Ami's hair now fell to mid-back and was a deep navy blue. Her skin was an very light white in hue, and what she saw of it was without blemish. Her gloves were gone, and her fingers were as deft as before, but ended in dark blue claws. Ami could tell her chest was broader, and her breasts more prominent, from the depth of her breathing and the resulting quiver; said female peaks were somewhat concealed in the dark blue bustier she now wore, with watching skintight pants and stiletto heeled boots. After the self-examination and the unexpected urge to doff her seeming latex clothes for a more intimate inspection, she finally looked to see what had happened to the Heart marking and the demonic being she had tried to back stab. What Ami saw shocked her.
The light now making the chamber easier to see came from blue flamed torches and a pulsating membrane of vivid blue light in the center of the room. The very center point of the beating membrane sent up a flare of green energy which melted into the air like a fog. The membrane was braced and covered by three open and equilateral placed walkways that stopped just shy of that center point. Pillars rose between each of the walkways, arched to the pillar adjacent in a triangular pattern. At the peak of each pillar, the Mercury Symbol shone in stark glory, looking as it it were a deep sapphire shaped and embedded into the stone.
Also in the room was a melting and shattered ice statue. Enough detail remained for it to clearly have been the demon. As she snarled at the memory of having been held aloft by the now frosted monster, Ami found herself holding a smaller version of the Reaper's scythe. The blade was of ice and looked far more solid and sharp that it should be, with air misting around the blade but no melt setting in. What in the blue blazes is this? Ami thought, before her introspection was unexpectedly shattered even harder than the demon had been.
~Clearly, it is an ice sickle!~ came a rather familiar voice her ears didn't hear. It went on, ~That was a truly terrible pun, I am well aware, but I existed to kill, not provide wit and merriment!~
Ami spoke aloud, since there wasn't anyone to hear. "All right", she growled in a voice she admitted was downright sexy if she wasn't expressing utter frustration, "where are you and why are you talking to my mind?"
~If you mean my body~ came the amused reply, ~that's been shattered into several large chunks by your bid for my destruction. A good effort, I might add! This is as close to killing me as anyone's ever come since I attained immortality. As I am immortal, however, the Dungeon Heart took your desire to live and to defeat me into its activation. Thus, my soul and yours are one! We are two parts of the same being, and quite undying.~
Ami's claws and clothes looked a bit paler as she reeled in shock, since her skin was white as porcelain already. As the color returned, she groaned, "This certainly explains why I have an ice sickle! Our powers are combined and linked to the heart?" She had to check on her condition, and the bemused demon was surprisingly content with the situation. That bore looking into as well.
~It isn't just our powers that are mixed and melded;~ came the reply to the back of her mind, ~our very lives have been fused and linked to the Heart. Normally, the Heart gives a Keeper centuries of life before they lose their drives and life, fading from the mortal realms. However, my curse and blessing of immortality was also taken in. Even if the Heart is destroyed, an act which kills both Heart and Keeper in most cases, it and we would come back into being someplace else, merely banished for a very long time from the place of our defeat.~
Ami wanted to cry, to bust some heads, to tear Jadeite to shreds and feed them to Horny. She honestly knew only part of it was the raging emotional storm imparted by the other being within. "So we can leave and behave as Keepers, whatever that means, but we're stuck in this mental mess for all eternity?", she shouted. Ami was more than a bit dismayed. "Why are you so damned calm about this?"
Horny replied, ~Just as you are in a turmoil from your gaining some of my passions, I have your stability cooling me down. It's rather disconcerting, to be honest about it. I am Horniculus, the horned reaper, and I should by rights be a snarling menace, one should think. Of course, you'd be wrong.~ The mental snort was so strong Ami almost let her lips make it aloud. He thought on, ~This is, after all, very unique, very different, and after hundreds and hundreds of years alone and trapped, I'll gladly take what I can get! Before I get into the fine and coarse points of Keeping, however, there's a couple of options about our forced closeness.~
Ami gathered herself together and finally said, "All right, fill me in on this." in a steady tone.
~As you wish.~ the reaper thought back, ~Without finding a way to embody me, this mental conversation will never end. We can either go on like this, find the means, which I will tell you about if you're interested, or accept each other as ourself until Keeper Ami eventually is talking to herself, an amalgamation of the two of us.~
Ami shook her head as she confessed, "I was afraid it was something like that. What means of embodiment did you refer to? Your body just finished melting into the stone!"
The bodiless Reaper scoffed, ~I noticed that, but before the bastards that thought to make me suicide through sheer boredom, if I were capable of it, locked me in here, I had had a previous Keeper create for me a Talisman to ground me in mortal reality. It is inviolable, sectioned by design into four pieces. Anyone holding a section of the Talisman could summon me into being to fight for them for brief periods. If all four pieces were found and wielded by the same being, I can be summoned in all truth. That would give me a body of my own, although we would still and always be mentally connected. On the other hand, no-one can sic me on you if they had a section, as we are one. Which brings us to the hard part, I am afraid.~
Ami thumped the Ice Sickle down on the stone floor, startled when a ball of hideous cold shot out from the blade and frosted the west wall of the Heart Chamber. She sighed, "Go on and give me that as well!", once she recovered her equilibrium.
Horny's mental tone clearly showed his amusement at the Scythe Fireball aspect off her icy alignment as he commented, ~You got it. I'll admit, your curiosity and academic persona must be rubbing off on me, but I digress. Getting home to what you consider your plane of origin will require power. Defeating other Dungeon Keepers, as they are scattered throughout the underworld, would eventually give you the power to "Keeper Teleport" your Heart, Dungeon, and self to your home. You'd have to conquer the other Keepers as they're not the sort you'd want there nor are they cooperative. Keepers gather power, recruits, and resources by setting up temporary hearts and taking territory, claimed land providing you with mana for daily living. Truly moving your Dungeon Heart, however, takes considerably more power. I suppose you could kill your Heart and let us reincarnate until you're home, but that could take millions of years and cause a ruckus across thousands of dimensions. Dying hurts, anyway.~
Ami's retching noises put paid to that notion, and Horny did have to admit to himself that that much death and bother wasn't worth the bloodshed.
He continued cheerfully, ~I thought you might feel that way. Thus, conquering other Dungeon Keepers and extinguishing their Hearts. The drawback there is that the rulers of the Sunlit Realms, the surface world, are moralistic and strive at all times to keep Keepers divided and weak. They are certain to fight you as well, and not at all prone to negotiation. In truth, they are not as ruthless or as wicked as most Keepers, but they often excuse their flaws or ignore them, using the Keepers' clear and present threat to keep their peoples united against us. If you seek the Keepers, you will fight the "goodly Heroes".~
Ami wryly noted, "To top it off, the Talisman is in the underworld, meaning I can and have to take down Keepers to ever get you a separate body again. Right! Now that that horror is faced, tell me;"
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(Posted Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:34)
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