DISCLAIR: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishnt at threads/rwby-the-gar-the-gas-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.
Push
"You" Gilgash growled, though I'm not sure why. If not for my sensory abilities, I wouldn't have been able to hear him, moving as fast as we now were. I struck my one side and my counterpart from the other, forcing him to split his attention between us. I struck high first, aiming a fist for his temple that he pushed aside with the back of a hand, before aiming a sucker punch at his side with my other that he was forced to lower his elbow to smack down. My other self swung a low kick that he stepped over and, while he was balanced on one leg, pushed himself upright with a flex of will to aim a kick for Gilgash's chin that the legendary Grimm jerked his head out of the way of. Gilgash's free hand ca down, swordsmanship superb even while so off balance, but we both focused on him before the blade could hit ho.
A hamr of Psychokinetic force slamd into the Grimm, knocking him several steps back and into the air. Seeing our chance, my double and I teleported into the sa spot, lining up with Gilgash, and I gathered my strength into an Agniyastra, the legendary weapon made even more potent by its nasake and out dual nature. We layered our existences such that I was 'interposed' between the attack and my other self, shielding him from the consuming flasI, after all, was completely immune to fire. It took only a mont to charge the attack and then I hurled it with all my might, sending the spear of supernatural flas careening towards the airborne Grimm.
Gilgash grunted a mont before the attack hit ho, hands snapping up to catch the spear out of midair. He made a pained noise, the touch of the Agniyastra scorching even to him, and held it away from his chest even as it pushed him back through the air. He flew nearly halfway across the crater before sohow leveraging himself enough to throw the spear away while still airborne, using the impulse of the strike to send himself back to the ground where he continued to skid across the ground until he dropped a hand to the dirt to slow himself down.
Needless to say, we were already upon him by the ti he rose, Fluctuating to either sidethough this ti, we kept our distance. Firing spheres snapped into existence around us, filling with our weapons of choicenaly, the ones that benefited the most from our current Elental Embodints. I called up a small swarm of Agniyastras while my counterpart filled the air around him with Gungnir's and we cut loose before Gilgash was even fully back on his feet. He snapped back, trying to leap out of the kill zone we'd established, but we both gestured at him and dual Gravity Crashes slamd him back into the ground before he could get far.
Then, it was just a matter of our attacks converging on a targetand we both had really good aim. And while he was pinned down, we converged ourselves, appearing right in front of him. This ti, my other self took the lead, crafting a Longinus in our hands. The spear glowed brightly with the power we infused within itbut because of that sa power, it wasn't sothing we could waste. Unlike Gungnir, Longinus couldn't follow a target and while it could pierce any defense, it could still miss; when we could afford to use it, had to make sure it counted. Thanks to the Mathematician's Answer, I was reasonably confident I'd never miss a stationary target, but Gilgash was far from stationary and aiming got more complicated against a foe who could move fast enough to dodge an attack after it was fired.
Even so, I saw a shot and I took it. We stepped forward once and threw the spear towards the center of his bodytempting as it was to aim for the head, against a target as fast as this, it was better to aim for the center of mass and trust that putting a gaping hole in soone's body was bad for their health no matter where it was.
The mont it left our hands, space began to waver around Longinus, twisting violently around the blade as it flew without seeming regard for air resistance or much of anything else. The ground seed to curve slightly as the blade flew over it, as if pushed down by its passage, and in the midst of the smoke I saw Gilgash's eyes snap up to the spear in recognition. He tried to react, to get out of the way, but there was a reason we'd struck from this closenear enough to minimize his chances of dodging, far enough to avoid attempts at disrupting our attackand his attempted dodge did nothing but cause the spear to pierce through the left side of his chest instead of where a human's heart would have been. His hand ca up to close over yet another hole in his chest, but his eyes were intent and fierce.
The burst of speed that followed was surprising even to to such an extent that we only dodged because we'd expected reprisal and had already been in motion. We went in opposite and then up, appearing such that we hung over Gilgash at an anglesothing we promptly exploited by using Bane of the Protheans at his open back, layering every speed booster we had in the process. We reached him at the sa ti, each grabbing one of his arms and sinking our claws into it before pulling back as hard as we could as the second phase of the Bane took hold. Between the two of us, we not only halted Gilgash's forward montum but drew him into the air, the force and timing of our attacks drawing him right into our midst, and we floated in a quick arc until we intersected, existences aligning with one another as we occupied the sa space.
When Gilgash was right in front of us, we took a deep breath and crossed our taphorical fingers.
Then we used Ohr Ein Sof.
It wasn't the sa as before, at least not quitewhich was both a good and a bad thing. We were united and divided, at once less than perfect and more than the sum of our parts. Thaumiel was about more than just giving a physical form to my counterpartit was about giving him true selfhood, life and power. There was a difference between our separated existence and our combined one, odd as it might be; in truth, we were always divided, as we remained two distinct souls that happened to occupy the sa body, but when we were like thiswe were sothing else.
Stuff like that mattered to the Light. Apparently, so did the two of us activating the skill twice.
Of course, the other side of that was that there were two of usaning we had two shots at Unraveling, coming apart as we boiled ourselves down to the most basic elents. And by the very nature of Thaumiel, if one of us died, we both died.
But this was a chance for us, maybe even for Mankind, and with Thaumiel I was pushing Gilgash hard enough to take advantage of it.
Once again, I had a shot and I took it. I ca apartwe ca apart, connected even when there was nothing left of us but who we truly were. We were light and shadow, motion and stillness, the beginning and the end; a lding of linked concepts that soon lost distinction, our division dissolving into a true unity. A na occurred to distantly, alongside tatron, but slipped away from along with thought and selfhood.
I was. We were. There was nothing else.
And then there was, exploding outwards from the light. Coming back together felt harder now, like I'd frayed a bit at the edges, except the edges were who I was. I checked quicklypointlessly, evenand my other self was still there as well, panting hard alongside , our breaths and heartbeats perfectly matched. Only after I'd finished checking up on my other did I turn my attention back to Gilgash.
The ancient Grimm had really seen better days. His armor was even more badly cracked now, thanks to our continued assault and the second Ohr Ein Sofbut more notably, he was missing sothing now, specifically his left arm and a decent chunk of that side of his chest. If he'd been a human, the new hole would have devoured most of his left lung and maybe infringed upon his heart, but as a Grimm, it was hard to say if any of the internal damage mattered.
The loss of a limb, however
He was at a disadvantage now and he knew it. With as hard as we'd been pushing him before, the loss of an arma limb to both attack and defend withwas, well, crippling. Perhaps not so badly as a leg would have been, but it was still bad and we'd be able to hurt him even worse now. The way things were going, if he didn't pull out a hell of a trick soon, this would spell the end.
Which, if I was being honest with myself, I kind of expected. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but so far, he'd been dangerous, well above just about anyone I'd ever seen, but not mythic. If this was all he had after a few thousand years, I should have killed him last ti. When it ca to my enemiesmy real enemies, not the chafe I slaughtered for powerI wasn't this lucky. He had sothing up his sleeve, sa as I did, and having failed to erase him from existence twice now, odds were good I was about to find out.
Gilgash didn't disappoint.
Letting out a growling cry, the flesh on his absent side began to bubble for a mont, as if his wounded skin was boilingand then it burst violently, matter ejecting from it forcibly. A dark, skeletal shape took shape, seeming sohow warped, though whether it was supposed to be that way or if it was a result of the Brahmastra's interference, I wasn't sure. Either way, whips of red matter followed, coiling around the unnatural bones with extre speed and taking shape as a twisted musculature, pulsing and flexing in odd places. Finally, a layer of black and white skin grew over it, giving it the form of a twisted arm, with white spikes piercing the skin painfully in random places.
It only took the legendary Grimm monts to regrow the limb, but that was too be expected; after the Hydra, I'd gone into this knowing that I'd be facing so extre regeneration and that I'd best bring ways to deal with it. The Brahmastra was one, a long term thing that disrupted most forms of healing and turned them steadily against the body over ti; it was sothing I'd been relieved to develop, for that very reason. While it was true that I, too, suffered from the effects, I was less reliant on 'natural' ans of healing and even my natural HP regeneration was a secondary issue. The effects it would have on my teammates was a bigger concern, but at the very least, I could heal them as well, given the opportunity. Here in the land of the super Grimm, I'd decided we gained more than we lost.
So the fact that Gilgash could sprout new limbs like it was nothing wasn't much of a shock to ; if anything, I was just pleased to see that the limb he'd regained didn't seem to be in working condition. That was the insidious effect of one of my greatest skills at work, and it would worsen over ti as he was forced to heal over and over again, the status effect steadily worsening. I wasn't arrogant enough to try fighting a creature of myth and nightmare with just one plan; if need be, I'd wear him down slowly over ti until his own regeneration rendered him unable to fight. If possible, I hoped it wouldn't co to that, simply because drawing things out heightened the chances of sothing going wrong for but it was an option. Ideally, I'd take him down in so other way, such as with Ohr Ein Sof, but I did what I had to when my back was up against a wall.
What happened next, however, was a touch more worrying and it was what slowed my advance before I could truly close in on him. A mont after the deford limb ca forth and hung limply at Gilgash's side, a strange wave of dark matter pulsed and raced down from his shoulder, flickering across the limb. As it went, bone shards receded into flesh and odd, twisted lumps of muscle seed to untangle. Other things sprouted up in their place, but they were lesser now, the damage seeming more muted, and the following wave simply erased more and it was followed by another and another still. In a few monts, there was no sign that he'd been wounded at all, at least to normal eyes.
My eyes were anything but, especially through the lens of my other self. Keen as my vision normally was, now it was almost like I'd been living life in a blur and seen it with glasses on for the first ti. In so ways, it made no differencethere was a limit to the effectiveness of clarity when you could see everything about sothing to begin withbut in others it ca in handy.
This was one of them. Even if I couldn't use observe to see the truth of the matter, I could tell that the effects of the Brahmastra were still there thanks to my Third Eye; he'd treated the symptoms, perhaps, but not the disease. I'd also been able to see the nature of the process itself, with countless tiny shapes squirming across and into his twisted flesh, breaking things down and spewing them forth. It was an interesting trick, but there was more to it than there might seemit was just a matter of figuring out what. Important as ti was to now, it was worth a second or two.
"Surprised?" Gilgash said when I didn't attack. Perhaps he was feeling chatty, still, but it was more likely that he was just buying himself ti to heal and wear down. Now that I'd seen the nature of his power, I debated whether or not I should press my assault again, butno, even this wasn't enough. My perceptions were all but shouting warnings to , telling of approaching danger, and so I kept still.
Besides. Ti limit or not, I benefited for a breather, too. Divided nature or not, that assault had taken power and I could use a few seconds to recover what I'd lost with Dust crystals and my natural MP regeneration. Thaumiel gave two pools of MP, but that ca with a fair bit of maintenance when we went all out.
"A bit," I allowed, giving him a slight nod. "I'd begun to wonder when you would finally take this seriously. Did I manage to make an impression, perhaps?"
"Quite so," He answered, cracking his neck. "I'll admit, you took by surprise as well; you ca prepared, I see. I'd been a touch concerned about breaking you on accidentthere has been a ti or two when I overestimated the durability of my playmates, you see, and I thought it would be unfortunate if I ended up tearing you to pieces needlessly. I can see that was arrogant of and so you have my apologies. As you said, I will now take this seriously."
As he spoke, the armor of his chest rippled, tiny waves of black crawling over the white armor as though soone had thrown a stone into a pond. Whatever it touched shifted and changed, edges smoothing and surfaces growing with each passing mont. He was preparing a trick of so kind and it was only the knowledge that it'd be easier to react from a distance that kept from shooting sothing at him then and there. Instead, I gathered my returning power and focused it into the ground around both of us, preparing while I had the chance.
"This is my ability, you could say," Gilgash continued. "While I am not so fortunate as to have powers such as yourself, I was created with things that set apart from my brethren and this is one of them. I'm sure by now you are familiar with my fellow's nature; to steal a phrase, that which does not kill us, makes us stronger."
"You learn and adapt," I replied. "Learning from your mistakes to exploit other's weaknesses. It's more than that, though; you change physically as you recover, growing to beco more effective killers, whether that ans changing size, shape, or whatever else."
"Just so," He agreed. "In that regard, I must concede sowhat to your earlier pointthat which does not learn, dies. Both of our species know that, for after all, it is only through learning that one can truly master the art of killing. You still have your schools, do you not? Where you train the young to fight and die? Alas, we don't have anything quite the sa; our lessons tend to be learned in battle and over ti. Not the most efficient way, but we develop differently from you and yours. Those who grow enough to truly understand have no need to learn; those who cannot learn have no hope of understanding. Such is our way."
I didn't answer him, watching him quietly. My MP was full again, my traps had been laid, and I took another mont to check on my allies. Adam and Raven were still doing well, but Gou had begun to suffer from the effects of the Brahmastra himself. Should I break off to heal him real quickly? I could fight Gilgash without my other, if it was only for a short ti, and there was the effect on Autumn to consider. But
"However, as I said, I am different from my brothers and sisters," Gilgash interrupted, an edge to his tone. "There is a reason I was created with this form. I was not created through chance or natural processes; I am the result of Intelligent Design. And that, in turn, is my power."
His armor began to burst in random places, taking shape around him as he stepped towards . His previous armor seed to lt away, flowing into a different shape along with his body. His forearms and hands widened and lengthened into bulky columns, fingers replaced with jointed blades. His body grew a pure white covering, armored and yet streamlined with odd modifications to his legs. Even his mask shifted, leaving his face and head covered by a smooth, featureless helt. It didn't look biological, like the Grimm tended to; if anything, it looked technological, akin to the power armor I'd spent quite so ti imagining.
Sothing that had been created instead of grown.
In the next mont, Gilgash flickered, closing the gap between us in a aningless fraction of a second and bringing a massive arm down with force enough to beat down mountains.
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