[BitP:R] Episode 12 - Burning Hatred

[Frozen_Feet]

Actually, it does - with his fairly straight-forward trajectory, it's not hard for Lalita to tell how much his opponent has to lead him to hit. This allows him to move in a slightly erratic pattern, skirting the bullets by just enough to not be actually hit by them, though the heat-induced shockwaves from their passing cut at his damaged skin.

It takes him a while to break the cloud cover, and then, he slows down, his preternatural senses telling him he isn't being followed. The blaze around him dies as he supresses his Reiatsu. He shifts to the side to avoid what bullets are still following him through the clouds, focusing on feeling the air for the location of his opponent. Then... he dives. He leaps back and forth in the air in an erratic zig-zag pattern, as if bouncing around in a narrow chimney - reaching higher and higher speeds as he plummets down towards the beast, the steel pillar still at hand.

[Kuroimaken]

Remember what was said about how something you've seen already can still surprise you?

It turns out the bullets aren't done with Lalita.

They veer inches away from him, true; but just as he seems ready to plunge, they come at him again.

And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.

They reach for him at a variety of different angles. Those that graze him explode; those that hit stick to him and blow up shortly thereafter. Those he dodges shoot out again at seemingly impossible angles in an erratic pattern.

[Frozen_Feet]

Still nothing unexpected or unprepared for - the beast had said it could control flame. Lalita gets battered by a couple of explosions, but they don't have enough punch to make him stray far from his intended course. Soon, those bullets that remain are clustered behind him in an attempt to catch up - but the Arrancar has attained such speed himself by this point that they just can't manage it.

His course stabilizes very briefly a good distance above the beast - his body tenses as he sends the construction beam flying straight down, towards the opening in the back of the beast's head he'd seen earlier when it charged a Cero there. Unfortunately, despite the lightning-fast speed it's going with, he has no time to see if it hits - he has to muster all of his strenght to leap to the side to avoid fireballs coming from below and from his sides, a thunderclap-like sound echoing through the air as a result.

There''s one thing too big for him to dodge, however: the ground. At the speeds he's moving with, it's impossible for him to curve his path, and slowing down any would mean getting hit by a barrage of fireballs, and being pounced at by the two clones of living flame War made of itself. He has nowhere to go...

... not in the world of the living, at least.

Split-second from striking the ground, he motions forward with his hand. Once again, there's a shattering sound as the body of the Arrancar punches a hole in space, continuing his wild fall into the darkness beyond, the cluster of fireballs pursuing him through the gaping maw in the air.

[Kuroimaken]

You know things are about to get worse when they seem to be getting better.

When Lalita is about to open his Garganta, the ground suddenly "bubbles" and violently sprays hot lava directly towards him. It's a wide, thick shower accompanied by smaller, lance-like spurts.

Apparently the clones were a different kind of distraction. The beam itself seemingly sublimates before it reaches War's back; that's how hot the flames are at this point.

And they seem to be getting hotter.

[Frozen_Feet]

Lalita isn't there to feel it, though. Indeed, he barely caught a glimpse of the bubbling ground before darkness of the Void blocked his sight. War's attempt to stop him does lead to a rather interesting display, however, as the shower of lava curves around the edges of the gaping maw in the air despite travelling perfectly straight, seemingly being divided from the middle yet staying in one piece... things like that happen around spatial anomalies.

Lalita glances over his shoulder at the rapidly shrinking window to Earth, wondering what just happened. He can see the glow from War's attack, but nothing else. He doesn't try to slow down yet, though - he wants to destroy any firebolts still following him first. Red light blooms from his hands as he whirls around, shooting two Ceros behind himself, though the act leaves him spinning wildly.

Unless War suddenly displays skill to enter the Void itself, the Arrancar is relatively safe for the moment. Even then, his momentum from his fall from the skies has given him enough of a headstart that it'd hardly be a problem.

He can't go falling forever, though. Even if he'd otherwise consider the fight over and done with, he still needs to go back to the battlefield for one thing:

He needs to know what's happened to his Zanpakuto.

[Kuroimaken]

Let's settle this.

The voice calls out to Lalita even within the darkness of the Void. It seems the beast intends to finish everything with the next exchange.

Once outside, the landscape takes on the orange tint of the breaking dawn, even though the sun will not set for at least two hours, and then rise again for 14 more. War's flames distort the light visibly, creating the rather peculiar effect. Within the circle created by its numerous visages of flame, the ambient temperature is easily within the 80-90 degrees Celsius range; no human being would be able to move within it, or even breathe normally. This only serves to remind the Arrancar just what kind of creature he's up against.

His Zanpakutou lies in the middle of the circle.

[Frozen_Feet]

Sparks strike out from the blackness as the Arrancar creates a bridge for himself to stand on, slowly skidding to halt. In the dark, he can pinpoint the source of the sound despite its mental nature - it's the opening to the living world, still left unclosed, that he created to escape his doom.

He ponders for a moment, then glances "up", or the closest equivalent thereof in this forlorn space - the "edge" of the void, where it inevitable leads to the dead world of Hueco Mundo.

He flares his reiatsu briefly, like a beacon light in the night, before opening a gateway to the mortal realm and stepping through it.

War might notice the presence of the arrancar returning roughly one kilometer to its left. Lalita leaps high into the air, to see his adversary over the building. He raises an eyebrow when his Pesquisa tells him his own Zanpakuto is intact, and outside the beast. Somehow, it'd torn it off from its flesh. Not that surprising on its own, but it makes him wonder how lasting its injuries might be, as it surely hadn't been an easy task.

By itself, the hot air would hardly be a problem. War had already done worse, and the Arrancar could run and snatch his wheels so fast that such meager temperatures wouldn't even burn his skin, without taking a single breath. But he's proved already that such headlong charge won't work - he'd have to run through a hail of fireballs, and hope neither the beast or its clones would get in the way.

Moving through the void would be better, but he doubts the beast will fall for the same trick again.

Thinking, he dives behind nearest house for cover, then starts advancing towards the beast in the shade of the wartorn buildings.

[Kuroimaken]

What are you skulking around for? I told you I want to settle this. Pick up your weapon.

We'll see which of us has the guts to remain standing at the end.

[Frozen_Feet]

"I wouldn't have put them down if I actually needed them", Lalita says bluntly as he leaps from cover to cover. Once again, his physical voice is unlikely to be heard, but he's sure the beast will not miss the message.

"Let me ask you a few questions, before I eradicate you. What do you perceive yourself as?"

[Kuroimaken]

I have more interesting things to do than ponder the details of my existence. I live as long as war exists, it's that simple.

If you really take me down, it'll only make me stronger.

[Frozen_Feet]

Lalita snorts in hiding. "Is that so? Yet you lord your age and wisdom over me." If the beast is being honest, it really isn't more than another Hollow with over-inflated ego. Just like a bloated domestic cat, it thinks itself superior unaware of co-dependent and pathetic it really is.

Better things to do? When the Arrancar came to it, it'd been basking in boredom. Really raises the question if it's done anything else for aeons.

But maybe that's why it's called a horse. In the end, all its powers amount to nothing without a determined rider guiding it. Suited to acting on its own, it's not.

"You make an interesting claim", the Arrancar yells as he dashes between covers once more. He can't be more than hundred meters away now. "I really hope it is true. You see..."

"... as you are now, you wouldn't even faze the enemies I need to face."

The air around war roars. Despite the body of the Arrancar being wholly concealed behind piles of rubble, it can see him clearly, towering before him and glowing like his body is afire from the inside.

The beast is legendary. But the reason Lalita has no respect for that is because, the fact is, so is he. No song might tell of him, no tale might have been recorded - but he is a flame burning with the undying rage of hundreds upon hundreds of fallen soldiers, the likes of which inspired untolds myths of horror and fear in the past.

Lalita doesn't know if War stopped to ponder why he, among the Hollows, was unfazed by its hate-amplifying aura. The reason lies in his years spent in Las Noches, trying to be happy, denying and trying to drive away the feelings he embodies.

He'd not succeeded. But he'd become very good at controlling and hiding them. As a result of keeping his candle covered for so long, he'd grown weak... unable to let it shine through even at the face of danger. That had changed when Genoveva had forcibly pulled all his lingering resentment out. War's assault on his mind was not succesful, because someone else had beaten it to the punch!

Now, however, Lalita is letting it all out... on purpose. For he is as much war and hate incarnate as the beast, and it's been feeding him like fuel thrown to a fire for a good while.

Lalita stands up, pointing his palms towards his enemy. There's a building on the way, but that's insignificant. His Reiryoku glows through the cracks on his burned skin, making it look like veins of magma on blackened earth - and then, the scorched layer of his Hierro peels away, being drawn to a bright orb forming before his hands. It's the same attack as before, but it's intensity is so much greater it's almost incomparable. It shines like a small sun, the bits of burned skin joining it and floating on its surface like sun spots, the Arrancar's body now glowing pure white save for pupils of his eyes.

A split-second later, the orb collapses into itself, giving birth to a nova-like burst which disintigrates the building before it, a tearing sound following in its wake as it threatens to engulf War and all of its copies.

"Gran Rey Cero!"

[Kuroimaken]

Lalita can't even begin to understand.

The two of them are not on the same scale of magnitude. The reason War lords over its age and wisdom? That's because it can. War has been around as long as there has been life and strife. Sure, it began weak enough. A few tribal disputes here and there. The occasional fight over arable land.

But it got so much bigger than that. Comparing their two existances is not unlike comparing stars. Lalita may be a sun in his own right, but War? War is a supernova.

Whereas Lalita may be forged from the souls of the most horrifying soldiers of all time, War was distilled from all that and MORE. It made no distinction between the histories it fed from. Weak and cowardly, proud and noble, sickly and sadistic. Every single soldier in the history of humanity. Every single family slaughtered, every woman violated, every life cut before its prime, every possession ruined, every life-long dream dashed.

War was all that and more.

Of the Four Horses, War was always the one with the most gravity, second only to Death itself. All three other horses fed Death in some manner or another, whereas Death simply was, like an inevitability. Pestilence and Famine could have long been eradicated if only mankind weren't so selfish. War, however, could not be extinguished, because conflict and rage is an inherent part of every living creature.

Lalita's assault may have been so damning as to destroy himself in the process of firing, but it was precisely because of such power that the response is so awe-inducing.

Like the beam before it, the Cero simply... disappears from existence, the accumulated Reiryoku dispersing harmlessly as it nears the beast.

My turn.

Each of the 'clones' howled in turn. The flames burst from their bodies and licked at the sky. Then, each formed a tiny, blazing sun, which quickly grew up to be the size of a small car.

And then they fired at Lalita.

Chiodo di bara di fiamma!

The Arrancar could see that they tore small rips through space as they soared towards him.

No Garganta would let him escape now.

[Frozen_Feet]

Lalita's eyes narrow as his attack... evaporates? How is that even possible? It does not compute in the Arrancar's head.

He tested the defenses of the beast - measured carefully how powerful its attacks were before, and how much power it could gain from the spirits it ate. His prior Gran Rey Cero almost ripped the beast in half, and this one had been so much stronger. Everything had pointed to it being weaker than him! Yet it's not enough?

The sheer lunacy of the event makes him freeze in place. Maybe, if he'd seen the fate of his steel javelin, he'd anticipated it. After all, he sunk his hands into the gut of the beast, stood next to its molten body, yet the experience was certifiably survivable. No amount of heat created by it should've been able to sublimate such a massive object, not without destroying everything within miles' radius.

Luckily for him, he counted on not being able to overpower the beast, even if the exact event was unforeseeable to him.

After all, in forests under the white sands, there are countless eyes to watch over you if you just can grab their attention...

Black cracks spread along transparent shapes between earth and sky as the near-unstoppable force of War's assault meets the combined efforts of a host of Menos Grande. Lalita is blinded by the light blooming before him and deafened by the sound, but the appearance of his "rescuers" shakes him out of it enough that he has good sense to move before the Negacion gives away completely. He opens a Garganta and once through, moves to the side - though even then, it's barely enough to save his unhallowed life. Shockwave from the warheads explodes through, tearing off his left arm before he makes it to the safety "behind" the portal.

Winded and deprived of half of his senses, the Arrancar closes the opening. Outside, another Negacion surrounds his Zanpakuto and slowly draws them towards dozens of giant, withered grey hands reaching anxiously for them, though even if he knew that, it'd be of little comfort.

His radiance dims, leaving him feeling cold and empty as he floats in the emptiness. His mind still races in search of an explanation, but soon... he just gives up. He's beaten, fair and square. Regardless of the ways he might be above War, it's now clear he's not above in power - and that gap is too great for other things to matter in the slightest.

Once again, he's lost to another dog, just with a bite worse than his.

But maybe there's something to be garnered from the fight still - humility. Caution. Maybe the titular Decima had let his easy victory over his predecessor to get into his head.

But he can't worry about that yet. First, he needs to fight his way through the Gillian. In the cannibalistic society of the wild Hollows, the line between rescue and capture is slim at best.

Defeated, he begins his journey back to the empty world of lost souls...

[Kuroimaken]

There was one thing Lalita managed to do, however.

It managed to make a beast made almost entirely of flame, lava, hot air and grit break into a cold sweat.

If he'd gotten past THAT, somehow, I'd have to bare my neck. The beast comments to itself as it relaxes and moves away from the scene. It had to kill the remaining witnesses after all.