For The Land To Bloom Once Again [AT, Conquest]

A fair bit of extra individuals had decided to show up, which he was fine with— he had no reason to be rude or impolite to any of them if they did not do so first. Nero gauged the crowd’s reaction in a general sense; and it seemed that it was mostly positive. Though, of course, there were more verbal sceptics within the gathering. Nero’s expression did not waver from his calm, he wasn’t going to outright deny the concerns of others, that wasn’t how he did things. He was about to address the complaints, however, just as many supporters spoke up before he got the chance to do so.

“Yeah, no shit! It didn’t do any damage because he got rid of it himself before it could!”

“So the innocent lives taken by your overzealous Warriors mean nothing!? We’ll see whos talking about spit in a second!”

“This is ridiculous, why should we deny them the absolute basics of life just because they were born to begin with?”

“Pfft, because you’d do any better, we’ve been trampled long enough, I’d rather unite under him than nobody at all.”

“Outsider? Do you even know who this is? He saved this land from the cursed one! He is no outsider here!”

“How ungrateful could you get? He wants to heal this land, just look at the ground beneath him for Porunga’s sake.”

“Weak? Really? Ha! He could knock you out without so much as a thought if he wanted to and you know it.”

Nero kept track of each little bickering conversation, how disappointing that some couldn’t be bothered to see beyond themselves on either side. He had no time for this, Namek had no time for this. Nero gave a sharp exhale before he spoke. “Enough.” While not exactly loud per se, his voice definitely carried through the gathering. “If nothing is done, then nothing changes. We stagnate in pain and suffering. At some point you have to look within and ask yourself— how long are you going to put up with that? I will do so no longer.” He sent a clear message, if anyone decided to be violent, he would stop them. For the moment, he returned to what he wanted to do, and various people actually joined him— people on either side of prior arguments too!

Unfortunately such a beautiful moment was short lived. Interrupted by a horrendous creature rending the ground beneath and rising from it. Nero wasted no time in his reaction; he chose to aid the people. Nero conjured a multitude of duplicates at an alarming rate, sending at least a few to protect any given individual in his place or otherwise move anyone already injured out of harm’s way. He did also notice that nobody was immediately killed by this creature, Nero couldn’t quite put a finger on why this was bizarre, it simply was.

Even so, Nero wasn’t going to chase that thought because in this moment it didn’t matter, whatever this thing said it was, it didn’t matter, Nero didn’t care in the slightest. He had seen and fought through too much to play around. In the blink of an eye, Nero’s power had all of a sudden reached impressive heights— his features changed in a rather noticeable way as well; wilder, fierce, yet controlled. Eyes glowing white hot, slightly puffed out hair, elongated claw-like nails, visibly pronounced fangs and an additional increase in musculature and stature.

Meeting the beast’s gaze, Nero looked unimpressed and in no way intimidated. “How small...” Nero tilted his head, in a sense mocking the creature before immediately launching onto an offensive rush. He charged directly towards his foe with determined purpose, attempting to blow the creature far enough away from the village while showing the grace of a Dragon, the discipline of a Warrior and power of a Mazoku, even going so far as to punctuate his assault with a bright blue Masenko!

Nero seemingly met the fearsome Devastation Ray head on, for but a moment it looked as though he was engulfed by it. However, this was not the case. With the flick of a wrist he had created a swirling life-filled barrier in response that spun around and around, evaporating the attack before it could even touch him! The impact only just barely sent Nero back a few meters, but for that small moment he was somewhat occupied. This meant the beast could grasp two Mazoku elders while dissipating some of Nero’s clones. A cheap tactic, not a surprise coming from a being like this.

The disciplined warrior’s expression towards the creature before him didn’t change, it was still that ominous steely look of unintimidated disappointment. Nero focused so that he could gracefully and carefully extended his willpower towards the two Mazoku Elders, gingerly touching them with his telekinesis but not in a way that would move them— instead, with this telekinetic hold, he imparted upon the elders a blessing; a thin layer of Ki began to form on them, which would keep them from being harmed too much by the spikes should they be used.

His gaze was still fixed on the monster in front of him and he gave a retort rather quickly. “I don’t care for your sob story. Their place is this land, and I am going to make sure it is restored and turned into something better for them.” Nero spoke with a calm determination, perhaps much fiercer than the way he currently looked! “Let them go, safely, now. Then, flee with your life. Live it in fear of me and the consequences should you choose to harm another denizen of this entire planet let alone the Northern Scar.” Nero looked the so-called ‘Beholder’ right in its primary eyeball, he wasn’t playing around, and its attempts at striking an underhanded deal were ignored completely.

Nero simply scowled at the beast as it retreated, seeing the two once-captive elders and their health as far more important while keeping his wits about him. One of the elders spoke up after coughing at the dust cloud that got kicked up. “Believe me, I’ve seen worse.” In either case, he fought threats all the same, it was simply in his nature. “Ultimately, I would hope you, your clan, and all of Namek would never need to deal with such things.” Inevitably such things may happen ever now and then, but Nero hoped it wouldn’t be on a regular basis at least. “That said, I see no harm in perhaps training those who show promise or the desire to defend this world and its people... I’m no great grandmaster myself mind you, but I’ll give it a go!” Nero added with a bright grin. After teaching Zhalla how to sense energy he felt he could teach anyone almost anything!

After making absolutely certain that nothing else would go awry, Nero dispelled his clones and returned to the spot he had initially started to work his magic, one little patch in this neutral area looked much different from the rest; what little he did do before being interrupted was there for all to see. Perhaps the physical evidence would get through to even the hardest of sceptics even after he fought off a multi-eyed tentacled monstrosity.

Once again he held out his hands, offering that others join him and be part of the land’s transformation. When everything was ready, Nero closed his eyes and began glowing, his mystical aura extending through any that had joined hands with him then through the land itself. All the while, he chanted fluently in the Namekian language— it was a song of healing, an odd song, mentioning a moon once or twice, but it was certainly doing the job!

Eventually, the magic gathered spread out beyond the little village, beyond even the horizon— it extended throughout the entirety of the Outer Plait ending only just beyond its borders to the wider Northern Scar. The light would then die down across the land and retreat back into Nero. He slowly opened his eyes, and took a deep breath of the now noticeably fresher air. “For those long gone, those still here, and those yet to come...”

Nero looked on as the people around reacted to what had happened, in a sense even Nero himself hadn’t quite processed exactly what he had managed to bring about. He couldn’t explain the feeling to himself, but he was certainly happy for everyone else. Moving around to check on others, Nero did his best to help anyone that had been injured while more adept healers tended to wounds, he was kind of on autopilot while in deep thought.

That is, until Marimba snapped him out of it. “Oh? Hello there!” Nero happily accepted the handshake from the Mazoku as the man proclaimed himself a mighty warrior. “Hey, I know Crotona— a bit blunt at times but she means well— it makes sense that she went to Konats of course, I do wish her the best. I’m sure she trained you excellently in the time she had to give you.” Nero added with a bright smile, he didn’t expect someone to ask for his help in training this quickly. “Sure! I’ll see what I can do about training after I take care of some things” Nero returned Marimba’s thumbs up with one of his own. “I’m Nero, by the way! I’m usually in the Maimba Fields if that helps you at all. Do take care, Marimba!” He gave the Mazoku a kind wave as he departed on the wing and into the distance.

A few moments later, Nero thought about what he had said. He mentioned that he had matters to attend to. Then it clicked. The feats he had managed to succeed in recently had only just started to hit him. He removed Kamae’s tree from the planet and turned it back into a person, he changed the landscape of the Outer Plait... Which meant there was one more incredibly important thing to accomplish— something deeply personal; to heal and restore his younger brother, to be rid of what ailed the young Avali.

With that, Nero summoned his nimbus after quickly wishing everyone well, speeding off towards his home.