Black King's Citadel

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The dark fortress hidden deep in the South Pole of Echo, it is home to The Black King, the mysterious king of all Negative Spirits. There are few who know of this fortress's exact location, those few are loyal to the Black King and are not likely to reveal its location. The exact number of attendants and warriors in his service are not known. Notable members of the Black King's court include The Lord Ninetails, a powerful Wind Spirit.

## Depths

Ameno wakes up within a cold stone cell, with no doors or windows, and no light. Her whole body aches with a mind numbing pain that leaves her barely aware of herself. The only clothes she has are mere dirty rags.

Ameno: You'd think when they capture and kill me they'd at least dress me for the occasion...

Suddenly the bricks in front of her open up, and a shadowy form of a girl peers out at her, flickering with red light of some sort that without it, would have left Ameno completely unable to see her, save for her haunting glowing red orbs for eyes. "*Sssssh! Come with me. I've been exploring around this dungeun and I think I know my way. We can get out together. I don't know what they did to us, but we aren't.... whatever we were before. Let's stick together and get out of here!"* The girl waves for Ameno to follow her, and quickly moves out of sight down the hall.

Ameno: I'd rather die in here than trust a stranger ever again...

The girl sticks her head back in the doorway, now slightly irritated. "*Hey. I'm sure not going through this place alone, and I'd rather have someone rather than no one. At least you've got personality unlike the others who just curled up in these cells. Come on!"* She grabs Ameno and pulls her along the corridors, ducking into a ventilation system and pulling Ameno with her.

*"By the way, I'm Nex. Made it up cause I don't remember what I was before this. How about you?"*

Ameno: I... I think... I don't know... I remember Ammo. Call me Ammo. \*Ducks under a hanging nail\*

Nex laughs quietly. "*Already warming up I see. I think there's a way up to the next floor of this place at the end of this ventilation shaft, we'll have to be quiet though. I'd hate to run into guards or something."*

Ameno: \*Looks in a chrome piece of metal\* I look terrible...

Her form is composed of some sort of darkness as well, with the same flickering red energy about her, though she seems more solid than Nex. Her eyes are partially the same, but overcast by red.

Nex rolls her eyes. "*Hey, you're prettier than the majority of the people I've seen here. And trust me, there's some creepy ones in here.*"

Ameno: I remember... My beauty... I had a- \*passes out\*

Nex irritatably starts lightly smacking Ammo's face with her hand. "*Hey, wake up doof! This ain't nap time!"*

Ameno: \*Throws Nex off with a loud roar\* ***GET OFF OF ME!!! YOU BITCH!!***

Nex goes through the wall, and then emerges looking very much irritated. "*Gaaaaaaah. What did I say about being quiet?! You don't just go falling asleep when you're trying to escape from somewhere!"*

Ameno: I'm... I'm sorry... I don't know what happened...

"*Ya went bitch mode lady. Now come on, let's get out of here before you decide to suffer from multiple personality disorder again."*

Ameno: Alright. \*Continues following\*

They come to the other end, and Nex carefully peeks out of the vent. "*Hmmmm.... ok we're good.*" Catlike, she easily climbs out of the vent, and into a more well lit hallway, with marble flooring, where Ammo can see slightly more of Nex. She wears similar rags like Ammo, only her hair is in two buns, and seems to be rather young, possible twelve or at the most fourteen. She seems very thin and stick like, while Ammo has a more healthy build to her.

Ameno: How long have you been here? \*Ameno looks in the mirror at the two of them.\*

"*A week or so... ...can't find anything to eat in this place.*" She keeps walking silently along the hallways, looking around for something. "*It's amazing how I've not seen any guards in this place. It's huge. I swear this castle goes for miles.*"

Ameno: *I know how to get the gaurds...* \*Blows a hole in the wall big enough for 2 people\*

Nex swats her angrily. "*Idiot, if that was going to work, I would have been dead by now."* The wall suddenly begins repairing itself.

Ameno: \*Falls to her knees, holding her head\* GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! GETTHEMOUTGETTHEMOUT GET THEM OUT!!!!!

"*Uggghhh.... we don't have time for this! I ain't got time to wait up on you forever you know. We got to go find something to eat, or at least find a way out of here!"*

Ameno: \*Gets up\* Lets... Just go...\*Walks down the hallway\*

Nex guides her over toward a set of doors, and slowly begins to open it, out into a large courtyard. "*Well, this as far as I got, but now I need to figure out where we go from here."*

A vast series of buildings stretch out in all directions, with no visible route immediately present.

Ameno: \*Starts to go through the buildings, starting with one that looks like a small house\* Anybody home?

Suddenly a massive black hand instantly destroys the small house, revealing a tall black being which had been lurking behind the house. It lets out a sharp bellow, before charging.

Ameno: \*Gets into a ready position\* Ready Nex?

Nex doesn't wait for anything, and immediately leaps onto the giant's face, and begins relentlessly pounding it in the face with her fists.

*"**This is**..... errr... what was it now.... it's on the tip of my tongue..."* She says as she continues punching it. "*Oh yeah, THIS IS SPARTA BITCH!"*

She kicks it in the face, and it stumbles into the nearest building and falls over. She looks over at Ameno. *"Find something sharp and let's slice n' dice this trainwreck into diced cheese!"*

Ameno: \*Kick-snaps the leg tendons, then moves to the arms and back\* Please get off the parilized monster...

Nex complies. "*Have fun.*"

Ameno: \*puts foot on the monster's neck\* I'll say this once: How do we get out of here?

The giant simply flips up and sends Ammo flying into a building, dusting itself off as if what they did didn't even phase it.

Ameno: Oh common \*Jumps back into the fight\* Who calls that a throw?

Nex looks at her. "*Someone who confuses getting launched by a giant shadow creature from sheer momentum with getting thrown."*

The giant easiliy side steps Ammo and kicks her through several buildings, now letting out a throaty yawn.

Ameno: Nex... You're up...

She charges the giant, but it knocks her aside with a swipe of its hand.

"*I don't think we're going to win by punching this thing.... urrgghh. We need to get out of here."*

Ameno: ... The obvoius was not just stated. \* Looks at a building\* we could go there...

A massive club of dark energy smashes down in their way, cutting them off. The giant chuckles.

Nex suddenly gets a carnivorous look in her eyes, then charges the giant, somehow creating two swords of energy and evades another strike of the club, then jumps onto the giant's shoulder, to Ammo's surprise the girl begins attacking in a combination of feral bites and stabs to the giant's shoulder, almost as if constantly changing between the mind of a hungry animal devouring its prey and an insane psychopath stabbing their victim.

Ameno: Guess she's got it handled... Ah what the hell... \*Follows Nex's lead, charging the giant\* Yo shitface! Down here!

The giant looks down at her while it is swatting at Nex, and takes a chunk of building and crunches it up into a ball and kicks it into Ammo, sending it and her flying between two massive white posts.

"*Goal."* It remarks in a monotone.

Ameno: Okay. Fuck you. \*Her eyes change colour as she charges at him again\* Fuck YOU!!!! \* Jumps on the giant's head\*

The creature tilts its head back and suddenly thrusts itself forward, smashing both of them into the ground as it deliberately falls on its face. It then stands up, and shakes itself. It regards the various wounds it suffered from Nex's bites and blades, then they detect an air of hostility stir from it.

Nex growls. "*Finally getting a bit serious huh?!"*

Ameno: Alrighty! \*Jumps up and rapidly attacks the monster, going so far as to make it scream and bleed.\*

Suddenly thick tendrils of some sort of essence begin to wrap around her and suck away her energy, slowly making her form grow thin and frail, and suddenly a visceral hunger begins to grow in Ammo as she begins to become desperate to hold on to her remaining energy.

Ameno: No... Not... Not yet... I... Am... Still here you... good for nothing... Scum.... \*Stands, then fals\* Shiiii....

*In order to exist in this new life... kill or be killed... eat or be eaten... right now... you are the prey.*

A voice rings in her head.

Ameno stands with newfound, great, and intelligent strength. She gets up and runs towards where the monster is, jumping so that she is on it's shoulders and pulls it's head Away from them, going at an upward angle.

What looks like vipers grow out of its shoulders and begin biting her hand and face.

"Ow ow ow OW!" she says as she slaps the viper's heads off. She jumps to safty and starts to study her predator.

The creature watches her in kind, she notices it is extremely heavily built on the top, but strangely thin on the bottom, seemingly defying gravity. The creature seems to almost dangle, as if it is a puppet, and no true intent seems behind its gaze. It literally feels like a mass of pure energy.

Ameno Uzumi then has a plan, excitement in her eyes. She slides under the being and jumps up the bottom, phasing through it. She jumps out, ripping the creature in half. "Come back from THAT bitch!"

The attack does absolutely nothing to the creature, and it merely swats her away.

## The Obscure King

In the endless depths of darkness of the halls, the Black King silently sits on his throne, six figures on each side of him sit on smaller seats.

Outside, a large white dragon roams the sky, his target to get to the Citadel. His eyes are gold, and his jaw in a faint smile. He flies towards the Citadel faster than mist beings before him. Once he reaches his destination, the dragon sits above the King on top of the main tower. He roars as loud as possible, shaking the very foundation of the building. The dragon then speaks to the King's mind. "Hello," the plain vouce says, "I am the Wise One, Joseph the Dragon. I would like ti share a cup of tea with you." As he finishes, a white marble cup appears on the floor of the throne room, and a metal tea pot sits next to it.

"....*I'm going to have to speak to Sainan about his grasp of the concept of 'security'. What do you really want?*" His voice echoes through the air outside the Citadel, his mind barring Joseph from entering.

The large dragon does not move, and he is too big to enter the Citadel anyways, his tail being longer than the biggest wing. "I would like to speak with you over some tea." the voice echos throughout the King's halls. "I appologize, I am still getting used to being able to look and speak into other's minds."

"*In this case, consider it mind over matter."* The entirety of the fortress somehow grows on its own to be more than double the dragon's size.

"*Enter, state your business, and leave. I don't like visitors."*

"I am here to warn you of a threat you should take seriously." Joseph says as he enters the Throne Room. His tail whips around him as his sits down after forming a stool. "His name is Skana. Once he is trained, you should keep an eye on him. One of your soldiers, Ameno Uzumi, was buried under Skana and his wife Sayuri's protection. When you invaded their space you cursed her with an evil dæmon, you made him very mad. Now he wants you to help him."

The Black King, his entire being cloaked in robes and a hood that obscures his face, initially laughs. However, the air becomes heavy with the being's annoyance.

"The only reason I let you in was out of annoyance that you kept flying about my borders... ....were it not for my personal whim, you would not have been able to access this land. Skana... ...is that his name...? Cannot find this place without my willing it. I would encourage you to mind your own business."

"If you will not listen to reasonable matters, so be it. But do heed my warning, Black King, that I may not see you - I see your son, your deceased wife, yout comarades, and I do intend to hinder your progress in the future. Do not take my words lightly." And at the mighty dragon's final words, he flies off. The tea pot and glass still lay on th the floor, waiting to serve the King a refreshing beverage. The stool turns back to the ground as a single white scale is left behind. As someone reaches for it, the scale disapears as well, leaving no trace of the giant entity other than the tea.

"How blind the child is to truth, when it is so glaringly obvious. There is much you do not comprehend, those who call themselves wise are the truly blind... ....your powers are nothing... ....for in the end, they will not have even mattered.... you are but a grain of sand, of countless grains, of countless beaches...

...Your power... ....will soon be extinguished... .....as well all powers..." The Black King chuckles darkly, disappearing into the unknown.

## The Darkest Hour

The world is ending, and in the depths of his palace, the Black King sits deep within his throne room.

*So you made your move, and decided that I was no longer worthy of your trust, Alpha? Together, we could have done so much more. But if this is your decision, then I shall make mine...*

The Black King stands up, the palace and its structures beginning to flow into him like black smoke, as he grows taller, his robed being grows taller than the mountains, soon tall enough to stand above that of the whole world itself. From the vast depths of shadows, a mighty demon like spirit emerges, its many arms spread wide, its reach able to reach the far corners of the world.

*I will not submit like a lamb to your bidding, Alpha. You should have chosen more carefully. I cannot stop you in full, but I can take your prize away.*

Gripping the world itself, he tears and heaves, ripping the southern portion of Echo apart as a great white light begins to spread, easily growing to dwarf the great dark that is the Black King. He stands his ground and with two hands, halts the advance of the Soul Convergence.

He eyes the far north, where he cannot fully reach, and that of the convergence's gains there. He sees its advance for what it is easily.

*I see. You desire the flesh and soul of Azayakana as well. I cannot allow this either.* He reaches out and plucks the Tower of Heaven from the north, and flings it into his veil of darkness. Seeing the South is not fully severed, he is about to swing a blade of darkness to cut it free, when he sees that it is the Twin Valleys and Moonlight Glade.

He thinks for a long moment.

*Erde, your life is in my hands now. Shall I boast as your pathetic existence is consumed along with this planet? Or should I spare your warmongering skin? I wonder...*

After a moment of indecision, he cuts the lot free of the rest of Echo's fate, sparing the two regions as well. For a time, nothingness, and then finally, he sits upon his throne, with Erde, Shion, Yuen, and various other individuals he saved at his feet, unconscious, and for good reason- -reality had all but ceased to exist.

"You lot owe me..." He murmurs, before drifting to sleep, his energy heavily tasked from sustaining the remnants of Echo's existence and fighting off nonexistence itself.