something and vanished from sight.
Wu Hai passed out on the floor, his body was still on the mend and he had grown very weak to the point where he could hold out no longer.
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Noyuki picked up the sword, it was heavy and dragged across the floor. She passed it to Vector. "I have all of his memories, don't argue with me." Tears were streaming down her face.
"He wasn't killed. That last enemy took him away. If we had interfered, we would have been crushed to death by that force as well. Wu Hai is almost assuredly alive. I'm afraid and worried too but, we can't stay here." Noyuki grabbed Vira and Kuzunoha, she channeled some energies in her hands and teleported the group as far away as she could.
Kuzunoha and Vira were distraught, they had no idea what to do. Vira was willing to go on a rampage and her violent outbursts would definitely not go unnoticed.
Vector sat everyone down, Mursayade and Vira talked and Kuzunoha stood by a tree.
"We're not giving up." Vector put the sword away. "If they went up, we go up. But, we can't be stupid. We have to raise our strength and then plan a rescue. If they captured him alive, then maybe they won't kill him. If they won't kill him, then he's likely either being tortured, interrogated, or brainwashed, maybe a combination of them. I don't want to think about it but we have to remain coordinated in our paths if we want to continue forward." Vector was having a hard time keeping his own emotions in check. Everything in his body was signaling him to take Vira's approach and lay waste indiscriminately until they kick over the right rock.
Martin popped out of the robes but Vector pat his head and had him return. The sight of him settle Vector slightly, he needed to pull out of his emotional spiral.
Kuzunoha continued to cry for a little while, it was appropriate that she let it all out so that she could refine her own feelings into something useful. Vira noticed from a distance and abandoned her discussion with Noyuki and Mursayade.
"Sister.." They held each other for a while and Vector searched for a place to sleep.
In twenty minutes, they had found themselves without shelter and their leader had been kidnapped. Flying through the air, Vector was able to clear his head. When he spotted a cave, he came back for the others and led them to it.
"We should stay here for the night, but I think we should find one of these country's rivals and look for information there." Vector pulled out some furniture, it wasn't much but it was better than bare dirt.
The girls didn't care, they huddled together. He closed the cave off with a layer of rubble, save for an air gap and went to sleep.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
In Tribal communities, especially those of being like sun worshipers, Ancestors are truly a remarkable resource and existences that are not to be trifled with. Some have considerably more power than anyone could have expected. An Ancestor could be anyone, and with bloodlines, old blood was almost always stronger than something handed down in fragments.
Wu Hai had come face to face with one and he wasn't even able to distinguish his features, not only that, he had won so marvelously over the fight before the Red figure's arrival, only to be treated as a trivial existence.
As he laid passed out on the floor, several instruments were used to probe him. Samples of his body were taken and then, a gas was introduced into the formation. It hung in place, confined by the shield itself inside with Wu Hai. As he breathed, he swallowed it, took it in and absorbed it.
"He's been sedated. You can move him." Ajennic had some servants wearing bright red gimp suits move Wu Hai onto a table. "Good, you can go." Sending them away, Ajennic took out some rather fine looking crystalline knives. They were in strange shapes but all of them were extremely thin as well as sharp. While sedated, Wu Hai was undergoing immense torture. He had no idea he was being skinned alive.
When the skin and flesh from his chest was cut open, then another canister of gas was deployed, a device was inserted. The device had a red light on it, when the would sutured shut from the effects of the gasses Wu Hai woke up and felt the stinging sensation from the wounds that covered more than half of his body. Pieces had been torn from him all over, his body was still weak and under the loss of his vital fluids and energy, he felt like he was about to die.
Laying there like a stuck fish, another shower of gasses filled the space around the table. They did not relieve his pain, he passed out again and the process was repeated.
Each time Wu Hai woke up, he had been cleaved again. Sometimes he was missing body parts, sometimes organs. 'Are they searching for something?' Wu Hai thought to himself as his skin regrew for the eight time in a row.
He passed out again.
Waking up in his cell, he felt relieved for a moment. He had all his body parts in tact but there was a sort of gem was implanted in his chest. Clawing at it, Wu Hai experienced great pain. His body shuddered and he passed out for a while longer.
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A week later, in a distant country along the second level of the Ultinian Heavens, the group had finally found a City that didn't bare a Sun Banner from either of the Empires, there were mixed races and all of them seemed hostile to the Empires of the East.
"Chase hard facts." Noyuki split away from the group and walked around.
Mursayade and Vector went to a Bar and Kuzunoha took Vira with her the opposite side of town, there were deserters from various regions there and information was important.
"Who the hell are you!!" Entering the Bar, Vector's eyes met with a large man in green. He had a hammer on his back and gave off a defiant aura.
"We are who we are.." Mursayade laughed at him and walked around him to sit.
"You heard the lady." He grinned but kept his eye on the man's shoulders. When he rotated slightly, Vector instinctively drew the man's hammer from his back and slammed it against his face, sending him out of the door the the man's own Hammer. "I thought this was a peaceful City?"
"and now, you'll have to pay for ruining my breakfast." A voice came from a man sitting near the door, he was wearing green that matched the big man that had just been ejected.
Vector saw the Old man get up, there was soup across his lap, parts of the door had landed in it.