Aftermath of the Tremors

[3kul]

"KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII"

Like a missile screaming by, the burst of sound exploded out of HollowEyes' mouth. Little Sister couldn't help but flinch and cover her ears, which gave HollowEyes enough time to enact the next part of his plan.

~Aoiame, the lava charm, no-~

He was cut off as a snake appeared in front of him, it's large red eye catching his attention. Only one of Little Sister's eyes could need to be brought so closely, which meant that this was the memory eye, and he had to avoid eye contact with this one. Shutting his eyes to avoid it's stare as he ducked it and turned around, HollowEyes prepared to slice through it. The moment he'd done so though, he knew that he'd played right into Little Sister's hands.

That was not the Memory Eye he had just avoided staring at, it was the Minuteman Eye. This meant that Little Sister had just watched his movements in slow motion, and coupled with her Red Eye that was also probably focused on him she knew exactly how he was about to move.

Hundreds of woven snakes suddenly lashed out from around him, biting and tearing away at his skin. He was losing massive amounts of blood as they struck him again and again, and gradually he was forced to his knees as he began to cough up his own blood. He'd never felt any more pain than this in his entire life. The monster formally known as his sister was literally skinning him alive.

He wasn't the only one that they were aiming for though, the tree that Ayame was controlling was getting it's leaves ripped out left and right. Only now did HollowEyes notice that they were rather quickly changing in colour, from their original bright green to a dull orange as they were quickly torn off.

~Hollao! I'm so sorry I should've acted faster! This is all my fault!~ HollowEyes could hear Ayame sobbing inside his head, this was all proving too much for her. ~And now you're dying! Don't die Hollao, don't die!~ He'd known that this would be the inevitable outcome, and yet he'd tried to tell himself otherwise - she was not a fighter, and he had never been particularily gifted in magic. Little Sister on the other hand specialized in using her hair and optical abilities to fight for forever and a day, and they were totally playing to her favour.

~Hollao! Please, say something!~

Damn, Ayame was being annoying... If she weren't here he could just give up, finally end this whole constant conflict with Little Sister once and for all. Countless times he'd tried to reach out to Little Sister, tried to show her that she was better than a run-of-the-mill Parasitian, that their wretched race was totally worthless compared to some of the other great powers in the multiverse. But did she listen? Never. He was just... so tired of fighting her.

If Ayame wasn't there, he could've given in.

But as things were, she was with him, and he would sooner kill himself than have her blood on his hands, he owed her a great deal and he had to at least make sure that she lived through this.

~Let's try the lava charm again Aoiame.~ This time Ayame stayed quiet, simply doing what HollowEyes said.

[3kul]

Little Sister immediately withdrew her woven snakes, not wanting them to get burnt away, but was surprised to see that this was not what HollowEyes had intended. Instead of attacking her with it, he made the lava shoot upwards into the sky, forcing it to arrange itself in a special way. "Keh, what are you playing at Byule? No point sending lava like that up into the sky." "Keh youself Liyao, you only think it's pointless because you can't see what it says."

~Aoiame, will that get their attention?~ Ayame wiped her tears away as she tried to pull herself together. ~Ye-yes Hollao, but... but...~ She didn't manage much more than that before she burst out into tears once more. ~It's a risky plan, but if she's anything like me with that kind of ability she'll be overwhelmed for a short amount of time, which will allow us to escape. I can't let you die here with me, not after everything that you've done for me.~ ~Bu-but Hollao, she doesn't have any abilities like that!~ HollowEyes stood back up, blood still flowing quite freely from his wounds, and glared at Little Sister. ~No, she doesn't... yet.~

"Aoiame, there is one charm that I haven't told you about. I don't think Liyao knows much about it either." Ayame knew exactly what he was talking about, and began to form the mysterious charm as quickly as she could manage. It was a strange kind of charm, like nothing she'd ever seen before. But not in a good way, HollowEyes was experimenting in some dark ways to use charms here...

"What the hell are you talking about, Byule? Don't even try to pretend that you've got some way to beat me here."

"I'm not pretending."

One of the leaves stuck to the tree on the back of his head had faded and was now pulsating with energy. It moved over HollowEyes' chest, sticking itself to his third eye, and as with the other times he'd tried using it, he felt the effects immediately.

His third eye began to sink into his body, and he swelled up slightly as he felt it transform within himself. He removed the Ruby Dagger from his tongue as the long organ withdrew itself back into his body, and within a few moments he appeared to be choking on something. Stretching his mouth open, in one swift movement, HollowEyes pulled out an orb a little bigger than his head, which was attached to his tongue.

"Liyao, this weapon is called the Lantern of a Hollow Eye. It is the Third Eye, although in a slightly different form, totally withdrawn from my body." He held it out in front of himself, extending his tongue to show her. "Furthermore, if I were to slice through my tongue, it would be totally disconnected from my body." Ayame gasped as she realized what HollowEyes intended to do, but otherwise remained silent. At this point, he made a quick movement with one of his arm blades, slicing through his tongue. The heavy lantern fell to the ground and HollowEyes kicked it across to Little Sister.

"It's a gift, Liyao. You can have the Third Eye, in exchange for my life."

Even without the Third Eye, HollowEyes could practically see the greed that Little Sister was sending out in waves. Her eyes showed how badly she longed for such a powerful item, and her tongue slipped out of it's hidden position, drooling at the very concept of being able to call such power her own. "You know me Byule, I'm not going to make any such promises unless I know that this thing's legit..." "I know that you intend to double-cross me the moment you find out that it works Liyao, and since you're aware of that it should be obvious to you that I have a plan." He relaxed his stance a little, if only to show Ayame that he knew what he was doing. "I also know that you are such a vile, greedy and arrogant creature that you'll take the Third Eye regardless of what I say."

"Well, as long as you're fine with it, I'll just help myself"

Little Sister was clearly estatic with this wonderous turn in events, and couldn't stop grinning as her tongue grabbed onto the lantern. As she swallowed the Lantern whole, HollowEyes removed the charm from where the third eye socket was.

Both Parasitians doubled over - one at the pain of having his eye ripped right out set in, the other as she felt a new incredible power suddenly exploding inside of her.

[3kul]

"Noten, it's... it's fantastic!"

Little Sister couldn't stop laughing as she felt her new power setting in, the Third Eye replacing her own originally normal right eye. It was even better than HollowEyes had made it sound - she couldn't just sense emotions, she could sense entire minds. There was HollowEyes and his idiot friend right in front of her, they were a little blurred together, and right behind her was-

Pain shot through her entire body as she detected the God's mind, it was absolutely intense. She was still laughing though, this new power was fantastic, she loved it enough to get over the pain.

It was only when she tried to scan further that things went bad.

It started with one extra mind at first. Who's was that, she thought to herself, they seemed... angry? It hurt to stare at it, but only a little bit, kind of like a bee sting. HollowEyes looked up to see his old friend, Nyx, had appeared - he must've been one of the first to get his message.

"It's a pity that we have to say goodbye so soon Hollow Eyes, I would've liked to hang out with you more whilst you were here." HollowEyes smiled at his old friend. "I'm sorry to have to drag everyone into this Ny, but I'm just not skilled enough..." Nyx laughed a little, but looked more like he was about to cry. "Take care of Ayame for us." ~Ny...~ Ayame knew what HollowEyes intended to do, and it would mean that she too had to say goodbye to all of her friends. She didn't know for how long, which was what made it all the more sad. "Don't worry Ny, I will."

"Oh shut the hell up!" Little Sister was pissed off, she didn't like to be ignored and she didn't like people having the idea of HollowEyes living through this encounter. It made them think of her as... weak. Something that could be brushed aside. "What the hell is one little Baba Gungas going to do to help?!"

"There's more than one of us here."

The field suddenly was full of the ghostly creatures, all glaring at Little Sister. By themselves, their angry minds were little more than a slight stinging sensation, but combined, it was like they were physically driving nails into her skull. Little Sister began to scream uncontrollably, and Noten moved closer to check on her. ~Liyao, what is wrong?~ The mere presence of the God only made matters worse, his mind felt like it was crushing her now, the Third Eye was reacting out of control.

"I'd stay back, God. Just by being near her you're crushing her mind."

Noten turned to look at this strange Parasitian, greatly curious as to how and why it was able to manipulate his will. "What have you done to her?" "I gave her my Third Eye, and greedy as she was she ate it assuming that she could handle it." As the Baba Gungas looked at each other curiously, not really understanding what HollowEyes was going on about, he continued. "My mind can't handle the Third Eye, to the point that it blocked out the majority of it's powers, but Little Sister... as she's no doubt constantly telling you, she's far superior to me. Her greedy mind sees no need to hold back the Third Eyes' true powers."

He turned to Nyx at this point and nodded, signalling that they could begin.

"To sum it up for you God, she can't move, you can't help her, she won't let you touch me and these guys won't let you get close enough to stop them. I might be a mere mortal who's totally inferior to Liyao in almost every way, but I've still managed to beat you both."

[3kul]

"I see." Noten said, not knowing what HollowEyes intended to do but understanding his intentions. Noten looked down at who he considered to be the mortal embodiment of his will - Little Sister was still crumpled on the ground, writhing in pain as she was tormented by the thoughts of those around her. "She will get used to her power though. This is hardly an ideal victory for you."

"I know." HollowEyes replied. "And I have no intentions of killing her, because otherwise that would make you react in a very undesirable way for me." He pointed to the Baba Gungas floating around them, who were now perfoming some kind of strange dance. "I'm going to escape to the Spirit Realm, and my friends here are going to grant me passage there." Noten paused for a moment, taking all of this in. "Are you planning on taking her with you?"

"I don't think that you'd let me do such a thing, would you?" He replied calmly. "If I stay here she'll know where I am, and I'll be forced to rely on the people here, who I already owe far too much. The place I'm heading for is somewhere where even you'd have trouble catching me."

Noten nodded, understanding completely. "Very well. I submit to your will this time Byule. We shall be forced to let you escape." Little Sister would've objected, but Noten had just moved closer to her. "I have no doubt that we'll meet again in the future."

And with that, the God and Little Sister disappeared, along with the Temple of Nothing and the massive hole it had made in the ground, as if they'd never been there in the first place.

"That was one amazing bluff, Hollow Eyes..." Nyx said, floating down next to his friend. "To think that a God would believe so many lies."

[3kul]

"It's not so amazing Ny, even Gods have to start somewhere." HollowEyes smiled at his friend, and the rest of the Baba Gungas floated down to join them.

"But still Hollao, we even wrote our plan out in big letters across the sky!" Ayame pulled herself out of HollowEyes' mind, sitting on his armblade so that she could put her face close to his. "It was very clever of you, how did you know?" The rest of the Baba Gungas began to echo her thoughts with similar questions, so much so that he decided to sit down and explain the whole thing.

"When Liyao saw Aoiame here go into my mind and Noten didn't do anything about it, it struck me as odd. Even if he'd been ordered by Liyao not to, he could've easily eliminated Aoiame with abilities like him. So, why didn't he do anything? My guess was that he didn't know how to. The same thing happened with that tree that Aoiame made, he could've gotten rid of that or the charms, but he always waited for them to become active before stopping them."

"The cicada and lava charms were the final test. He didn't stop either of those, even though such a thing would've been very easy for a God. I came to the conclusion that he was essentially a 'blank' God - someone who's become a God, but knows nothing. Considering that he's the God of Nothing, that's hardly surprising."

"How did you know that I'd get everyone together for such a weird message though, Hollow Eyes?" Nyx asked, still smiling at the memory of the floating lava words. "'Nyx bring everyone here, we kill the God with our magic dance'?" "Because I know you well enough Nyx. You knew that I was in trouble so you assumed that I had a plan. Getting everyone here was enough to disable Liyao, because you all were instantly able to see that she was the one attacking me, so you all instinctively hated her." HollowEyes smirked at the notion of people instinctively hating Liyao, it seemed quite a smart thing to do.

"After that, I just needed you all to do something strange to convince the God that I was about to make you help me escape. It worked surprisingly well." Another voice spoke up. "But you wrote the message in plain english! Are you saying that neither the God nor Liyao can read?" HollowEyes smiled once more, everyone here was astounded by what he'd just done, and who could blame them - to such spiritual people as them, for a mere mortal to outwit a God was an impossible thought. "Liyao doesn't think further than what's directly affecting her, and even if the God had been able to read it wouldn't have been able to do much. It's connection to Liyao is one hell of a weakness."

For a long time, the Baba Gungas people continued to plague him with questions, until he'd finally satisfied them with enough explaination. Many weren't all that familiar with him and went back to their own devices, but those who had been close to him many years back stayed and talked with him for a while longer.

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Little Sister was sitting in a room, brooding silently as she went over in her mind once more just how she'd lost.

"My disciples are ready to meet you. I have explained to them your importance."

"Noten."

"Yes?"

"When we were born it was so obvious... I could barely breathe inside of that egg, my eyes wouldn't open, every organ that I had wouldn't function properly. The only way I survived long enough to be born was because of... him."

Noten didn't say anything, merely waiting to see what exactly she was getting at.

"Is it really impossible for me to beat him? Is he really... the superior half?"

"He doesn't seem to believe so."

Little Sister's eyebrow rose, this knowledge surprised her. She knew that Noten wasn't able to read thoughts, and that he wouldn't lie to her, which could only mean one thing - that this had come directly from HollowEyes' mouth.

"... Let's meet these worshippers of yours, Noten."

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After having spent what he felt to be about two weeks in the world of the Baba Gungas, HollowEyes decided that the time had come to leave. He had discussed it with Ayame and, unsurprisingly, she'd insisted upon coming with him. Nyx and his other friends here seemed slightly happier knowing this, but were still sad to see him go.

He and Ayame sat under their tree, praying at a small shrine with a picture of a beetle on it.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you would take the time to pray for me, HollowEyes."

The Beetle spirit made his appearance, having landed on top of the tree. His sheer size and weight made the tree groan, and flowers showered down upon the pair who were praying below.

"I suppose you're wanting me to give you a lift somewhere?"

((That's it! I'd rather not end it on a very specific 'the beetle spirit carried them home to Blackstar', but I hope that people get the message without me doing so .

So HollowEyes managed to not only outsmart Little Sister, but also Noten the God! He certainly paid the price for it though, he's now without the Third Eye, Little Sister's door prize, so to speak. Lots of development, overall I'm pretty pleased with how this story went .

Feedback and opinions are always appreciated, so feel free to post as much as you like now that the story is done, you aren't interrupting anything. ))

[Embri]

Love your stories, 3Kul! ^_^

Wonderful fight scenes, great development as always. Little Sister has gone from "dangerous but mostly annoying menace" to "major threat" in my mind, at least. Maybe she always was, but it seemed to me that LS was something of a tagalong sidekick, albeit an unwilling one.

The only thing I found mildly confusing is Ayame at the end - I take it she erm.. uncombined herself from Holloweyes? Afraid I'm not terribly well versed in Parasitian biology.

[3kul]

Ayame's a member of a rather ghostly species, the Baba Gungas. This special kind of possession (living inside of somebody's mind, not actually taking over their body) is an ability that comes natural to them, as does levitation. They're also very tuned-in to the world of the spirits and gods, much more so than Parasitians - whilst Parasitians offer sacrifices to their spirits, Baba Gungas offer prayers. I should probably write up a big profile thing for them, so as to clear up any confusion .

I'm glad that you think that Little Sister's become more dangerous - part of my aim here was to evolve her as a character a bit, and now that she's out on her own I figured that she'd need to be a bit more powerful.

Anyways, thanks for the compliments Embri, it's great to know that you enjoyed reading this .