The Betrayal

Ryun stepped through the portal a moment after War, followed closely by Nayra and Trklak. The room in the Real Realm was occupied as well, behind the portal stood a group of summoners, their powers working hard to keep the portal open and prevent it from collapsing as a Grand Spirit passed through. The moment after War fully entered the real realm, her body collapsed, losing its form and becoming what it truly was at its core, the Essence of War. There was no more appearance of a drake woman that the Ethereal shaped around her. Now, War was just a cloud of Essence, and it surged across the room to enter the vessel.

Ryun watched in fascination as the Essence of War spilled into the waiting body, the Essence mingling with what was already present. He kept his perception and eyes on what was happening in front of him, soaking all of it in. It was a unique chance to observe a spirit controlling Essence. From his understanding, a spirit's power was more akin to the Skill focus than anything else, though it had elements of everything.

The room flooded with the War Essence, enough so that even Ryun could feel his soul be affected. He felt on the edge of violence, but also uplifted, and ready for a battle. He could feel Nayra and Trklak experiencing the same.

The summoner in the room shifted their focus, and the portal closed. War, now inside of the vessel opened her eyes, the armor lit up as his formations powered on to keep the body from falling apart. Even with their plan, they had to make sure that the vessel could hold her. Otherwise, she would have just been pulled back into the Ethereal, and that was not their intent. Still, he saw cracks appear on the chitin, spreading from the eyes. And then the armor flared, and the breaking stopped, the vessel stabilized.

Her mandibles clicked, and her body moved slowly, as if she was figuring out its limits.

"Ah, it feels... constrained," War said in a strange tone, probably because she wasn't used to using the vessel's mouth yet.

"Constrained, is an apt word," Ryun said as he took a step closer.

The Grand Spirit of War tilted her head and looked at him as he sharpened his will and reached out to the armor. There was a moment of confusion from her, but it didn't last for long. She sprang into motion just as Ryun activated the armor. It wasn't fast enough, he hadn't expected her to react that fast. In a single instant Essence spilled out of War's vessel and formed a weapon in a hand. He felt and saw Essence of War twist and reality bend to its will, creating a physical sword. It cleaved him from shoulder to hip so fast that Ryun barely had time to react. He felt the Essence in the Sword's path crack open, then shatter in a way that sent ripples through his body. He felt cracks spreading through his Essence and his Regeneration kicked in, soaring high in order to heal. A part of his mind was aware enough to focus on that attack and store the damage into his Ring of Full Reflection.

The armor that the Grand Spirit wore activated, and War stumbled as Nayra and Trklak jumped back out of range, pushing the summoners out of the room.

For a moment, Ryun had a sensation as if he existed in two places at once. Two halves of his body, both were him. His body and soul were forged together, the cut hurt him, but he was greater than simply what his physical body represented. He could chose where he regrew from. Ryun's lower half dissipated into nothing and he felt as if the piece of him that was in that part of his body slid through the plane of Oblivion to return to the whole, then he regrew his body and equipped his Armor of the Last Star. He pulled out his scepter and then channeled {Mantle of Gathering Twilight} flowed through his body and his Aura and Qi surged to fill the room with his Essence. He targeted it precisely around the Grand Spirit, not affecting anything else. With an effort of will, he focused on the sword in the spirit's hand and used Marked Essence, then he fired a {Twilight Shaping Cast} through his scepter to fill the area around it with Oblivion Qi.

With his will and Master of Oblivion, he focused and pushed, obliterating the Essence of the Sword that War had created, destroying the weapon.

He felt the Grand Spirit recoil from that, as he had expected. The weapon was part of her being, and losing it was the same as if losing a limb. Ryun paused as the armor did its work, he saw the Grand Spirit's power being sealed, pulled into itself and constrained.

"You betrayed me," the Grand Spirit of War whispered.

"Is it really a betrayal if you planned on betraying us first?" Ryun asked.

"I didn't plan on betraying my agreement," War answered. "You broke your word to me."

"Did I? You tasked me with dealing with the delay, and I have, I have made certain that this vessel can hold you, and it can as you can see. While you you failed to mention that you also planned on staying in the Real Realm after fulfilling your obligation to Grey Horde, and turning our world into fuel for your power," Ryun said. He had skirted very closely to his ideals, but ultimately he had learned a lot over the years. He had grown. He had seen what could happen when one left a cancer to grow.

He felt Nayra and Trklak step into the room behind him, ready for a fight as War struggled against the suppression of the armor, but Ryun was confident that his work would prevail.

"Someone else betrayed me, I see," War's eyes glared at him. "Which one was it? Transition? Or was it Mysteries?"

Ryun didn't reply, instead he kept his focus around War, keeping erasing every attempt she made to send her Essence beyond the confines of her body, and she was trying. Tendrils of War were attempting to do something, but he didn't let them develop enough to do anything. Then War started to move, at first sluggishly then faster and Ryun tilted his head.

The armor was supposed to silence her completely, but also make the body unable to move, she was doing something inside the armor to fight against that. Ryun formed a {Field of Twilight's Calm} around her, suppressing her ability to move.

For a moment she froze, her eyes blazing with War Essence. Then Ryun realized what she was doing, a moment too late. He felt the space split apart as she opened herself to the Plane of War, open a direct gate to it within herself. The Essence of War spilled into her, and Ryun realized what they were trying to contain. A being that was linked to War in a way that was beyond comprehension. A being that was War in all the sense of the word.

Before Ryun could react, the Essence of War exploded out of the trapped Grand Spirit. It blasted in a wave that spread all around them, that passed through all the chambers around them and filled the entire valley. And then she made a call to War.

The already thin boundary between the Real and the Ethereal Realm in this place ripped apart and Ryun's perception felt it like a physical thing that made him stagger as the Ethereal spilled into the Real, and with it came spirits.

War's army surged, already ready, and the greater spirits beelined it for their already prepared vessels. Ryun expanded his Aura and pulsed Oblivion on as many of those portals as he could, trying and managing to close some, but no where near enough.

"Nayra!" He yelled, and she immediately moved, realizing what was happening. Trklak followed a moment after her.

Ryun pulled back his perception and his aura, focusing only on War. His creation was suppressing her, but it had slowed as she opened herself to the Plane of War, and he could tell that she was doing something again. Ryun shaped Oblivion Qi around her with one hand immobilizing her, then approached while pulling Qi out of his scepter with the other.

He pulled the Bond Qi from one of the scepter's cores, then formed a {Twilight Shaping Cast} technique with it, targeting the gate to the Plane of War within the Grand Spirit.

Before his technique landed, another surge of her power blasted out, the Essence of War. It was so much more, Ryun realized now, War could be all the Essences that could be used in anything that resembled a war. In an instant the room was filled with blades, manifested out of the Essence of War, transformed into a physical form with all the Essences that made up a blade. The blades were real in all the sense of the word.

The cut through the air toward him, but he didn't bother with them. He instead trusted in his armor, and triggered the Last Will of Kha Yu. Gravity shifted and impacted everything around him, even the Grand Spirit, dropping War to her knees. The blades wavered in the air, a few hit the ground in front of him as the gravity pulled the down, and a couple struck his armor and shattered, not even moving him. When the armor buff was active, his mass counted as if it was insanely higher than it really was, it would take much more force to move him than a few blade strikes.

With the third cast of his scepter, its ability triggered, increasing the effectiveness of the technique far above its normal. With great precision Ryun stabbed in the core of War and with Bond Qi reinforced the bonds between the Essences of Space within her, repairing the rift between planes. She was fighting it, he could feel the Plane of War resonating with the Grand Spirit of War, as if they were feeding each other, and Ryun feared that he wasn't strong enough to close it. Then, he felt something change in the current of War that flowed through from the plane. The more violent aspects that he detected gave way to aspects of necessity, of protection.

Whatever happened made the Grand Spirit recoil as if she was slapped. Ryun pressed his technique in that moment. One instant the Essence of War was flowing out and into the Grand Spirit, and in the next the spirit was cut off. The suppression built into the armor flared, and a moment later he felt it fully encompass the Grand Spirit, sealing her power and trapping her inside, unable to even move a muscle to speak.

Ryun waited for a moment to see if she would try and break out, then walked over and opened his Oblivion Territory Gate, then threw the trapped spirt inside his own soul.

As he closed the door to his territory, he expanded his perception and looked at the carnage happening outside. Narya and Trklak were fighting, killing the vessels before the spirits could fully take hold of them. Some rooms had been caved in by the Grey Horde and the army above, but he knew that they couldn't plan much or risk the spirits learning of their plan. There were still portals open to the Ethereal, and he needed to close them.

Just as he took a step to go and help, a tear opened next to him, and a mass of writhing tendrils slammed into him, carrying him through the wall and into the cavern beyond.