Delinquents in the Desert

Releasing all the darkness inside of her and allowing it to ooze out into the land around her was something sort of like relaxing a muscle that Flax had been tensing for quite a long time - and so immediately tensing it back up was not the easiest thing to do. Stil, when, of all places, some new strange man dropped in nearby from out of the sky, Flax clicked her tongue in annoyance as she began to retreat the shadows back into her being, slowly but steadily. They retreated slowly, though, their hesitance clear. Flax could feel their urge to strike at this newcomer, and though she held them for now, she couldn't guarantee she'd do that forever.

Flax folded her arms and furrowed her brows at this young man, who seemed far rather scared of her right off the bat, although in spite of both his apparent fear and his insistence that he'd be leaving her alone immediately, he lingered. At this, she raised a brow. Was he stupid?

"You were saying?" she asked with her typical scowl. At this, out of curiosity, she reached out with her senses to gauge what this guy was all about - and found herself surprised at what she found. A wealth of power, very slightly above even her own. Despite the young man's dainty, unassuming appearance, he was quite powerful, wasn't he? Powerful enough to be a suitable meal, even. Flax felt the shadows inside of her stir in anticipation. They desired this man's energy. And were unlikely to take no for an answer.

At this, Flax exhaled out her nostrils. "You really should have run away while you had the chance," she stated to the man as the previously retreating shadows began to expand and ooze freely from her being once more. "Now I kind of have to eat you. Nothing personal, of course."

Flax blinked at the young man as he seemed to scramble to try and get some clearer idea of what was happening to him - he did at least try to bribe her with the zeni in his pocket. Flax herself was actually kind of hungry too, and so she almost considered taking him up on that offer. However, before she could even try to accept his bribe, he changed his mind and decided he'd rather fight things out instead. Oh, well.

"Afraid I'm not in the mood for knuckle sandwiches today," she replied as she was instructed to 'eat his fist.' Oddly, he then struck at her with his knee, though she figured it was just some sort of verbal feint technique. Not good enough to breach her defenses, of course. In response to his approach, Flax swiped out her hand, suddenly erecting a brilliant wall of blackened flames that blocked the man's advance in its tracks, absorbing his blows entirely and leaving Flax safely behind them. She did note that he very nearly broke through the flames, however. Perhaps she shouldn't underestimate him so easily.

"You are rather feisty though, aren't you?" Flax snidely commented from behind her wall of flames, her eyebrows raising as her lips curled into a subtle smile. "Got something to prove, do we?" As she goaded him, the shadow cast behind the boy by the flames would quietly shift and change shape, as Flax's darkness sneakily infested it. And, in an instant, the boy's own shadow would leap out at him and attempt to wrap around his body, squeezing tightly and sucking out his very life force!

Flax blocks Yogu's attack with [Light] Wraithfire Surge! It blocks for 29,819 (40%) PL, just barely fizzling the attack!
She then attacks him with a [Light] Stygian Embrace, which strikes at him for 14,909 (20%) PL!

HP: 0/250
KP: 6/6 > 3/6
MP: 0/6 > 2/6

Flax was generally non-threatened by this delinquent in the desert, but there was still an odd something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. That was, until his power suddenly grew mammoth in size, nearly rivalling Flax's own maximum power. And when the boy spoke to her, it became clear that it wasn't actually him speaking to her. It was something else. Something sinister, something... Konatsian. Flax's eyes grew uncharacteristically wide as it dawned on her that she was facing something not dissimilar to her own situation. This darkness that had taken hold of the boy, though, had a full mind of its own, unlike the shadows within Flax that felt as though they merely acted on some sort of twisted instinct.

The boy's was aware, intelligent enough to take full control of his body and speak. Flax had no small amount of questions, but the only one she could force beyond her lips was, "What the hell...?" And then, the beast, the monster, let loose with all the pent-up energy it contained. Crimson bolts of unfettered power ripped through the shadows that bound the boy in an instant and tore across the desert sands, leaving trails of molten ash and glass wherever they scorched the ground. And then, all that energy came down on Flax!

She'd had ample time to prepare for the wild blast of energy, at least. Flax's shadows had encircled her and empowered her to their fullest ability, even feasting on her own life force to further increase their power, but even with all that strength she had, this was still beyond her abilities to take and shrug off. So, before the beam crossed her, Flax waved out her arm and erected a wave of dark energy that preemptively sought out and struck at the crimson beam's structure, withering and weakening its power with the aim of simply shutting the blasted thing down.

And, while it had certainly been weakened, it proved just too powerful for Flax to diminish entirely, and blasted through her defenses. It barreled straight into the Konatsian, who was sent soaring back through the air, until she finally fell out of the beam and tumbled down into the sands. "Gah...! Dammit..." Flax groaned as she struggled back onto her feet and brushed sand off herself.

A nice, scorched hole had been burnt right in her sweater that revealed her now rather bright red and recently-on-fire looking stomach, though the good news was that a hole hadn't been punched straight through her. The bad news was that she was now quite hurt and very drained from how much of her the shadows had needed to feast upon in order to gain the necessary power to defend against that strike. But at least she was alive, and still conscious, to boot. Now, where the hell had that little rascal ended up?

It took Flax a couple minutes to walk all the way back over to where the kid had landed after all that, but he did luckily look to be back to his normal, un-possessed self. Flax had half a mind to just knock him out and move on after a stunt like that, but she had too many questions, first. She squatted down in front of him as he lay against the boulder he'd been knocked into, and frowned. "What was that? Was that Kashvar magic? What the hell is that doing here? And who are you?" she sternly asked him, intent on getting answers one way or another.

Flax transforms into her Wither (x6) form, putting her PL at 447,288!
She then blocks Monster's attack with a [Light] Wave of Withering, empowered by an MP Power Boost and her Darkness Within trait for a 223,644 (50%) PL barrier, which clashes against Monster's attack! Its Shield variant then further reduces the attack's power, which then deals 237,199 (53%) PL damage to Flax!

HP: 0/250 > 53/250
KP: 3/6 > 2/6
MP: 2/6 > 0/6

The fatigue of her previous strain hit Flax suddenly and like a truck, to the point that it caused her to suddenly stumble to the side while the world swirled around her. However, she forced herself to keep it together. This... Unpleasantness usually passed in a minute or two. Sometimes slightly longer. She certainly couldn't afford to look all frail and withered while she was interrogating this kid, though. 

Not that his interrogation seemed to be worth very much... When the kid finally got around to answering her questions, he seemed ignorant of everything that had just happened - a complete loss of consciousness and a memory gap surrounding the last three minutes or so. Well, great. And terribly convenient. Flax wasn't sure if this 'Om-Yogu' was actually telling her the truth, but to his credit, he seemed quite genuinely bewildered. And someone who was in the know about his situation likely wouldn't be so incredulous about what a 'Kashvar' was.

"Hm," Flax frowned, blinking a few times as she willed her dizziness away, her arms crossed and her brow dripped in sweat. "So you're clueless, then." She wondered if there was some way to force that monster out of him again. They would likely have the answers she sought, but they might also blast another ridiculous laser at her again. So, it'd be risky. And as far as she could tell, the only way to bring that side out of this Yogu kid was to try and kill him again.

Maybe he could piece some things together for her if she gave him a few answers of her own, though. 

Flax relaxed and allowed her shadows to lighten up a bit, easing her muscles and returning to what was more or less her base power level. That felt better. And then, she answered. "A 'Kashvar' is a magical race of Konatsian that utilizes black magic to commit unspeakable acts. You and I are not of their blood... But we do both seem to bear the scars of their work." If Yogu really was infected with Kashvaran magic, consuming his essence would likely greatly empower Flax's own shadows... But perhaps a bit too much. She already felt like she had a hair's length of an edge on her control over the darkness, and letting it become too powerful risked losing herself to it entirely. So, Yogu would be spared for now.

Besides - he was a victim too, by all appearances. Flax ought to at least show some solidarity. "So, how does a half-Konatsian boy, touched by Kashvaran sorcery, and isolated all the way on Earth have absolutely no knowledge of any of this? If I didn't know any better, I'd assume you were intentionally hiding out here to keep that other half of yours from killing people. But you seem to hardly even know it exists..." A very curious case. Was there truly no more light he could shed on the matter?

Flax drops back down to her base PL of 74,548!

HP: 53/250
KP: 1/6 > 3/6
MP: 0/6 > 1/6

Flax listened intently as Yogu explained and described his unique situation to the best of his ability. He didn't know much, though the scant details he was able to pass onto Flax shed more light on his predicament than he might have guessed. The 'demon' inside of him had referred to Flax as it's 'kin'? So, they were one and the same, or at least fruits of darkness that had fallen from the same tree. She continued to listen with intense focus as he went on, taking in every detail she could, although she noted a feeling inside of her that almost felt like it was gently tugging her away from him, away from this conversation. 

It seemed neither of their demons wanted them to learn more about themselves. That may begin make things difficult.

"So, your grandfather was of Konats," Flax mused, her eyes drifting off to the side and her thumb pressed against her lower lip as she pondered what this could mean for her. Even if what influenced them may have seemed the same, the way their bodies had responded to it - and the ways in which it controlled them - seemed very different, indeed. Yogu's seemed to forcibly take control of him at times, and even spoke to him in words he could understand, while Flax maintained full control over hers, so long as she kept it well fed. Her shadows never spoke to her, though. Instead, she more or less felt what they were feeling, like some sort of empathic link. It was confusing to think too hard about, really.

He'd also inquired about her situation. "Heh, suppose it's only fair," she replied. "Well, I used to be Konatsian military. I volunteered for this cleanup operation we were conducting on this city that had been overrun with black magic. Turned out those sickos in the upper military had struck a deal with the Kashvar to try and use Konatsian soldiers as sponges to soak up all the darkness and cleanse the area. Everyone else they tried it on got consumed and killed. Though, when it was finally my turn..."

Flax paused. It occurred to her she couldn't fully recall how things had played out once it was her turn on the chopping block. "I, uh, don't really remember. I just woke up, and the entire place had been destroyed. I was the only one left. And, I had all this..." she paused and held out a hand, allowing for some of the darkness to seep out through her fingertips. It dripped down on the ground like some kind of alien, black ooze, then scurried its way back towards Flax and reentered her via the soles of her feet. "...inside of me. I can control it, but only if I give it a snack in the form of allowing it to drain other people's energy to the brink of death every now and then." 

That was the long and short of it, she was pretty sure. Flax crossed her arms and eyed Yogu once more. "That open up any blocked off memories for you?"

Flax listened intently as Yogu explained his first ever encounter with this 'Monster.' He had just... Blacked out, suddenly? And when he came to, he was standing amidst a field of rubble? Well, that admittedly didn't sound terribly far off from Flax's own first encounter with the darkness inside of her, but the difference seemed to be that she had maintained consistent consciousness and relative control of the beast since. Yogu, on the other hand... Well, he didn't seem any better off now than he had after that very first time. It was very curious indeed. "Hm, well..." Flax was about to comment on his tale, when the boy's head suddenly snapped up at her, and his normal voice dipped into a monstrous growl.

As the monster spoke, Flax could feel the shadows within her physically recoiling, though she couldn't tell if they recoiled in fear or disgust at the overwhelming presence before them. She herself felt rather unsettled, and her typically stern facial expression shifted to one that almost resembled slight surprise. It knew what she was? What the Kashvar were? 

Once the initial shock went away, Flax quickly and intently asked, "Wait, what are you? What do you know about this thing? How do I get rid of it?" Her questions went unanswered, though, as in just a moment, the monster was gone, and the boy was back. Flax clicked her tongue in disappointment and annoyance as Yogu returned, and she felt her shadows relax as well. Perhaps they had grown so used to consumption, they feared being consumed by a stronger being themselves? Hell if Flax knew. And as for Yogu's inquiry... "Hell if I know," she replied. "If I did, I'd have gotten rid of my own shit, ages ago."

Flax sighed. "Look, kid, you need to get a handle on that thing, though. Maybe try, uh..." Hmm, she knew one way to tame a shadow beast, but Yogu probably wasn't gonna like it. And she couldn't even be sure it'd work on his. "Well, me, mine just needs to eat every once in a while. I don't let it kill anyone, but it does go and drain them of their ki until they're just about dried up. Lets me exert control over it so it doesn't do something worse. So... You could try letting yours eat every now and then."