chaos crystal part 4 back up jan 31st

 "This is Mormak, requesting assistance."

 "Mormak? Checking, designation (Champion), tasked with inspecting possible recruits among the human mutations of an Earth variant. Checking, currently inspecting individual (Killia), current major feats, fighting back a mortal world invasion by that Earth's demon Overlord (Endara Terata). What is the nature of this request for assistance?"

  "The inspection unit, great, sorry, I mean, we have a problem. A third party appeared that was going after the Suihrai ruins;"

   "Suihrai," says the AI cutting him off, "Suihrai artifact site was detected. Protected by automated defenses. The Suihrai are an ancient race that abandoned conventional spaces long ago; record found, the local defenses for *Temple of the Red Goddess* increased recently. Suihrai weapons are adaptive and are on record as increasing when threats escalate. Do we have a Holy Grail scenario with recruitment?"

   "By the gods," whispers Mormak, "I don't even know what that is, and..."

   "Holy Grail scenario," says the AI cutting him off, "Recruitment target requests assistance in completing a legendary quest or impossible challenge that is special to their people in exchange for leaving them for the Dimension Police."

   "No," says Mormak, "here I am submitting the image now, this person showed up, calling herself the Queen of Darkness; either she was turned into one, already was one, or is posing as a vampire. She recently changed her title to the Empress of the Night. She confessed she is after the Temple of the Red Goddess; I believe she was hired by someone to get the Suihrai chaos core housed inside. She has been raising an army of vampires, undead, and has even been gaining control over Mystic Monsters somehow; we tried to handle this as hunters, but she has killed forty adventurers so far, turning most of them into undead in the process. Killia's team only consists of three individuals, and I am one person. I ran her power level reading last time she was spotted, and am submitting her life sign scan,"

   "Individual Identified," says the AI

   "So, some S-class criminal I take it?" asks Mormak.

   "Negative," says the AI, "Name: Rhulan, member of the Magical Mercenaries, spell caster. Ranked 30,012th among spell casters currently. Relies mainly on natural mana manipulation powers with little actual spells identified. Black listed for requests by the Dimension Police; takes job from Ju-el and Demonic Overlords. Largest success on record, obtaining the Amana enhanced Ju-el mech from the Tempestia Hell World. Dimension Police stationed there to prevent anyone from obtaining it; killed. On record, ruthless, possibly sociopathic, previous records indicate a body count on all known missions, no regard for local laws, taboos, or preservations."

   "Yeah I get that," says Mormak, "She raised an army of the undead, kind of get the whole, no regard for the locals there. I am requesting assistance in defeating her."

   "Request denied,"

   "Why?" asks Mormak.

   "Unknown," says the AI, "Request denied, further more...do not engage. Repeat, do not engage at this time. Life Sign, Life Sign, Life Sign, compiling, unknown factor....analyzed...do not engage."

   "What the hell is wrong with you, put a real person on."

   "Real...threat, official order recieved. Classified, you are not to engage this entity. They are not what they are claiming to be. Disguised life sign detected. Cross analysis of known encounters has found a common element hidden in the forms. Results are classified, you are to return immediatly. Bring any possibly recruits with you. Situation will be sent to neccisary office for further action."

   ******

   In a small hunter's hut low on the north side of the mountain of the Red Goddess temple not far from a small village the three heroes, Killia, Jura, and Kumo are gathered. On the old wooden table where Killia sits there are several dark red glowing orbs, meanwhile Jura is chanting as she holds her hands out, "Spirit within me, compress to contain the power." forming a blue tinted clear spirit orb.

   Kumo stands watching by the window as the sun gets lower to the west. Killia touches the tip of his finger to the orb and concentrates, the skin on the fingerprint of his index finger peels away like dust in the wind revealing a dark red energy that pours into the sphere filling it up as though it were blood. He clinches his jaw as it finishes filling and holds his hand with a blue glowing "healing parchement", causing his skin to reform over the red energy.

   Kumo's eyes twitch seeing just how many of these orbs the other two have made and are stashing into the sub-space bag Killia got from the guild.

   "I can't make anymore," says Killia holding his hand, "and still have the time before nightfall to recover enough to fight."

   "I can sense them," says Kumo looking out the window, "on the eastern side of the mountain the vampires have already begun to move; its just like with the demon lord; there is an army of lower class monsters, no doubt meant to wear down the mountain's defenses while that vampire queen waits to move in during the chaos for the temple."

   Killia pockets the red orbs, "and unfortunatly Mormak isn't going to help us." he *sighs* as he drinks his stamina recovery potion.

   "We didn't need him or the guild," says Kumo, "to defeat Endara, you fought her one on one sir; I wish I could have seen that battle; but if you can defeat the devil herself, then this vampire queen should be no problem."

   Killia glances at Jura and back to his potion with a soft, "yeah,"

   ******

   "Where, where is the vampire army?" asks Kumo as they stand just below the 500th step of the mountain path, surprised that the only power they sensed was walking directly up the steps. Just a few steps below is Rhulan

   "Gone back to that first outfit?" asks Killia, "are you trying to fool us again? Or are those your powered up transformations."

   "Queen of Darkness," says Rhulan, "my cataclysm of darkness, and the Empress of the Night, a vampiric addition."

   She clinches her fists before her and runs her long tongue along her sharp canines, "I can feel that power within me, but it is not me. I am not a vampire, although I exhibit their traits. I don't understand it myself, but it seems I can transform now into a full vampiric state and back again without using the cataclysm of darkness; like my nanites are suppressing the vampirism unless i let it be expressed. Fascinating. But, Any who, that doesn't matter to you children. I have had my fun on this world, now its time I finished my mission."

   Kumo clinches his fist and strikes a combat posture, Killia too, however Jura steps forward and produces a card, "The way you speak reveals what you trully are,"

   "Jura?" asks Killia.

   She tosses a swarm of blue glowing cards, several stick to Rhulan, and some to shadows behind her, revealing into the light Children of Chaos vampires that had been invisible, "You are a Bio-android," says Jura, "Your hybrid genetics hiding your true nature, with this vampire incorporation I have no doubt now who made you, Claire the Alchemist be damned for her tamperings. Now submit to the power of the Suihrai!"

   The cards explode in blue flames, the Children of Chaos bow to the ground in submission, however the flames only grow brighter on Rhulan, her form vanished within them like a black shadow, a shadow that is laughing as her eyes and mouth glow red and her hands become shadow claws.

   *Killia*

   A woman's voice inside Killia's head speaks to him, *Killia, you have to stop this. That is not what the Suihrai thinks it is, her spell is opening a door Killia, what will step out will be a monster that you won't be able to stop, it will destroy the entire planet Killia*

   Killia sees it, in the blue flames, thorn covered tendrils dance around the edges of Rhulan's aura, her cape has become wings, but her legs and arms are extending like claws and crab like legs, a white mask is slowly forming on her face as the red of her eyes dances between ribbons of other colors such as green, blue, and purple.

  Killia tosses one of his orbs at her, the large dark red explosion catching Jura off guard.

   "What did you do?!" shouts Jura

  *HAA HAAA HAAAA* the loud boisterous laughter is coming from the cleared area. Standing there is Rhulan, however she now sports shadow demon wings, black metal clawed gauntlets, and black armored boots, however the rest of her is only covered in a black bikini and she has a long tail with a spear like tip, her red hair is high and wild, framed by a pair of black horn that split up and curve down like ram horns.

   "MMM," says Rhulan her claw tip to her deep red lips, "Looks like I have some strong little adventurers to play with. It has been soooo long,"

   She runs her hands up her sides and breasts, "since anyone has reached me to give me a good time."

  "What...what just happened?" asks Kumo.

   "A...a...a Mystic Monster," says Jura blinking and holding out one her cards, "I...I was wrong...but how...who...wait...this is...can't be!"

  She is suddenly on guard, "Killia, we've played for fools, only the Dimension Police could have pulled this off! Stay on guard, she may act strange but that is no ordinary Mystic Monster. That's...and I still can't believe my eyes seeing that outside the Inferverse, is a Supreme Overlord."

  She holds her card out, it projects a hologram of the opponent before them, "Rhulan, the Netherian Succubus...gone from the Inferverse so long that even the NPCs and other Overlords consider them myths; and so long that her very obvious name didn't tip ME off, augh!"

  "Wow," thinks Kumo, "never seen her like this."

  Jura aims her card at Rhulan, "No matter, this isn't the Inferverse, Supreme Overlord or not, or...wait...Killia defeated Endara...does this mean there is an Overlord tournament for this Earth going on! Is that why you are spreading terror and making a name for yourself?"

   "Jura?" asks Killia, "what are you..."

   "How boring," says Rhulan, "is that the story? It sounds silly, forget all that exposition nonsense. I'm not here for any tournament, or overlords, or terror, I'm here for a good time. So being your bodies over here and either punch me or fuck me. Either way, I expect to build up a good sweat."

   A moment passes but Rhulan just stands there, floating in some ankles crossed seductive demoness pose not speaking.

   "Why," says Kumo, "why is she just standing there not fighting us,"

   "I was mistaken," says Jura, "too many times mistaken, but now, its clear. Someone has been messing with us."

  "What?" asks Killia, "I don't get it,"

  "You both know about technology," says Jura, "as do I, so I'll keep this simple, we've been fighting a program. The Mystic Monsters are at their cores nothing more than programs gone berserk; however they can also be summoned. The Supreme Overlords havn't been seen in centuries; someone accessed this one, gave her a narrative to play out, and sent her here. That's all this bloodshed has been, a game, a set up for this, a battle with the final boss. Its been using disguises this whole time as part of that narrative for this big final reveal."

   "No," thinks Killia, "This isn't what I saw in the flames, there was something..."

    "Demon bitch!" shouts Killia suddenly as he tosses one of his orbs, there is a bright dark red explosion and the unbelievable sight of Rhulan's outstretched fist having punched it to set off the explosion and no damage."

   "A fight it is," says Rhulan licking her lips, "gonna fight be pretty boy? Don't worry I won't hurt you too much. I'm gonna take you home with me, you and your pretty mouth, pretty face, and pretty body."

   "Wh...what?" stammers Killia.

   "I'm going to violate every orifice you have," says Rhulan followed by a haughty laugh, "don't worry I think I'll take that girl with me too; you will both make lovely additions to my army of darkness..."

   Her tone changes, "that ugly man back there though, I'll just kill him."

  She curles her claw like finger at Killia, "In the mean time pretty boy, let the queen show you true humility beneath her boots."

   He spies movement in the darkness behind her like more vampires and monsters have arrived to try and flank them, however a sudden barrage of bright red blasts into the air originating from the temple atop the mountain draws their attention, a series *pew, pew, pew* sounds accompanying the blasts as they fly high into the sky. A woman's voice from atop the mountain yells out, "Rain of Chaos!" as the red bolts come raining down on the mountain side, vaporizing trees, rocks, skeletons, vampires, and other undead monsters as they try to flee the blast.

   "Another player," says Rhulan coldly as she swats the blasts that come down on her, "very well,"

   She raises one hand up and fires black bolts into the air with the same *pew, pew, pew* sound, followed by her shouting, "Rain of Darkness!", black bolts rain down from the sky focused on the temple.

  "Shit!" exclaims Killia looking around at the devestation, "the goddess is getting involved, that bitch...these two..."

  He remembers what he saw in the flames, another memory of dark crimson flames and a woman shaped mask and bust coming from them.

   He narrows his eyes and charges Rhulan, surprising her as he is engulfed in a dark red aura, bits of his skin here and there peeling away like paint to reveal drops of dark red underneath, "My world isn't your playground you monsters!"

   He wraps his arms around her as they smash through the trees flying into the air, Rhulan smiles, "So, fuck then?"

  "Endara Terata!" shouts Killia, "I accept!"

   Suddenly a blue rip in space occurs behind the two flying through the air. From this world the two vanish, appearing in the middle of an empty 21st century city street with cars and skyscrapers around them.

   Killia jumps back and *winces*, "There, off my planet."

   He falls to one knee the red spots slowly shrinking to normal human flesh.

  "So, finnaly accepted to be my husband have you?" the voice is coming from a blue woman wearing a clevage revealing top, tight black pants, boots, she brushes her blue hair back off her blade like horns with her long finger nails, before placing her hand on her abdomen, "Just in time hero, the child you fathered for me will be born soon. Yes I know I don't....look...it..."

   She spies Rhulan, "and who is this floozy?"