Meta looked around blankly, as Gilgamesh came closer from behind after having retrieved his spear. The tip was still glowing a little with the red-white-and-blue sparkly energies that had shone off of it, but it was fading away at the moment. Meta's eyes went from Derek, to Electra, to Saikou, to Shujou, to Electra, back to Saikou, to Derek again, passed Gilgamesh for a time, before she finally decided to speak up.

"Who is this Awai of whom you speak?" She asked in her confounded state.

Meta gave Juno a short-lasting glare, before taking on a more gentle expression when she turned to Kouken. "So... what you are saying... is that he is some kind of guy controlling you guys, your leader, or some kind of god?" She asked, trying to get a grip on things and make it clear on who this 'Awai' guy really was.

"Not really," Michael said with disdain, walking up to the group, still devoid of his tobacco-filled vice, "He's more like a representation of what they're fighting for, and one of the resistance leaders in the world. And he's basically everything that Kuro isn't. If he were female, they'd be exact opposites. I'm assuming you know who Kuro was, seeing how he was another spectator in this fight."

Meta turned to face Michael. "I do." She said, somewhat amused, intrigued, and yet also disturbed by Michael suggesting that Awai should have been female, although she couldn't decide how that feeling came to be.

Michael's resulting grin at the confusion was anything but friendly. His eyes had a predatory gleam to them as he turned his gaze to the five bewildered beings. "Oh no, he was no illusion," he said, his cold grin suddenly becoming every bit as disturbing as Namonai's. "He was here, every bit as visible as the blazing sun. Watching. Waiting. Be sure to remember that the dead are never silent, heroes. The dead never sleep."

Michael's eyes blinked briefly, but when they opened again in that split second, his crimson gaze had taken a strange, golden glint.

"He's a ghost of the recent past," he said cryptically, "But in this dying Age, the dead can walk among the living."

"The dead, walking among the living?" Michael said, looking at Shujou with red-gold eyes. "That's easy, Za-Fuzen. Reckoning and Dokuro hitched a ride with someone who swore revenge on his murderer, someone the Ancient is quite familar with... the one known as Morphman. The gates of Heaven, Hell, and the Nightmare Realm all seem to be wide open."

Michael stretched, as he did, dark energy seemed to pulse around him for a brief moment. "As for Kuro, we conversed. Right here on these sands, before he returned to the High Heavens. Was a rather... interesting conversation."

Gilgamesh gazed at Michael curiously, his facial expression grave. There was something peculiar going on, or so he thought as he stared at the person he had nearly gotten to trust while he had been conversing with him during the rather short amount of time his mistress had been knocked out cold.

Something's odd, and it ain't got to do with smokin'. Gilgamesh, who was a lover of some peculiar far-east herb, thought.

Edited by Morphman on May 22, 2007 at 20:26:29.

"Come now, Ancient," Michael said, turning his gaze onto Kouken, "Do you really think they'd allow him back into Hell? Especially after what he did to it?"

Michael laughed. "Of course not. He was given a choice by your God, the Creater, after his death. After all, Kuro is one of his Masterpieces. Kuro said that he's given up his evil ways, now that he's passed on the title, but if you ask me, that's not something you can give up easily."

Michael turned back to Juno. "That's right, Juno," Michael said, "Morphman has returned, travelled all through the Nightmare Realm and struck a deal with its ruling deity, all just to strike back at you. And I tell you, he is far more powerful than he was when he died at your hand. Even Xastra noticed. You can even ask Thresh and and the necromancer over there when they wake up. They were companions of a sort."

As soon as Juno suddenly burst out internally in rage and got switched with NightShade, Meta backed off a little. What is going on here? She thought bewildered. They're speaking of a bunch of people I've never heard of and this guy suddenly goes all black. Surely there are good explanations for this. She thought to herself. I have heard of this 'Morphman' before, through this 'Kuro' as this Michael guy just said, and the other guy here may just have a second personality that is gothic or something. She concluded. Yeah, sounds perfectly logical.

Michael smirked, looking up at him once more, his eyes flickering between red and gold. "Don't think your darkness is the way to defeat me, NightShade. You might be the Alpha, but you're certainly not the Omega."

Michael turned and began walking away. "Just remember what I told you. You've got enemies abound, heroes. You should do best to watch out. Especially with the coming of this Age's end."

And with a step into the air, the gray-haired youth vanished into thin air.

And with it, black clouds began to spread around the center of Africa.

Gilgamesh stared with a serious look at Juno even after he had reverted back to normal. When Electra suddenly shouted, he looked at Kouken and he, too, noticed the mark.

"Odd." He uttered.

Meta came a little closer again and looked at Kouken's chest. "What is that?" She asked.

The dark clouds spread across the skies over Africa, blocking out the sun. It silhouette stretched out across the northern deserts, overshadowing the conversing group. Light seemed to flare beyond the clouds, and crimson lightning danced across the underside surface. All over the continent, black tendrils of darkness, like liquid stone, descended slowly into the ground, causing the ground to shudder with the contact.

One such tendril landed only a few miles from the group, and despite the distance, the tendril seemed almost as large as a city. More could be seen striking the ground well into the southern horizon.

In the very center of the black clouds, a multitude of the dark tendrils were descending, coiling around themselves and a single, massive mass larger than an entire country, building above it. And above the mass, colossal blood-red serpentine eyes opened. And with a violent spasm, the dark growth suddenly sped towards the ground, slamming into like the fist of an angry god. The entire continent shuddered under the blow as a hundred earthquakes went off at once.

Bringing his power to his fists, Matt drew them out to produce his blade, swinging upwards to block Diablo's overhead slash. The swords met in a resounding display of sparks and noise, Matt straining to continue his flight and continue the defense.

Now! he suddenly thought. While he's open!

He quickly swung his free hand upward, in a diagonal punching motion. "Fist of Gaia!" Near Matt, a column of earth rose at an angle, forming a fist of rock to strike at Diablo's vulnerable abdomen.

Edited by The Helldragon on May 22, 2007 at 22:56:19.

Diablo was slowly forcing Matt back with his sword when the bespectacled boy countered, and the Fist of Gaia struck him soundly beneath the chest. The Prime Evil bellowed as he was thrown back, and his energy wings flapped furiously in an effort to right himself. His sword condensed into a ball and started to glow brighter as he readied to counterattack.

Now!

Throwing back his hand to dismiss his sword, Matt dashed at Diablo, crossing his arms again. "Got your ass!" When he was close enough to the demon's large chest, he uncrossed his arms in a vicious motion, slashing across the demon with a powerful arc from each arm that could knock away nearly anything hit by the technique. "X Slash!"

Two bloody lacerations, crossing over each other, appeared across Diablo's chest, spraying black blood as the demon was knocked back through the air, spinning over himself several times.

The Lord of Terror flared his energy wings out, causing lightning to dance in the air as he stopped. "To Hell with you!" he roared in fury as he thrust his glowing claw at the boy. Rays of golden light lanced out from the claw as a vortex of malevolent destructive energy grew, quickly becoming a pulsing sphere three times as large as the massive demon. With a terrifying roar, Diablo unleashed a massive beam of at Matt, intending to bring him right back into the ground and bury him.

Gilgamesh looked up to the sky, and his expression changed somewhat. His eyes somewhat reflected those of someone who was stoned, and his jaw hung a little. "Ohhhh, boy." He uttered.

When Kouken and Juno had changed (boy, I will forever hate this Meijimmu for taken away the character of your I liked most >.>) Meta backed away from the two of them, and, pulling Gilgamesh by his sleeve, lead her bodyguard away from the two dark beings also.

Hell is gonna break loose soon... She thought as the 'angry god's fist' struck and the barrier protected them from it's power. I can just feel it, nearly even smell it.

Edited by Morphman on May 23, 2007 at 21:33:57.

The earthquakes grew in intensity as the massive black pillar pulsated, burrowing deeper and deeper into the planet. The ground soon began to fracture for miles around it, and the ground seemed to bulge upwards, as if the massive tendril was attempting to retract back into the ebon clouds.

A sound much like a muffled explosion sounded as the tendril freed itself, and retracted into the air. Beneath it, hundreds of smaller tentacles, each half the size of a large city in diameter, were wrapped around a gigantic sphere of energy. Within its transparent surface, a nexus of pure energy fluctuated, with gigantic tines of lightning lancing out from it and touching the inner sides of the orb. Beneath it lay a massive crater, several hundred miles wide, gaped in the world like a giant scar, its depths unseen in the great darkness.

The strange orb was emitting massive waves of raw magical energy in steady pulses as the main tendril lifted it into the air. High above, the tendril was bulging, and suddenly the bulge rushed down its length. As it reached the end, the base of it expanded rapidly and consumed the giant Core Energy, covering it completely. The tendril soon compacted in on itself, as if crushing what it had held. The smaller bulge that the Core Energy rested in quickly travelled upwards, into the clouds.

And as it disappeared from sight, thunder boomed out in a nearly defeaning roar, a final wave of intense power that dwarfed everyone present on the desert washed out across the world.

Edited by RisingDragon on May 23, 2007 at 13:25:38.

The beam smashed into Matt's outstretched hands, clashing against his aura. He grit his teeth as he struggled to repel the beam, but it was getting harder to do so-Dragon Drive had steadily burned his energy, and now it decreased quicker as Matt tried to dismiss Diablo's beam.

"AUGH!" The pressure became too much, and the beam hit home, the beam encompassing Matt's form and driving him through the air toward the distance.

Hugo's eyes widened with this display. "Matt!" The Mettaur renewed his efforts to rush toward Diablo. Damn it, MOVE!

Helena replied to Diablo's beam with her own, her own eyes wide with fury as the fiery blast sliced through the air at the demon's side.

When Diablo fired his beam at Matt, R.D. raised his right arm up and aimed it at the Prime Evil, the ring of light around his wrist and the ten pistons in his arm materializing as energy gathered into his fist. "C'mon, you giant red bastard," he muttered as he charged.

Helena's fire streaked in at Diablo, only for the demon to slam his claw into it. The fire stopped its advanced, trying to burn through. However, Diablo grinned malevolently and turned his hand slightly, redirecting the flame right at R.D..

"Shit!" R.D. growled, cancelling his attack and leaping backwards. The wave of fire slammed into the ground where he was standing only moments before, and R.D. rocketed off in Matt's direction. We need a plan, and we need it fast.

===Above Africa===

The many small tendrils spread out across Africa's surface slowly retracted, tearing out colossal chunks of the continent's surface as they did. The smoky clouds started to swirl into the center, and in moments, a black orb of ebon clouds hung in the air above the crater, revealing only the black silhouettte of a massive demon within its depths. Blood-red eyes stared at the destruction, and the orb condensed further, molding itself and the silhouette into the form of a powerfully-built man.

The darkness retreated into the being, revealing the form of Ziatoch. His golden eyes practically shone with malevolence as a dark aura surrounded Him, lightning dancing across His dark skin. He begun to laugh, a deep, drawn out laugh, sinister and disturbing. Within Him, He could feel the immense power. While it was masked to everyone else, He could feel just how much stronger He had become.

Finally, he thought with unholy euphoria, Now I am even with him. Now I have attained his level of power.

Ziatoch reveled in the knowledge that He had grown to be exactly as strong Kuro's full power, his full might. And now, He could become even stronger.