[IC] Nergal summons the Magna Pater!

[Enki]

He gets it, no really he does. Pick on the new guy and give him a crappy mission. It's always how it seems to go in group and it's more than understandable...but this is a little insulting. Sure send the guy with the spear to some fighting pit, but send the creepy guy who likes to play with his blood to a horror show. Months ago ShinRa Inc(SRI) had heard rumors from one of the planets it had visited and colonized through its dimensional gateway tech. The legend of a creature that was beyond deadly with amazing capabilities. Now, legends almost never turn out to be completely true but every once in a while they are even more amazing than the legend itself. It only took three months for the Biotech research division to cut through the red tape to get someone, anyone, to go check out this particular one.

"How many favors does Ghest owe biotech because this is silly." He thinks to himself as he pours the bag of infants blood the company had procured for him for this mission. He makes the tetrahedron shape like the odd scrolls instructions tell him to. The room about the size of a aircraft hanger was devoid of all light save the six black candles burning. Outside the cut off hanger the night sky shows stars, but no moon, as the ritual is being held on some planet that gratefully is devoid of even having one to begin with.

Taking out a wrapped up cloth he loosens it to reveal a small bone. Its the finger bone of the his deceased sister and the one thing he ever could be accused of loving except for himself. He places it into the center of the ritual and leans up to back away. His dark black armor blending into the abyss around him, the candle light only showing off his frame. He adjusts his helmet and a high tech visor shifts down over his eyes. Taking his sword the Blood Drinker and placing the tip to the concrete ground he uses his left hand to hold out the incantation he has to recite.

Reading off the black jargon he both feels comfortable, for he himself grew up around dark rituals, and silly at the time not knowing what the words actually meant. At the end of the last word of gibberish he holds out his left hand and uses one of his dark runes on his body to extinguish all six candles at once. Once used the Rune begins to slowly fill back in with dark energy. Nergal grips blood drinker tightly in his right hand and awaits to see the specimen SRI wants to get a good look at.

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

Faint tendrils of smoke wafted up from the extinguished candles, fading away into the inky blackness. There was no sound save for the brief murmur of a cold breeze. Nergal was indoors, however. There shouldn't have been wind. Not unless a nearby space had just been occupied, forcing the air away. Nergal was no longer alone. Something huge and soggy lay curled in the middle of the tetrahedron, awash with shadow. Its glistening hide twitched and shivered. With an ease of motion that was almost dreamlike, the vast thing slowly uncoiled and propped itself up on a pair of long, craggy arms. Its flesh sucked audibly at the floor as it shifted. Childhood fears, once long forgotten, echoed dimly through its wet, jet-black eyes. Its long ears were like those of a donkey, but wavy, hairless, and wrinkled. They were angled in Nergal's direction. It was studying him. Waiting for the futile requests to begin. Its summoners always wanted favors, as if it were some sort of genie or demon that could be bargained with. The only reason it didn't eat its summoners the moment it appeared was because it relished the smell of their sweat and tears as they realized what they had done.

[Enki]

The Pater would not find the sweet smell of sweat and tears it would usually find on frequent lot who would summon it. Nergal was from a dark world where rituals to the dark gods of his realm were common. In fact the creature if so attuned would likely be able to recognize the dark magical pacts infused into the body of the one who summoned it. Nergal was calm as the creature stood before him, his visor giving him a visual of the creature. The visor wasn't necessary as the darkness flowing through his own body was warning him of the creatures presence, sensing its vileness.

It was time to finish his work though and Nergal began to speak to the creature. "I have summoned you Magna Pater. My Company wishes to examine you and preferably alive. I know creatures like you have an intelligence that most mortals do not understand, so this is a choice between coming with me alive or me having to bring some samples back the hard way."

He raises his sword the blood drinker up now in a normal stance with his feet spread slightly apart with both hands holding the sword slightly to his right side. The blade is tilted back with its tip barely pointed to the ground. His gauntlet which injects a tube into his arm lets the valve open to allow the blood to seep out through the delivery system to the blade. The blood slides into the grooves on its side. He is ready for a melee attack of any sorts but he knows that the Pater is likely smarter than it looks.

Using an unholy rune, a blood rune, and a dark rune from his body the blood inscribed tetrahedron glows for one brief moment and then suddenly out of its edges bones raise up and try to snap shut on the creature to form a giant bone prison for it. The bone bars resemble fingers almost clasping it to hold it down. The blood that was once there seems to have now been used up by whatever spell was invoked onto it.

Having expended a shadow rune before and now three for this spell, two death runes appear onto his weapon above the others. The dark rune he used before is half charged with a blood, unholy, and dark rune exhausted and beginning to charge again. He still has a blood and an unholy rune to use on his body with his weapon still holding two blood and two dark.

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

The monster appeared to understand what Nergal had said. It seemed to smile or leer back at him, sopping muzzle crinkled back into a strange, dog-like grin. The horrible creature had lips, and what lay behind them it didn't reveal. Its sightless eyes had taken on the aspect of a cruel child that was about to enjoy pulling the wings from a fly. It looked stupid-smart.

As the tetrahedron's trap snapped shut, it would have no captive within. The monster was a thing that defied sane description, but at the core and disregarding the ways its terrible form defied reason, it most resembled a cross between a serpent and a bat. Certainly it moved just as quickly as either of the two. It had used its gangly arms and powerful tail to propel itself to the side, contracting its tail after it. Its heat pits could detect light, hence its awareness of the glow. Now on Nergal's right, it would begin trying to slowly circle around him. It would continue hauling its body to its left, leaving a snail trail of slime wherever it slid. Its tail coiled and uncoiled in the air above its back, like a writhing vertical python. It was waiting for Nergal to make the first move.

[Enki]

Nergal noted that the creature was fast for its frame, but that is usually the case with these cursed creatures. He felt for it really, a kindred spirit, as he himself was now one of the cursed creatures of the universes. The bone trap didn't work but it was worth a shot at least and it seemed the creature was avoiding coming at him. It meant it wanted to draw him in closer for an attack so he had to be ready for a retaliation once he engaged.

The black helmet hid the smile that came over his face as he ran towards the creature to attack. A blood rune on the sword activated as he slashed in a horizontal arc just a few steps into his attacking run. The slash sent blood flinging off the blade and towards the creature as the blood rune augmented it giving the blood a cutting edge of its own. The blood arc flies toward the creature as Nergal himself follows after it, his sword now on the left side of his body and pooling with blood once again. He himself wanting to get closer to the creature and test its defenses. He speaks no more words to it as they both know the stakes of what is going on here, but if the creature was like the legends say it could feel the dark blood pulsing through him not to mention it being used a weapon towards it.

Time had not really passed enough for the runes to recharge anymore save for the fact the one blood rune now is exhausted on his sword. The half charged ones would likely be fully charged soon though.

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

The monster moved like a shadow on the wall at midnight. It leapt backwards as Nergal charged in, raising its left arm to block the blood slash with the immensely durable tissues of its wing.

That probably wouldn't be the biggest surprise to Nergal, though. Were he to step foot in the slime that the creature had left where it had been, he'd stick fast with his momentum perhaps making him fall forwards, his hands and body potentially falling victim to the mucous as well.
The monster had laid a trap of its own.

If Nergal did get stuck to the floor, the Magna Pater wouldn't immediately attack. Instead it would just remain several feet away, watching in the same way a young boy would perceive the thing in his closet watched. Unlike Nergal, it wanted to take its time.

[Enki]

Nergal seen his blood slash slap into the armor like hide of the creatures wing. What was meant to cut would instead smack onto the hide of the great creature. The attack would find itself splattering over the creatures wing staining it red with the blood. He smiles to himself as he presses his attack but then finds himself in a sticky situation. His first foot hits the slime and firmly plants itself there followed by the right foot in full stride lands in front of him but the left foot doesn't budge. He starts to fall forward and is forced to shift his hand up to catch himself before falling fully face first down to the ground. His left hand reaching up to plant onto the ground and once again finding it now inside the sticky material. His right hand still holds his weapon but its as if its pinned underneath him, although not touching the ground.

The Knights of the Onyx Blade have fought many enemies over its years and most of them where defensive in nature always trying to hindering their movements and stopping a Dark Knights onslaught. Borrowing from a paladins consecration, they developed a desecration ability. Using unholy magics to corrupt the very ground they stood on slowing enemies around them and allowing them to move unhindered while standing on top of it. The downside is it only works in the area around the caster.

The second Unholy Rune on his body shimmers as it drains of power and starting at Nergals feet a grey almost moldy looking substance forms over the ground covering over the slime and continues in a circle around him to about eight feet around him. Past that a green circle forms around the edge stretching another four feet with runes inscribed with dark magics etched into the spell around it.

Nergal stands up and calmly moves out of the path of the slime while still inside his circle. The effect will only last a short while(one post) so he knows not to waste time and find himself back where he started. He keeps a tab on the creature the entire time making sure to be able to react to what could be it going in for a kill. It never came, as it seems the creature was just watching to see what he would do. Still he would have to make a note of the slime and its properties and not step into that mess again.

He casually holds his weapon in his right hand still with the blade pointed up, and now he watches the creature watch him. He will show it, that it is not the most dangerous monster inside this place. Using the unholy rune and a blood rune before another death rune appears on his blade.

Runetracker- Body: BBDDU_ Weapon: _BDD ~ ~ ~

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

As Nergal pointed his blade, the monster completely reversed its strategy to try and take him off guard. It plunged towards him by clawing across the floor. It came in low to the ground, tail held over its back like a scorpion, jaws snapping wildly for Nergal's legs.

[Enki]

Nergal knows that the creature has a reputation to be deadly and savage. It's jaws could easily injure his legs through his armor, but would it give him enough time to counter with a finishing blow? Likely not with the tail above it waiting to block a sword stroke down. It's a good thing he had no plans to do such a thing. Though he has been known to be rather reckless in other encounters he seen a plan form just moments ago in this little hunting expedition.

The blood that impacted against the creatures wing when it used it as a shield was going to come in very handy. A blood rune to active his blood on the wing as the conduit of the spell would just be a simple "blood boil"...a painful searing of the location. Adding in an unholy rune would make the effect more of a diseased effect. Activating a dark rune with it though mixes it all together into one dark magical enhanced effect of a necrotic plague. The term plague used loosely as it moves past just a disease that most things of this nature are immune to, it pushes it into an ongoing magical state that seeks to eat organic tissue and stop regenerative measures.

That wasn't the worst of it, Nergal had built up a few death runes to empower his abilities and knew he wouldn't get many chances at this trick. One death rune poured into the effect would turn it into a bomb, exploding the necrosis in a violent dark measure that would surely blow at least a few chunks out of the wing and exposing some of the weaker tissue for it to feed more on. Nergal wasn't going to take any chances though as he activates all of those runes plus one more...Another Death rune to amplify the Necrotic bombs explosion with even more power. With the wing being attached to the creatures arm, it could be very likely that the Necrotic Bomb with a second dose of power was capable of blowing off the arm of the creature. With any damage from the dark spell leaving the necrotic effect onto any open wounds suffered from it.

Whatever happens, the necrotic bomb going off should be enough to at least jar it from its attacking crawl and re-positing it some if not sending it onto it's side. Nergal would seize the opportunity of the off balance creature stepping forward taking precaution to not cross into another slime path and attempt to strike downward with his sword to cleave into the base of its jaw trying to separate it from the rest of the body. With the bombs momentum likely to send the creature reeling to its right side, and the likely hood its left arm to be blown off or at least injured enough to be rather useless, the sword should have a clean shot. It's tail might try to snap back around but, likely it would be trying to stabilize the creature or be on the opposite side of where Nergal was attacking. Worst case, Nergal should have enough time to strike before the creature can snap it back at him.

Runetracker- Body: _B_DU- Weapon: -BDD ~

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

The Magna Pater's wing exploded and the shock fractured its left arm. However, it had a reckless side too. In the wild, hesitation meant death. A cornered tiger does not cower.

Instead of using its tail to stay balanced and be struck by the sword swing, the monster allowed itself to be knocked to its side. Due to the sheer toughness of the wing though, most of the necrotic drops would fly in the opposite direction. Those that did reach the monster's body would be stuck in the mucous coating its flesh, not even getting a chance to reach home base. As Nergal slashed, the monster's tail cut through the air like a whip set to catch the outstretched arm and stop it before impact, coiling around it tight enough to make the limb go numb in a matter of seconds if it were caught. Not that there would be many seconds left.

If the creature succeeded in trapping Nergal, it would then try to jerk him forwards off his feet, hauling him down into close range on the floor where he'd not only be at the mercy of the slime, but also the elder horror's favorite weapon. It didn't need its left arm for a ground scuffle, or even the right. All it needed were its teeth. Rancid carrion fumes hissed from its great and terrible mouth, flabby lips pulling back over thick, trembling molars.

Its eyes rolled into its skull like those of a shark as an otherworldly radiance flared up within its eye sockets, two stars of ghostly cerulean whose coming would be heralded by an immense and palpable air of dread.

[Enki]

The bomb would go off, but it appears only the wing itself sustaining the effects of the necrosis. Slowly it would eat at it, but the impact from the bomb also seemed to break the creatures arm which although helpful did not help at the moment. The tail...cursed tails, always the problem and what Nergal was the most worried about.

But the creature forgot about one of nergals limbs also. Nergal was already paying close attention to the tail and as it whipped towards his right arm Nergal would shift the blades handle to the left hand, a left hand that was just as trained with the weapon as the right was.The creatures tail would whip up and wrap around nergals own right arm and in that split second the tail was busy and right before it could yank him, Nergal would use his left hand to thrust the blades tip down towards the base of the creatures jaw. He was only be attacking at the jaws when he would be in range to do so in the first place, so the tail moving up to stop the attack would allude to being in strike range for Nergal as well. The yank would happen a split second after the thrust.

His armor would help some on his right arm, but it would seem the creature would crush into it eventually. The pressure of the arm being squeezed would prove to be worse for the creature as it would force the blood in his arm down towards his hand and the device that was set up to easily let it flow out when needed would not be able to stop the pressure of its force. What blood was there would start spraying out his gauntlet beyond his control, going in random places or wherever the prater would try to fling him with the tail.

His weapon would likely be lost in the exchange, its own blood soaked handle hopefully letting its coating ooze down over the praters head that was also hopefully just stabbed.

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

Nergal himself had also overlooked that the Magna Pater had a spare arm as well. Tit for tat, quid pro quo. Its long right arm shot out towards Nergal's left forearm as he aimed his thrust, the eight inch middle claw potentially slicing him down to the bone as his stab was forced off course and he was pulled forwards. The monster would keep its claw in him, wrapping its other spindly digits about the forearm to render it useless. With both arms restrained, there would be little that Nergal could do as the Magna Pater's tongue lashed out like a bright crimson lasso to encircle his neck and tug his head into the grimy jaws.

Being the gruesome outer-rim horror it was, the monster would wait a few seconds for the constricted blood within Nergals throat to build up. In those few seconds, a lunatic-pitched laugh would cascade out from its open mouth, a nerve wrenching rollercoaster cackle that would descend into what resembled wretched, hair-raising sobs, moments before it carried on with biting his head off with a meaty *CHUMP!*, a geyser of rainbow mist gore blasting out of the stump and drenching its disfigured muzzle, should all this occur.

[Enki]

The Prater had chosen to use his tail to wrap up the right arm instead of stabilizing itself, meaning that it would be on its right side from the prior explosion and therefore the angle and power behind its desperation arm flail would not be at its absolute 100% effectiveness to say the least. The claw would connect and even if the positioning wasn't awkward there was still the armor that Nergal wore that would cut down the claws impact. Sure it would cut into it, but not straight to the bone. Still the claw was sharp and likely when it went to grip the claw would carve into the armor and into the arm causing blood to spill out onto the claw and as it would grip tighter more blood would gush over its disgusting fingers.

That was not the most significant action however, the swipe would move his thrust off course away from the base of the creatures jaw, however with the speed of the thrust in motion would only veer the blades tip to strike more into the creatures body closer to where the left shoulder would be and only a few inches from its neck and with the creature attempting to pull him closer to it would only drive the blade in deeper. Nergals blood from from the handle and his gauntlets would flood into the grooves and seep into the pater.

It's tongue would lash out and wrap around the knights neck, and Nergal would struggle trying to keep his head back to buy just even a fraction of a second longer. Staring the horror in the eye...one monster to another in an odd nod of respect to it, he knew he had to act now and put everything he had into this. The creature was getting ready to feed and wasn't trying to dodge anymore, his own blood supply being constricted from his brain and only the dark ritual that bound his soul to his body allowing him to even think at that moment works only if he still has a head attached. It was time...

There was blood everywhere at this point, from his right arm it flowed onto the creatures tail and the floor all around them, from his left arm his blood covered over the creatures hand, and from the sword down directly into the creatures body. Nergal had the runes...and it worked once before and as his teacher always said you can use an attack again if it works, but never a third time. The last three remaining runes on his body that energy stored up depleted, a blood, an unholy, and a dark combined with his last death rune to do the necrotic bomb once again. Although with less kick than with two death runes, he didn't need to try to blow up an entire car from the outside of it, it would still be more than enough explosive power considering where all the blood was.

From the blood now inside the creatures body it would detonate and should not find much resistance from its softer insides. The location of the wound near its neck and shoulder region should be enough to pop the horrors head clean off and if not it should be attached to nothing more than a few pieces of flesh and hanging over its right shoulder. It's right hand covered in his blood would find it's digits and precious claw blown off. The places along it's tail where blood had splattered and spilled would also be detonated as well as the floor around the pater and likely as blood tends to do seep under things. It was a full assault, the blood already on the creatures slime next to its body would not be much a shield as the force would blow the slime away and deliver severe damage to its flesh. Though the major damage would be inside the beast and to its neck region, as the necrosis would begin to eat painfully away at the soft tissue inside. If somehow it would survive the explosion, it shouldn't take long for the necrosis to work to every vital organ inside its body.

Nergal would not be immune to the explosive impact as well, his armor would only be able to do so much as it would likely get blown off and his own flesh would be ripped open as well. His arms would show that his armor there would have almost entirely been shattered and flown off with chunks of flesh missing from the blast exposing his own bones on his forearms and hands. His chest armor would have large cracks from where the bomb had cracked it and sent a piece somewhere, some of the flesh gone from his own chest with his sternum and a few ribs showing. The force of the blast combined with the damage to the pater there would be no way the creature could hold onto him, sending him flying backwards to the ground. The system built into his armor kicks in and begins to forcefully inject the putricide into his blood pushing it out and replacing it. What can only be described as green goop seeps out from his wounds everywhere on his body, the putricide is thicker as it clumps at the openings.

His helmet was completely destroyed in the blast, likely split and was blown off somewhere in the hanger. Blast scars over his face with his left eye closed and only the right one open. If the Pater lives through that...things will get very interesting.

Runetracker- Body: _____- Weapon: -BDD

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

The monster was no fool, as many had learned the hard way. It liked to take its time. Torturing victims was its one and only pastime, its one true love. In certain situations though, it understood that a quick end, though unsatisfying, was the only option. This occurred to the horror the moment it found that the blade had penetrated its body. The same blade that had unleashed an attack which had blown its wing apart. It couldn't afford to gloat. It still pulled Nergal in, but only to end him all the more quickly that it may heal the nasty new wound that had just been inflicted upon it, and avoid being turned into a modern art masterpiece. Rather than taking several seconds to laugh it up before gulping down Nergal's head, the horror would opt for a far quicker finish.

Instead of fully wrapping about the knight's neck, the sharp tongue would seek to outright plunge deep into the right carotid, avoiding any armor in the way and piercing through any layers of protection that might be hugging the skin. The tip of the tongue was as sharp and as hard as any of the monster's teeth, and hollow. It would be like a fat kid with a juice box. The juice box crinkles up and collapses in on itself. Except here, the juice box was Nergal's throat, and the fat kid just so happened to be the baddest quarter-ton vampire this side of the macroverse.

Nergal's blood pressure would drop instantly, the blood supply to his brain becoming virtually nonexistent. He would pass out the moment the Magna Pater started drinking, without even the cognitive ability to initiate a suicide bomb.

[Enki]

The aforementioned dark ritual that kept him in control as the already cut off blood supply to his brain was still in effect either by the throat gouging or by its constriction. The dark ritual was taken by every Knight of his order, A dark bargain with the old evil dying gods of his world and gave his order the ability to keep going until the last drop of blood had left their system or their head was cut off. Nergal used this better than anyone in his order using his blood magics at dangerous levels as the dark magics that governed his body kept his spirit in control of his body. In past encounters before coming to shinra it was not unheard of him to use all but a last pint of his own blood, loosing it profusely through various wounds on his body. Nergal though on occasion did have to push beyond that, that's what the putricide was for, almost loosing every bit of his blood the putricide would be pushed into his system. He would use his blood, still going strong and surprising his prey, and when his body was almost drained he would change over. So, having almost no blood going to his noggin' and still being able to function was his style routinely with each fight and this exchange was not different.

Of course now that his blood was going directly through the creatures tongue...and into its head and digestive track. Well...the bombs effects would be even worse now.

[Doc Doctor]

@Enki

No doubt about it, explosive blood was one hell of a weapon against the monster. It would be blown to messy pieces, head flying off its splitting shoulders in slow motion, body flying apart in different directions.

But Nergal might haved missed one thing. The monster's tongue was also full of his blood, and might as well have been a stick of dynamite stuck in his gullet. Nergal's detonation would end up taking his own head off too! Even if his power nullified the blood in his body, there was more than enough in the tongue against his neck.

In what was likely the bloodiest, most gruesome finish that the Arenaverse had ever seen, the entire floor of the warehouse-sized room would wind up awash with bright viscera.

[Enki]

And just like that it was over, blood and gore flung everywhere and Nergals head rolling to a stop against the wall. It was beautiful...but it only lasted a few minutes as the Shinra recovery and cleanup team entered into the battle ground. Upon walking into the scene they were all shocked beyond belief as they had to clean up a lot of messes before but nothing this bad.

"Ugh...what is that foul smell? The creature?" One of them asks before the team leader answers her.

"No, thats Nergal and his putricide. Magitech team gather up Nergals pieces and get him through the portal back to the workshop. They have to piece him together and get him soaking in the Blood of the old Ones before its to late." The team leader, a woman with jet black hair and glasses then points at he pieces of the pater. "And that thing....get a few samples for biotech, but burn the rest..." She takes out a cloth and puts it over her mouth and nose before turning away and heading back to the door to supervise her team.

[Doc Doctor]

Ding dong, the monster was dead. Or was it? Whisps of eerie blue light floated slowly out from each of the creature's eye sockets, much like the extinguished smoke from the ritual candles. However, though it might have just been a trick of the mind, each luminescent streamer seemed to be teeming with thousands of teeny twitching cricket legs, crawling up through the air and fading through the ceiling.

Its essence was returning to the surreal chambers beyond the dark. It would be back one day distant, one fight wiser and one death meaner. Until then, Magitech had their sample. Surely they would derive many magnificent toxins and work glues from it. Perhaps even some lady lube.