Shadow over Suranaku

  "It occurs to the council," says Lady Magnus, "that while the decision was ultimatly yours being the queens and all, that we would have liked to have been consulted about this Overlord Tournament, seeing as how according to these rules if one or both of you, two out of the three queens were to lose you'd be sealed away from Earth until only one remains."

   "Doubt our abilities?" asks Echidaria, "to quell your concerns we have a pact to be the last two remaining, and do not forget who we are."

   "Did you not see my quick defeat of that Dursha creature?" asks Lohln.

   "One of the contestants," pipes in a vampire, "is Echidaria's father! Albiornesh! Not to mention the current devil, a slew of creatures we've never even heard of...a Dimension Police officer, Chaos...and we also have it reported that one of these caused a commotion at a vampire club...these devils are to make a name for themselves among the mortals...we had that battle between no less than five of them in that very city!"

   "That..." chimes in Shahara, "is odd...Ladies Lohln and Echidaria...those Hell spheres allow you to track the other contestants correct? Can you tell us where they are?"

   "Of course," says Lohln realizing the concern. She uses the red sphere to project a map of the world.

  "Well, seems the rule they have to stay on the planet is completly true...let's see Lahk Fhar is in Italy, Albiornesh appears to be...here in the city, along with myself and Echidaria, Rhulan is just outside of the city...Rhoan would be...a little further out of the city, seems that Yanna is also still in the city as well."

   "Yanna," growls Shahara.

  "Hmm," continues Lohln, "and prior to their defeat we could have added Albia and Luke to being in the city's limits as well. Seems the number gathered here is likely drawing others here. It may be prudent to scatter a bit like with the Dark Tournament to avoid any more public incidents in the same location."

   Echidaria smiles looking at the map, "Seems Paramalia is staying put on her island in the Caribean, Apole is in Greece, this...Cechantes whoever she is is in New York, Endara is near her location, Hydera Dredge is in Canada. Those two christmas themed ones are both in Germany...hmm...looks like Suranaku is heading towards Sha'Riak's temple in the North Atlantic."

   "So then," says Lohln, "the councils decision is to flee this city...well...my buisiness here was nearly done. I had a flight tomorrow regardless to return home, can't have my public persona just showing up so quickly between locations after all."

  "It is time to clear out a few more of these nuisances," says Echidaria as she vanishes in a white flash.

   ******

   The man has no idea how long it has been, since that his exploration vessel braved the American and British blockade to come here, since that day he met her. This temple that descends down to the sea floor, where the love of his life, the ancient eldritch goddess Sha'Riak, the queen of sharks resides and is worshipped by all manner of marine monsters he never imagined existed in real life. He knows nothing of what is happening in the outside world, and would know nothing as a stranger comes flying through the air, a man with spikey yellow hair, wearing a denim jacket and jeans with a black t-shirt.

   The stranger flies and lands like a super-hero and looks about.

  The man steps between the man and the gate to the temple, "Who are you? Are you with the Paranormal Control Agency? I already told them they are not welcomed here."

  The stranger barely glances at the man shouts out like thunder, "Sha'Riak! Demon spawn of the sea, I am Suranaku! By the Overlord Tournament I challenge you!"

   "Why you insolent..." starts the man.

  He is interrupted by a loud laugh coming from the sea as the massive mer-shark form of Sha'Riak appears, large as a Kaiju, with her shark skin, webbed hands, and rows of horrific teeth she would easily be mistaken for such. Her long dark hair split by her dorsal fin, she stares down at Suranaku with her black shark eyes.

   "So this is Lahk Fhar's pawn?" asks the mighty sea goddess, "such a tiny fool! I will crush you beneath my fist....but first, my love if you would please retreat into the temple for your own safety."

  The man rushes inside.

  "Now then," says Sha'Riak as her eyes glow with darkness I will...

 Suranaku blasts a massive hole through her with one energy beam from one hand. She has a surprised look on her face as she starts to fade away in red smoke. The man rushes out of the temple, past Suranaku and jumps into the smoke, it swirls around him swallowing him up as it vanishes.

  *hmph* mocks Suranaku as he turns.

  "Escaped the hand of death again," comes a woman's voice. The source is a stoic woman standing atop some strange idol of the temple, a woman in white oriental robes, long black hair, and holding a katana.

  "Who are you?" asks Suranaku.

  "Do you not recognize me?" asks the woman, "Am I not what you fear, lost soul of Peres."

   "What?" asks Suranaku taking a defensive stance.

  "You are not a demon," says the woman, "not an Eternal, an Eldritch, Faerie, Undead, God, or any other such thing...you were granted long life by the magic of an oracle so you could be a champion for longer...granted un-naturally long life by the Dimension Police so they could use you...your soul cries for freedom, you are mortal...you were never meant for this..."

   Suranaku glares at her, "I don't recognize you from the list...who are you? A servant of that demon? Another of her witch's, her seduced victims?"

   "There is no one left," continues the woman, "Upon Peres who remembers the sound of your voice...who knows what you trully looked like...you are not a household name, but one of many old legends of ancient heroes...and not a particularly proud one...a story of a mercinary who opposed love by a king's command, and was damned to an eternity pursuing an unkillable opponent before being dragged into its Hell to be its...opponent...for what fun is eternal rule without someone to challenge you?"

   "What...what are you..."

  "Why do you pursue the Overlord of the Dark Netherworld? A Great Queen of Faeries? Even knowing what you know now that she not what you saught originally? You were not a hero Suranaku...you were a mercinary, but your actions did promise you a place in the Hero's afterlife...you were hired by a King to subdue a witch...she resurfaced, you went after her to preserve your reputation...and then your pride...for what work could a mercinary gain if their prey runs wild...what pride could you have knowing you'd be mocked...in your haste you made bargains...what purpose was there in leaving Peres like that...oh lost soul...why...how often did you continue after the one you saught beyond that? Why continue to fight with the Dimension Police?"

  "I..." growls Suranaku as he takes a step back, something about this woman, something dreadful buried in his memories.

  "Your mind was not made to live this long," says the woman, "you have become a pawn of bored gods, your soul cries out to me for release, it has for so long...but now...now that you stole my spot in this tournament, your soul cries louder for me...."

  She looks directly at him with eyes that flash red and green and settle on a dark gold.

  Suranaku turns pale, "No...you..."

  "Overlord Tournament," says the woman, "A contest for the gods of death...do you not know me, lost soul of Peres?..."

  "Not...real..." stammers Suranaku, he shakes his head and unleashes a powerful blast, "You are not real!"

  The blast is impossibly sucked into an ornate bowl the woman has produced, the energy transforming into noodles. She sets her sword to float in the air as she produces chop sticks and eats the noodles, "Ki...is the essence of life...your life as ripened to the point of nearly rotting. Your soul cries for release from the pressure before the madness sets in...the madness of un-natural immortality. What is to be gained in the next life after your stay in Mana-Zan if you mostly have pointless insanity that outshines your many heroic deeds after joining the Dimension Police and before, to throw it all away to become a devil? Your soul cries to me...and I will enjoy your over abundant Ki..."

   She finishes off the bowl and reclaims her sword.

  "No," whispers Suranaku his mind flashing to ancient paintings and pictures in a book, "No...No...No!"

  He flies into the air, "You don't exist! Its...primitive myth!"

  She holds out her sword, the blade glowing blue and spins like a top into the air. She stops and stands as if on solid ground, "you who have fought myths, ancient stories that are only legends, but come to life, who are but a legend himself...do you still refuse to know me?"

  Suranaku starts to panic, his wrist device goes off, "Suranaku, come in Suranaku, this is the chief...do you read me?"

  Suranaku pushes the device as he slowly floats backwards, the woman does not move yet does not seem to ever be further away, "Ye...yeah,"

  "Your vitals are off...we detected that you have taken out the Eldritch...Sha'Riak...good work...were you hit? Injured...we are reading psionic distress, they can cause madness...we can't teleport you off the planet...we can send,"

   "What is in front of me," demands Suranaku.

   "What?"

  "I said what the hell is in front of me?"

  The chief pauses and can be heard to press some buttons, "We arn't detecting anything...are you..."

  The woman smiles and fades away. Suranaku *sighs*, "I'm fine...so they can cause madness huh? I'll keep that in mind."

  As he flies away he does not know that the chief is looking a still image, showing Suranaku standing before a very clearly there woman.

   "You knew this day would come eventually," says a woman's voice projecting into the chief's mind.

  "So long as we kept him away from Peres," says the chief, "It shouldn't have...our psychics have kept him sane...far longer than any previous mortal turned immortal...a few more centuries and he'd be past the point...his soul could have evolved...we...."

   The chief looks at his desk, "We entered him in a tournament for underworld gods...she..."

   The image on the desk shifts to a profile of the woman [Yi-Natta, Underworld Goddess, Peres}

   ******

   "Well, well, well," says Yanna as she stands in the street of some town facing Suranaku, "the annoyance...the pawn of that sissy little devil...you are doing to die here little man, well...maybe not die per say...but I will enjoy hunting you down afterwords and dragging you to..."

   She pauses and in a moment Suranaku realizes why, as a hand touches his shoulder and his faces turns pale, a sword draws around his throat. He can feel and see his Ki streaming off his body and a voice deep inside him making a soft "glee" sound. In a flash he ducks down and rams through the street like a torpedo through waves. He smashes into a fire hydrant gasping for air. Yanna just stands there looking back and forth between Suranaku and Yi-Natta.

  Suranaku points at Yi-Natta, "you...you don't exist..."

  "Uh..." says Yanna, "yeah she does..."

  Suranaku turns pale looking between Yanna and Yi-Natta as their faces are very similar.

  "Lost soul of Peres," says Yi-Natta, "come home to me...do you not yearn for the Fields of the Hero? The flowers of forgetfullnes, your reward..."

  "Hold on," says Yanna, "this guy...wait I thought Chay said he was a Dimension Police...oh my...us...they didn't..."

  Yanna looks down and smiles at Suranaku, "you arn't one of the races that normally join them are you? Unbelievable they actually took a mortal again? Man they almost never do that...and you're still young enough...holy shit and they put you in the Overlord Tournament? Holy shit on shit toast with shit biscuits kid...what do you think this is all about?"

   She laughs, and looks at Yi-Natta, "from one of your world's huh? So then...when he joined the tournament..no netherworld of his own...oh...proxy rules went into effect and..."

  Yanna smiles and looks right at Suranaku, "she was alerted to your exact location...death has come for you kiddo..."

  "Shut up!" yells out Suranaku sending out a blast, the same attack that killed Sha'Riak in one shot, this however is sucked into a tiny wormhole on the tip of Yanna's index finger.

  Yi-Natta looks at her.

  "Oh...right," says Yanna, she releases the energy back at Yi-Natta who gathers it into a spiral and into a backed bun.

   "Coming at us with Ki," says Yanna, "what do you think this tournament is about?"

  Yi-Natta bites into the bun, a little tiny bite that shows the glow of the yellow ki energy inside. She then sucks it out as the bun fades as smoke in the air.

  "Yeah," says Yanna, "my sis...creepy as usual."

  "Sis...." stammers Suranaku looking between them, "You...you are not the same thing!"

  He stands straight, "I...I killed...beat one of you already!"

  "A silly little kid," says Yanna, "Yeah, I saw you beat that shark animalistic eldritch abomination thing that was born on this world...honestly they shouldn't let anything that weak in these tournaments. Maybe Chay thought the fish had some sneaky tricks like that sissy devil and the others already here, homefield advantage and all..."

  Yi-Natta steps towards Suranaku with her arms out stretched, "Come to me my child, know my embrace. Return, be rewarded, and live again, know your world through new eyes..."

  "No..." says Suranaku backing away, "No..No...you are not....he looks between them an imagines Rhulan standing there...No...I have not been...the legends..."

   He remembers all the times he would go after Rhulan, the legends and stories, the changing tales, Goddess of Cataclysms, Sorceress of the Storm, Spirit of Storms, Devil Queen, Goddess of Darkness, Celestial Sorceress, Empress of the Netherworld, and so on.

  "No..." he mutters, "I have not been....I have not been hunting some Netherworld afterlife goddess this whole time!"

   He flies into the air, the voice of Chaykonaka who spoke to them all before manifests through the Hell Sphere, "A proxy has been revealed, the one called Suranaku is no longer a candidate, his soul was rightfully claimed as belonging to Yi-Natta, his native death goddess. By the proxy rules his alliance with Lahk Fhar is terminated and he is now bound by the jurisdiction rules of Yi-Natta, his victory is hers."

   The Hell Sphere in front of Suranaku vanishes, crumbling to red shards and turning to mist. He taps on his wrist communicator, "Get me the Hell off this rock!"

  There is no reply, the chief sits at his desk and turns off the communicator.

  "No, no, no, no, NO!" yells Suranaku as he uses his own techniques to open a portal and leaves the planet, crashing into a forest on the world of Homnes."

   Yi-Natta stands in the air and tugs an invisible string, and Suranaku is pulled back to Midgardia to float before her. He is standing face to face with her.

   She whispers, "Know peace," and gently kisses him on the lips. He falls backwards and the air moves in waves around him as he falls back to the level of Yi-Natta's feet. He floats away on an invisible river, vanishing like a ghost.

   She whispers, "The soul shall be reborn, the ghost has existed too long...it shall become a soul its self....a new demon to serve me."

  Yi-Natta looks below, Yanna has left the area. Yi-Natta's eyes narrow, "Death, reward and punishment...I would not another world be subjected to your goofiness dear sister."

  With that she vanishes like a ghost.

   ******

   Lahk Fhar, in his buisiness man suit is just exiting a dimensional door to cross entire continents when his Hell Sphere alerts him to the change. Suffice it to say, he isn't happy.