In the midst of their travel to the Phoenix Empire, Shiishii and his comrades found themselves in an unfortunate situation. Jollister made an appearance and announced "No one shall pass!" The group was under the impression everything would go smoothly. But Jollister refused to let anyone go past that point. Even going as far as to send his two Self-Split personas after Gaia, in order to keep her at bay. Though the goal was to stop any more interference, Jollister had a more important goal to himself. To finally beat his older cousin in a head on, skills match.
The match came about from a promise that was made not too long ago. On the day of Shiishii's revival, right after he came out on top in his fight with Haydes. Like most rivals… they have a friendly competition going to find out who is truly the better death god. Power and stature had nothing to do with these dangerous trials. The two of them get ready for their battle.
Jollister: "Absolute concentration."
Shiishii: "With no room for faltering."
Dante: *Gulp*
Dwayne: "And so the two great battles begin."
*PEW* The two flash and a force of great magnitude burst forth. Everyone is blown back more than fifty miles, even the unconscious Hideaki who was woken up by the burst of death essence. He grabs hold of Vashjai and the others and hoists them to his side. Staring at his two superior cousins, go at it. A perfect learning situation for the young Death God.
Both gods test their dexterity and take their own punches, swapping blows. Jollister tanks Shiishii's right fist and Shiishii tanks his left. A shockwave ensues and they begin a burst of barrage exchanges. Shii makes use of the quick and small bursting jabs that wing chun incorporates, barely giving Jollister time to use any exotic moves. Making it almost impossible to instantly turn the tides of battle. So instead he makes it a focus to counter the jabs and wait for his opportunity.
He noticed Shiishii was making it a main focus to give him no openings. So he forces one by jumping forth with a sudden burst of speed and nipped Shiishii's chin on a perfectly timed strike. It rattled his brain and allowed for Jollister to jump out of his range with a backward flash step. Shiishii shakes his head to stop the dizziness and notices Jollister with a stiffened, straight right arm that was cocked back.
Jollister: "Try this on for size! Swordplay: Jollister's Holy Slash! *phhhhhhEWWW*
Shiishii: "Oh damn!" *SWISH*
Shiishii manages to lean back while taking a step back, which when put in the right position, allows one to lean back much further. The slash misses and ends up slicing a nearby star with little to no resistance. The star implodes and dies out, causing a supernova that was quickly morphing into that of a small blackhole. Shiishii comes back up from his lean and jumps up more than one hundred feet. He cocks his left fist and charges it ever so slightly.
"Martial Arts: Divine Shockwave!" Shiishii yelled out as he thrust his arm forward and sent a wave of force strong enough to destroy the sun three times over. Jollister forms an 'X' guard and bends his knees to better brace for the attack. He withstands the attack for three seconds before flexing his arms and thrusting them outwards. He cancels out Shiishii's shockwave, but didn't take notice of his silent approach on his person. Shii kicks Jollister in his side with a low roundhouse kick. Jollister withstands the blow and grabs hold of Shiishii's right leg.
Got your ass now, mayne!" , he yells right before throwing a burst of ten rapid jabs with his right fist. Each was imbued with death essence. Shiishii followed suit and used his own death essence to block every shot. He times his counter quite well and jumps off his left leg for a swift head kick. The blow was heavy, with a lot of power behind it. Jollister sensed this and was forced to use both arms to block without being sent flying. The two separate slightly after the exchange and leap back whole heartedly.
Jollister: "I'm going to borrow your Death-Yu, for a second." *fwip*
Shiishii: "What!? (He's learned it too!?)"
Jollister advances while lowering himself. He uses a storm of jabs aimed at Shii's stomach and traveling up the torso. Shii bends low as well and counters each jab, but fails to realize that accurately stepping back in case of sudden bursts. Becomes a whole lot harder when your legs are bent. Jollister takes advantage of this and does just that, he bursts forward and lands a hard right on Shii's chin. Shii is discombobulated from it, allowing Jollister to leap into the air and start a twirl. As he comes down atop Shiishii, and brings his left foot into a raised position.
"Sword Kick!" Jollister yelled as he brought his foot down on Shii. Shiishii uses the sleeves of his jacket and imbues them with essence. He makes them hard enough to use as a track to slide Jollister's leg on. He steps forward and turns around while grabbing onto Jollister's leg. He slams him into the floor once he's fully turned around. Jollister rolls forward and rebounds while facing Shiishii. He leaps forward once more.
Jollister: "Hahaaaa! Divine Sword!"
Shiishii: "I'm on your ass now! Dragon's Claw!"
Shiishii stops Jollister's sharp arm with his claw's amazing grip. Jollister is surprised and lacks the concentration to notice the harsh right Shii had thrown. He hits Jollister on the top of the head, making his vision blurry from his sudden tear duct leak. Shii grabs hold of his collar and twists up and around Jollister's body. Swinging his legs around and wrapping them around Jollister's neck as he stands straight up. It was the perfect triangle choke hold.
Jollister: "I can… break out of such a thing!"
Shiishii: "Oh I know. *Swish* That's why I planned this."
Jollister: "Oh SHI-"
Shiishii: "Divine Shockwave!"
The force of the Shockwave hits Jollister head on in the face. Sending him flying away from Shii, who releases his leg lock as soon as it lands. Jollister is stuck doing flips while slowly approaching a nearby star.
"Don't think I'll be the only one taking some damage!" Jollister yelled right before planting his feet into the star and gaining his ground again. Shiishii notices a small skull marking on his right shoulder. When he locks onto Jollister once more, he notices his arm was swung outward and could hear the word "Slash" in the distance. Before he knew it, a huge gash showed itself upon his shoulder. Causing a large amount of blood to burst out.
Shiishii: "Well that was pretty damn clever. Not too painful at all but clever nonetheless."
Jollister: "And that shockwave had the purest of your fighting essence within it. Not too harsh on the face but truly remarkable altogether, mayne"
Both: "Heha!" *FWIP*
Meanwhile, Gaia masterfully fends off the advances of Juullez and Joelli. Juullez uses her power of benevolence to attempt to seal Gaia's powers but the armor she has on embodies the powers of both. She switches between them and keeps them separated to keep from having to use both sides of the armor at once. Juullez advances and tries a bicycle kick approach, followed by a frontflip into a dropkick. Gaia blocks the bicycle kick barrage and leaps out the way of her dropkick. She turns and blitzes Joelli who blocks her headbutt with an 'X' guard. She uses her own momentum to push forward while performing a flipping twist over Joelli.
"I sense malice!" Joelli stated as he raised his hand into the air and aimed for Gaia.
Both: "Malevolency Absorption!"
Joelli was surprised to have his technique canceled out by… itself. Gaia lands behind him and blitzes him once more with a massive punch to his right cheek. Joelli gets irritated and begins to leak malice and malevolent essence. Gaia leaps at this opportunity and places her hand on his chest. She charges a beam of Benevolence into him and the two essence types collide and repel one another, causing quite the propulsion of force to burst forth. This sends him flying and sends a jolt of urgency into Juullez, which causes benevolent essence to leak out. Gaia blitzes her in her distracted state and she too, is blown away by an opposing essence explosion.
Gaia steps and stands there in a carefree stance. Smugly smiling at the two of them as they struggle to get themselves up.
"You two can do sooo much better. Can't you?" , she asks and causes an uproar from the both of them. They both blitz her from the sides and have their heavy, right haymakers blocked by her… effortlessly in fact. She lowers her center of gravity to better endure the force and explodes with a small leap, stretching all her limbs outward. A wave of force is shot out and the both of them are repelled.
Hideaki: "It's truly a different battle from when Li'Ricio fought just Joelli. Her level of skill and experience is on a completely different level. Same with Shiishii's current skill level as compared to his fight with Haydes."
Curti: "N-Nrm… yeah. They essence collisions caused me to wake up almost instantly. This is insane."
Vashjai: "N-No… kiddin'."
Ebon: *Head rub* …
Everyone on the sidelines were all taken by surprise from the new might of Shiishii and the others. Jollister is seen landing a heavy heel kick on Shii's jaw. Then to only see Shiishii withstand the blow and grab ahold of Jollister. He kicks the back of his left knee and causes him to kneel. He pushes his other leg down and wraps his right fist Physical Zenchi. Jollister is no slouch and uses a great amount of Presence Zenchi to keep the attack from making contact. The intense wave put the likes of Vashjai, Beeso and Ebon into a weakened state.
During this moment; Kishin, Zeeshift and ZeeArc arrive on the scene and join Hideaki at his side. ZeeArc is surprised to see both of Jollister's self-split personas trying their damndest to down Gaia. But they were getting the good ol' run around from Gaia. She was dodging their attacks in an odd and goofy manner. Putting her hand on Juullez's head as she did the splits in mid-air, dodging Juullez's Benevolent punch. She uses that same arm to propel herself into the air and go into a series of flips that helps dodge the hellrain that Joelli had summoned. She dashes down and bursts out of her tumbling position, diving feet first into Joelli's chest.
"Gah, b-but… I was ready for this!" , he says while smiling sinisterly. He attempts to swipe Gaia away with a burst of Physical & Presence Zenchi. But Gaia manages to speed out of the way just before he could, only to be flanked by Juullez once more. She leaps over Juullez's holy lighting and draws her Saber of Good & Evil. Juullez creates a staff of holy white lightning and wraps it in a mix of Benevolent & Zenchi Essence. Gaia goes into a twirl with her saber extended out, its purple, sharpened tip aiming for Juullez.
Juullez: "Child's play!"
She flips her staff vertically and holds her ground as Gaia goes from a low stance to a base one while keeping her twirl going. Making contact with the staff more than fifty times. She starts to slow down and prepares a heavier strike. Juullez pulls her staff back just in time to gain more momentum for a successful block. The two weapons clash and create a small shockwave. Juullez raises the bottom of her staff to catch Gaia off guard. But Gaia is able to block the strike with the butt of her sword handle. The staff is knocked lower a bit and Gaia plots the edge of her saber on top of the staff and holds it down. Juullez makes the mistake of trying to pull her staff from under Gaia's hold. Causing her to not notice the kick coming her way. Her body naturally moves and blocks the strike with ease, but she is moved back a bit.
"T-Tch. Damn, she's good!" Juullez says. Gaia swings her saber upward and Juullez attempts to block with her staff, but the staff is broken in half and Gaia brings her saber crashing back down on Juullez. Juullez summons Armored Zenchi upon her arms. Gaia makes her sword disappear and unarms herself. Juullez is fooled successfully and Gaia gut checks her with a heavy uppercut. But to everyone's surprise…
ZeeShift: "Well… you don't see that everyday."
ZeeArc: "No kidding."
Kishin: "Naw, this is completely unprecedented. She actually… struck Gaia."
And just as Kishin says, Juullez was able to withstand the blow and land a heavy strike on Gaia. The force causes Gaia to stumble back, giving Joelli enough time to blitz her and land a knee on her back. Gaia tanks the blow and backhands Joelli who burns her hand with the invisible hellfire wrapped around his body. She heals the wound and stops the advancement of Juullez with a back kick. Then switches her armor into one of her more trusty favorites, her Cosmic Goddess Armor. Both Juullez and Joelli go into a slight nervous sweat as they now know… they have her respect. Meaning she won't be holding back.
Juullez: "That's her famed armor set. One she made herself by literally stealing a compressed version of the cosmic concept from rifts between the Gahwardian and Mozanian territories. We must tread carefully."
Joelli: "We'll need to depend on each other for that one. The skill difference is too great and her experience from training Jollister leaves us at a disadvantage."
Juullez: "Yeah, but Shiishii isn't making it easy. So we have to keep her at bay longer. She let me read her thoughts… she wants to kick our creator's ass."
Joelli: *Gulp* "That doesn't sit well with me."
The three of them continue their battle while Jollister and Shii use their control of death to track and trace one another. The two of them flash all over the universe they were currently stationed in. Everytime they would appear, they would clash and force an immense amount of death essence outwards. Destroying galaxy after galaxy, at random. One would think they were uninhabited, but they were actually carelessly killing quadrillions upon quintillions of lives.
Dante: "They're so careless in their battle. We're lucky to have Gaia here to undo this mess, mates."
Beeso: "Such… brutality by our friend and his cousin. Is this… death in it's purest form?"
Dwayne: "It would seem so."
ZeeArc: "You manage to get used to it. No different than where I'm from, a clan that's been revived more than one thousand times. Right bro?"
ZeeShift: "Yeah, this definitely reminds me of home. This may sound inconsiderate, but these people can be revived so… I have to say. This is absolutely stunning."
They all look on the firework show being created by gigantic levels of small breakdown phenomena. Jollister summons ten Shuriken using his study. They were host to a creation study he had captured and stored. Each turned into a giant galaxy and were thrown like literal toys. Shiishii manages to dodge by summoning more than a Quadrillion presence clones. He uses each as a conduit to locate and dismantle the created galaxies. Using his death essence to replicate and create Cosmic Death Atoms. Which he uses to combine the pieces of the fallen Galaxies to create a gigantic black hole that targets death and death alone. He shoots it at Jollister, who pulls out a greatsword in preparation.
"Armory of the Jester: Destruction's Blade!" , he says as he leaps forward. He brings his sword above his head and swings it down harshly with a large level of essence on the blade. He slashes through the blackhole and severs its confines and properties. It slightly implodes and bursts from the major instability. But from the torn blackhole came Shii, with his Severing Scythe at the ready. Jollister readies his Chain Sickle of Karma. A weapon that allows for reversing and masterful counters. The two weapons clash and Shii is blown back, but both weapons are forced to withdraw to their study hosts.
Shiishii: "This is pretty damn fun." *PRCH*
Jollister: "I would have to agree, mayne!" *PRCH*
Both give each other a rousing jab to the cheek as they cross fists. Another burst of barrage exchanges cause the two of them to break the galaxy they resided in. A huge range of death particles enveloped and consumed the galaxy at a frightening constant. It implodes like all the others. They fly through its remains and rush each other with their Scythes in arms.
Shiisbii: "You won't be winning this Jollister!"
Jollister: "Likewise Shiihii!"
They both go into a perfect form for slicing the other clean up. Jollister brought his scythe up and above his head while Shiishii brought his to a low point. They both cock the scythes back a bit for extra room to gain momentum and striking strength. They activate Mental, Physical and Presence Zenchi just before slashing at one another.
Gaia punches both Joelli and Juullez before looking over at her younger cousins.
Gaia: "Hm… and so it ends."
*FWISHHHH* *SPLASH* Everyone looks on in ah. Frozen stiff by the happenings before them. Both Shiishii and Jollister had slashed into their right shoulders, infecting the other with their death particles. The gashes were large and the damage dealt. Both of them had to put away their scythes and focus their death on their injuries. But from the looks of it, Shiishii cut deeper, making him the winner of this round of sparring. Which ignited the real fight.
Jollister's energy swelled up from a 23 to a 41. Showing off his true power. Shiishii knew what this meant and signaled everyone to get ready. They both heal their wounds and prepare for round two.
Jollister: "Uriyah."
Uriyah awakens from his training and his Power Scale Level had shot up by 2.5, making him a 32.5 now. He leaves the capsule and goes to Jollister's side.
Uriyah: "Yes, sir?"
Jollister: "Go retrieve the Key, I'll handle this."
Uriyah: "It will be done. Plus I can test this out." *FWIP*
Jollister: "Indeed."
Uriyah heads towards the Phoenix Empire, Curti and ZeeArc attempt to flank him but… *SMASH* *POWW* they were both struck in the chest by Jollister. Each getting sent flying back towards the group. Jollister attempts to follow up but is stopped by Shiishii, in his war form.
Shiishii: "You… Won't stop us!"
Jollister: "Stop dreaming. This… is the end FOR YOU ALL!!!"
The gauntlet has been dropped and the true battle has begun. A temple of absolute might stood before them. Jollister begins his offensive rampage! As the race for the Key continues…
Haydes: "We're almost there Blazer."
HellBlazer: "Yeah… but someone's here Haydes."
Haydes: "He'll... be disposed of."
They stop their advance in the face of Nekros. Who had initially asked to assist in the mission in order to cut them off.
Nekros: "I won't let you get further than this Haydes, HellBlazer."
Haydes: "Then you accept…"
Nekros: "Mhm?"
Haydes: "That you'll be dying here today. Heh!" *Grin*
Next Chapter: The Key Will Be Ours!