Grim'lok closes his eyes, feeling for abnormalities in the Chikara in the air. Juno rubbed his right hand slightly, "why are we chasing it?", Juno looked genuinely confused on the situation. "What do you mean? We are all here to find the bastards who put us in the illusion, right? Or am I tripping?", said Ex. Grim'Lok opens his eyes to look down at Ex-Shins feet, "No it looks like you're standing still." He says as he starts walking forwards. "There's at least 1000 civilians up top and 5 more abnormalities down here." Juno pinched the bridges of his nose, " I mean the creature obviously I know why we're down here". Ex places his hand on Juno's arm and gives him a smile, "Buddy…I know you don't take kindly to insults, but you're a dumbass! Grim killed that thing already! Pay attention next time, please.", Ex then lets go. Grim'Lok continues walking in front of the two, oblivious to the interaction taking place behind him. Juno looks at Ex before just walking away, "maybe you should be the one paying attention it ran away". Ex sighs deeply "I can't with idiots…" he mumbles, "Maybe if you weren't too focused about fighting Grim, you would've noticed that.". Juno doesn't respond, continuing forward.
"Sorry, let's just go…" Shin apologizes, "I smell sin". Ex dashes ahead, "Keep up you guys!". Grim'Lok summoned Chikara to his legs to accelerate his movement as he follows Ex-Shin closely. Juno crouched into a running stance channeling lighting into his legs before bursting forward cracking the ground under him. Ex suddenly stops. "Here." he says, the trio approaching a long, trap-filled hallway. "At the end of this hall. Two strong entities. I know it.". Grim'Lok looks down the hall, "Which one of us goes first then?" He looks at Juno then Ex-Shin. Juno didn't hesitate, only walking towards the door, "I have pent up anger to release",. "Well by all means, go first then, we're right behind you.", Ex-shin tells Juno. Juno continued forward towards the sources, "mhm", Grim'Lok watches as Ex-Shin and Juno walk through the trapped hallway, "Just like that?" He says as he begins following them "Can you two feel it getting stronger?". "Yeah." Ex grins, "Though, it feels like one of them is right…here!". Ex punches the wall, slightly missing as whom he was aiming at slips away, his body flickering between transparency and normal skin.
"Invisibility huh? Not bad. You also masked your energy by using your partner's? See, I would give you credit for that if you managed to actually do something to us, but it seems that you're too weak!", Ex yells, making sure the figure heard him. Juno looked around for a brief second, "if you're going to be a coward at least hide better", Juno disappeared from his spot, thrusting his hand forward, causing blood to splatter from an invisible body. "Don't kill him yet Juno, he still needs to tell us where to find his friends." Ex adds. Grim'Lok from a distance observes the area, "Somethings off.." He thought to himself. Juno pulled his arm back out, holding the figure by the neck, their invisibility starts to flicker out, "fine" he says. Ex and Juno crouch down, stepping on the scared, bleeding bastard. "So.", Shin begins, "Would you be so kind to tell us where your friend is?". The man's hand shakes. He somehow coughs up a sentence through his bloody mouth saying, "H…He's right BEHIND you.", while smiling like there's no tomorrow. Looming right behind the two, Ex and Juno catch a glimpse of it after it had thrown its fist around, missing both teenagers by a hair.
They regroup with Grim'Lok and analyze what's in front of them. A 10 foot tall humanoid bug with muscles as big as a car door, it cries at the sight of its friend's last breath, only to look at the three with uncontrollable rage. In no time, it leaps forward for a devastating attack, forming blades made from hardened saliva. Grim'Lok is first to react as he puts one of his hands out, The creature's eyes flicker with rage and hatred as its power surges with each step. "This one's stronger than the others!" He puts his other palm out as he creates a barrier in front of him blocking the first and second blade, but the third one slices right through the barrier like it was gelatin, narrowly cutting Grim'Lok's cheek as moves his head to dodge the blade. Ex then follows up with a punch that has crazy force, only knocking it away a few meters before it charges in again. It slashes the air, aiming at the three. Juno put his hands in his pockets as red energy started to emit around him as his eyes changed to a deep red with cat like pupils, blood red small devil-ish horns formed on Juno's forehead, the tips of Juno's hand became tipped with sharp blood red claws, "If you're so sad about your friend I'd be happy to send you right where I sent him". Grim'Lok blocks the slash directed towards him barreling towards the beast screaming out as he does "AAUGH!" He slams fist into the creature's face but quickly it spins around slamming both arms into Grim'Lok who barely blocks the blow sending him crashing into the wall, "This is the second time today..!"
He says through gritted teeth as the Mark of Uken on his shoulder starts to pulsate through his clothing creating an ominous glow through the smoke surrounding him. The beast roars as it leaps towards Ex-Shin, its eyes still sparking with rage. Ex prepares, ready for anything the beast has for him. The beast dances with Ex as if they are moving to an unknown melody. It strikes down with both swords, Ex moves out of the way and sends a combination of punches. However, the beast doesn't move, taking the hits like they're minor to it. Ex and the beast both counter each other, hitting both in each of their jaws before getting sent back. Ex crashes into a nearby wall, meanwhile the creature still hurries towards Shin. "Heh..what a pain in my ass…", he mumbles, raising his palm out in front of the beast as his whole body begins to glow a bright, orange and yellow, staring from the palm. The beast goes in for one more slash. But just then, a wave of chaotic energy spews from Ex's palm, blasting away the beast and stunning it.
"Congratulations. You've just signed a one-way ticket to death, bozo.", says Ex-shin, staring up in the face of the stunned bug-man with both hands in pockets. Juno rushed the stunned leaping into the air, "When I kill you tell you friend I said his skills were mediocre at most", Juno shoots past the creature as a red blur slashing off its right arm. Shin looks back at Juno, "Hey, ain't that a bit harsh?, he says, the bug almost slapping him away. Shin maneuvers under the hand and hits the beast himself with a jumping slap, sending it right to Grim'Lok who catches the bug. "I'm sick of it." He leaps into the air holding it, summoning a barrier on the bottom of his foot kicking off it and spinning in a circle to create a vortex midair. "Spinning Vortex, Barrier Slam!" He screams out as he dives towards the ground creating a shockwave that imprints in the ceiling. A loud explosion is created as Grim'Lok slams the beast into the ground, the mark still pulsating. He begins walking away from the bug. Though…it regenerates its arm, summoning two blades again, the creature stares. With such rage in its body, the beast is essentially unstoppable. Ex, Juno, and Grim--still transformed they are, all three just look back at the thing.
Juno stared at the creature squinting, "it sure does look mad". "You're the one who killed its friend, genius. Maybe that's why. But it doesn't matter anyway, they're next.", Ex responds, cracking his knuckles. Grim'Lok wastes no time dashing back in clashing fists with the beast. Its other hand forms a blade, trying to impale Grim'Lok who catches it before it can do any damage. "NOW!". In that moment, Ex-shin appears in between the space of Grim and the beast, positioning his hand to the bug's body for a one-inch punch. "Nothing too personal.", he grins, performing the punch which forces the thing to its knees as Ex and Grim look down on it menacingly with different expressions, waiting for Juno. Juno grabs the creature's head, "How about you spill everything you know before I stop being nice". Grim'Lok walks past Juno and the bug, towards a nearby wall with markings on it.
He puts one hand on it causing the wall to glow a bright light. "Come take a look at this." Juno looked at Grim'Lok, deciding to drag the ant's body towards them, along with Ex-shin, who curiously wanders towards the wall. "Well, certainly is bright. Just like the last illusion we dealt with.", Ex begins, "There's no doubt that the people and monsters here are real. But this place…is beginning to give off a different feeling.". Juno looked at the bug, "speak up what's this and where does it lead",. Grim'Lok watches as the bug squirms desperately, "I don't think we need the bug's words. This wall has a 3 finger seal on it and I bet whatever's behind it turned whoever this is into that beast." Grim'Lok declares as his eyes analyze the room looking for the other 2 seals. "To destroy a 3 finger seal we need to remove them at the same time." He turns to Juno and Ex-Shin still holding his hand on the wall. Juno sighed before putting his hand on the wall as well. Ex-shin darts off to another part of the room, finding a finger seal on the ground, "Juno, find the last seal.". Juno lazily looked around the room before spotting it in the center of the room, Juno moved like a silver streak appearing in the center, "okay then let's get this done".
"Alright, on my signal we all say release, The seal will cause whatever it was blocking to be unblocked instantly, understand?" Grim'Lok says, his face fully focused on the seal in front of him. "Right, let's get on with it. Ready you guys?", Ex says. Juno nodded lazily, "yeah let's speed this up", Grim'Lok turns back to the wall, taking a deep breath. "3, 2, 1," In unison the three scream out, "Release!" Causing the seals to slowly disappear before a loud rumbling is heard nearby, The farthest wall begins to slowly transform into a door before swinging open like it was pushed but nothing stood in the doorway. Grim'Lok walks towards the door taking initiative, "No more time to waste.". Ex-shin steps up next while stretching his limbs, "You got that right!", he smirks. Juno started to walk towards the door zipping his tracksuit back up looking slightly annoyed, "as long as we get to fight something I'll be fine". "And they called me the junkie…", Ex mutters. Juno shrugged putting his hood back up, "meh i've been called worse".
Grim'Lok holds his arm out stopping them, "What the hell is that?" In front of them stands an altar, and a man kneeling in front of it, saying things in a language they cannot understand. He looks at the altar, "What's he praying to?" he turns back around to Ex-Shin and Juno but his eyes widen immediately, "What the hell.". The room that was once destroyed from the battle now leads to the outside world, almost as if the previous location didn't exist at all.
Shin then looks back, his eyes widened just a bit before saying, "Well that's new..", he then yells out to the guy praying. "Hey, doofus!". The man turns around, tall and chubby he is, the man just stands there in fear. Not in fear of the young men, but what they had just released. "YOU MORONS!! YOU BROKE THE SEAL AND NOW WE'RE ALL DEAD! DEAD I TELL YOU! DO YOU THREE UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS JUST BEEN UNSEALED??? OUR DOOM…". Ex-shin jumps down towards him and lands in front of him. "So what's the deal with this thing? You said that we had unleashed our 'DOOM', but…" Ex searches the area, "Everything around here seems to be fine. Well except that you're alive, of course.", Ex chuckles. "This is no time to be joking around, boy! Soon enough we all will need prayers.", the chubby man continues, "This altar is about 500 years old. We pray upon this statue and it uses its divine power to grant us wishes, as long as we don't open up that door. But here you three go, messing things up for all of us. Without our god, nothing is possible for us…".
Juno raised an eyebrow looking at the looming statue, "why is he praying to a fake statue of Ares", Juno then looked over to the man, noticing clawed gauntlets. Shin stares at the giant, "Now that I really look at it, this is a fake-ass statue of Ares. Hey Grim, come look at this and see if I'm tripping or not!". Grim'Lok walks towards them, eyeing the statue up and down. "Who's Ares?" He says scratching his head with a confused face. "He's a god. In simple terms, a powerful man who symbolizes war.", Ex explains. "Oh, so he's like Neros?" Grim'Lok says as he locks eyes with the statue. Juno looked at the statue for a split second before locking eyes with the man who was praying, "I like his gauntlets, they fit my style perfectly", Juno kept eye contact with the man seeing his apparent fear across his face, "What did you-" Time seems to slow down for the man, the seconds moving ever so slowly before it speeds up in a sudden flash.
A loud explosion and a loud crunch is heard simultaneously as Grim'Lok's eyes are already open in shock. "So you like my gauntlets?" An ominous voice echoes through the corridor, causing the doors to slam shut. In Front of the 3 stands the gauntlet of the Ares statue covered in the acolytes blood, "Huh Juno?" The voice says as the gauntlet slowly floats up, Grim'Loks eyes go up with the gauntlet than past it, meeting the now glowing eyes of the statue. Juno looked at the statues glowing eyes with almost a hint of annoyance, "how's Ezekiel doing I remember when Micheal put him six feet deep, it felt good to hear about it he was an ass", Juno spoke with a relaxed almost condescending tone
"Juno you know this thing??", Ex asks, pointing at the giant without caring what happens next. A ominous laugh echoes through the room before the statue of Ares reaches for its face, "Ezekiel… Bringing up the dead is pointless considering you'll be joining him." Within those words, Ares rips the stone off his face revealing the true form of this statue, not the real body but a fragment of Ares's form as the rest of the statue crumbles revealing the rest of the body. The dark, cracked skin of the man standing in front of them is complemented by his glowing eyes. "It feels so good to finally hear the silence instead of the useless prayers from.." He opens his hands letting the crushed body of the acolyte drop to the ground. "Him." Examining the true form, Ex-Shin whistles and turns around to the others. "Soooo, wanna see who can kill this one first?". Juno laughed for the first time as he stared up at the fragment of Ares, "oh this will be fun won't it Ares but sadly for you I'll send you where my master sent your disciple", Juno pointed at the statue again laughing. Ares claps his hands together and as he does the room begins to shift into the vast red desert. "Kill me?".
Ex activates Incinerate, coating his entire body in heat that forces his skin to become a bright orange and yellow as his hair stays the same black, "Sorry, I meant erase you from existence". Juno held his hand out and within the next second a thundering roar rumbled above as a bolt of lighting fall into his hand, the bolt of lighting straightened into a ten foot naginata of solid lighting, "Duh you idiot but unlike my master it won't be as swift", Juno then spun the naginata cleaving a line in the ground, "I'll cleave your head from here". Grim'Lok cracks his neck, then his back before sprinting full force at Ares who slowly opens his hand revealing a swirling ball of energy. "My power is severely limited due to the fragmentation.", Ares watches the three then his eyes lock onto Grim'Lok, tossing the ball into the air. No words are said as a barrage of beams fall down from the skies. Shin stays stationary and weaves two beams, throwing a thumbs up at Juno, smirking in the process before darting towards Ares. Juno planted both his feet taking a deep breath, The air around Juno began to spark with lightning, Juno's eyes turned blue as he swung the naginata in a horizontal arc aimed for Ares neck, "Sky Splitter".
Just as the naginata drew close to Ares's head, Ex-Shin sweeps his leg, causing him to fall as the arms of this false god gets separated from his shoulders. To follow, Ex picks Ares up by the neck and tosses him at Grim. "Catch!". Before he can even get close to Grim'Lok Ares stomps his feet into the ground, stopping his momentum. He looks at his armless state and grins, "Unfortunately, I'm not the punching bag you expect. You three have been given an easy run so far." The red desert begins swirling around them as a new set of arms spurts from Ares. He turns to Ex-Shin and holds his hand out towards him, "Do you know war?" A burning blade spurts from the palm of Ares towards Ex-Shin, changing trajectory mid-flight turning to Juno. Juno watched the blade get closer and closer before swinging the naginata upwards into the blade splitting it, "don't start with some disillusioned speech about war and prove to me why you're the god of war". Ex comes into close quarters with Ares. Running up, Ex-shin blocks a hook while simultaneously getting his kick blocked as well. He then scores a leg kick, gets elbowed in the arm, slaps away the jab and counters with a crazy left hook that sends him stumbling a bit. Quickly Ares grabs Ex-Shins arm throwing him towards Juno, In that same moment Grim'Lok flickered a few feet behind Ex-Shin catching him and flickering back to Juno. "Stay on guard." Grim'Lok says before summoning chikara balls in his hands, "I'll cover you, You and Juno get up close and overwhelm him." He says watching as Ares slowly walks towards them, his eyes glowing through the sandy dust. Juno rushed forward, his step created a small platform underneath his feet, "fine I'll trust you to watch my back", Juno then slashes at Ares's chest. And at the same time, Ex aims a finger at Ares, waiting. The air crackles before Ares darts towards them, He approaches quickly and with one thing on his mind. "These three are a pain." He puts his block up running through Juno's slashes as they cut right through his arm but they heal almost instantly, "More!".
Grim'Lok continues to summon chikara into the attack he's charging. Shin is still back with Grim, charging up his own attack, the aura around him giving off a chaotic feel, his fingers still up and aiming, "Almost…" he says. Juno charged up a slash swinging downwards, "how's this huh?", Juno laughs as he continues to slash with more power. Ares sidesteps the slash, "You're a powerful one. You remind me of a mini Micheal." He leaped towards the three, slamming into the ground and creating a large fiery explosion. "Shit-" Ex slips. Though still charging his attack, he lost his target during the explosion. Juno takes the explosion head on getting blown back as the flames sears some of Juno's tracksuit," I see you've decided to commit a sin". Grim'Lok is behind a barrier, his previous attack abandoned as he focused on defense. "I haven't seen your skills yet?" Ares says as he punches through Grim'Lok's barrier grabbing him by the collar. "Are you as strong as them too?" Grim'Lok grits his teeth as holds his hand out towards Ares, "Energy Flare!" A flash of a white light overtakes the area causing Ares to let Grim'Lok go.
Two body hooks followed by a sidekick were Grim'Loks next attacks, not doing much damage but creating space. From feet away, Ex lets go of his attack, yelling quietly, "Chaos Beam!" as a condensed burning orange and yellow energy beam spews out from Shin's fingertips, hitting Ares dead on his stomach which is then followed by a fiery explosion of his own. The smoke clears. Ares, breathing heavily, his pupils dash rapidly around looking for Ex, not remembering that Grim'Lok is a few feet away in front of him with a barrier up that protected him from Ex's beam. Grim'Lok channeled chikara into his legs as the barrier disappears, "Dipea-Kicho Technique." Ares tries to backhand Grim'Lok but he ducks under it, jumping into the air and spinning around hitting Ares with a tornado kick sending Ares stumbling back, quickly Grim'Lok begins throwing a barrage of chikara balls at Ares who puts his arms up to shield himself. "These three all have different energies.." Ares mutters to himself as he swipes away the barrage, the hole in his stomach slowly healing. "Finally noticed?" Ex laughs, hearing the slight mutter even from afar. Juno ran towards Ares leaping into the air swinging his naginata downwards into Are's guard sending him back over ten feet back, "you're too busy thinking of unnecessary things focus on protecting yourself first", Juno then spun around launching the naginata into Are's torso ripping a large chunk out. Ares looks at the hole in his torso then at Juno "I've lost one to many limbs today." He says as he begins to form a new torso opening his palm revealing a spiraling icy energy in his hand, releasing it, a vast icy area replaces the desert littered with towering spikes of ice.
The frosty wind is swift, can cut through skin, and instantly freezes over anything or anyone whose body temperature is above 0 degrees fahrenheit…Ex's ability: Incinerate, allows him to control the temperature of his body to make it hotter. Potentially allowing him to be hotter than the sun's core. With this, the surrounding area around Ex melts and evaporates as he increases his body temperature. Smiling at the fact his ability counteracts this fake land, Shin speeds past both Grim and Juno, shoulder bashing the false god away before going back at him. "You believe your little power is enough to take me on, boy? I welcome you to try.", Ares says, welcoming Ex to a 1 on 1 brawl. Not wasting any time after Ares had said that, Ex closes in with a straight that gets dodged, followed with two coordinated hooks. One hook grazes Ares's arm, and the other misses him by a hair. Ares then knees Ex's gut then goes in for a knockout punch. However, Ex was waiting for this moment. In quick animation, Shin grabs Ares's arm and flips him over, knocking him to the ground as Ex charges up a crazy kick that strikes Ares in his neck.
Beginning to soar away, Ares tries to recover mid-air but as he was doing so, Ex-Shin dislocates his arm by pulling Ares towards him for a palm to the chest causing Ares to stumble back on his feet. Continuing to hold onto Ares's wrist, Ex increases his heat, now burning the god's skin while giving him the beating of a lifetime. Ex stomps the knee, uppercuts the chin, smashes the shoulder blade with a downwards elbow, and kicks the ribs before tugging Ares back in for another face to face encounter. He repeats the combo many times, adding in different attacks and movements to overwhelm Ares. Lastly, Ex flips Ares over again, landing him on his stomach, Shin tugs harder on his arm, eventually ripping it out completely. Ares rises to his feet slowly but Ex doesn't give him time to rest, slapping him away with his own limb and throwing it at him. As soon as the arm Ex threw smacks Ares, he casts a chaos beam from his fingertips, shredding a hole through Ares's chest. Ares summons another ball of spiraling energy this time with a huge grin. "Juno, I think it's time you and your friends join Ezekiel.". Grim'Lok flickers next to Ex-Shin with a gigantic ball of chikara in his hand, the energy radiating from his attack can be felt by both Juno and Ex-Shin. Ex catches an idea and adds chaotic energy to the Chi ball. The additional energy forces the ball of Chi to crackle in the air. Juno noticed Ex adding energy to the chi ball and decided to add lighting to it causing it to be encased in white lighting. Grim'Lok stared at the ball in his hands watching as the different energies slowly merged into one, "Combination Kenjutsu, Three Headed Dragon!" Grim'Lok screamed out as Ares grinned "Yes! Show me what you can do!" Simultaneously both Grim'Lok and Ares threw their attacks.
Time slows down briefly as the two attacks meet head on in the middle of the battlefield creating a shockwave as Grim'Lok struggles to overpower Ares who's still grinning. Ex-Shin, quickly acting upon the clash of attacks, throws his palm up in front of his face. Concentrating, the air around him flows up. "Chaos Beam!", Ex roars as a large bright beam ejects and mixes even more with Grim'lok's attack. Energy started to spark and arc through Juno's right and left hands, "Twin Calamities", A two bolts of lighting in the shape of snakes shot from each hand tearing through the air making it vibrate. The three attacks all fuse together briefly before splitting into 3 different beams, taking the form of 3 different dragons. Grim'Lok's Dragon head takes the form of pure chikara, its horns glow with all different elements, Juno's Dragon head was of pure white lighting with slight traces of gold, Ex-Shin's Dragon head, loud and powerful, is colored a neon orange with long protruding horns.
Ares puts both arms in front of him, "Your attempts to defeat me.. It's all futile!" He screams out as he begins pumping what energy he has left into the attack, "I'll show you three an attack that'll not just split you 3 in half, but everything you've ever known too." Ares begins fueling his energy into his palms before lifting one arm to the sky. A gigantic broadsword slowly forms in his hand that is pointed to the sky, "Seismic Divider!" He screamed out as he slammed the sword down with a thunderous force causing the ground to split and creating a thousand yard ravine below them. It didn't take long for the Seismic Divider to clash with the Combination Kenjutsu. This causes Grim'Lok to grit his teeth as the Mark of Uken begins to rapidly pulse, and fuel the attack with an absurd amount of chikara causing Grim'Lok's entire body to glow. Ex can't help but grunt into a smile, using his other hand to send more energy through the Combination Kenjutsu, condensing the three-headed dragon into a more powerful and impactful attack. Juno looked impressed at the attack following what Ex has done infusing his energy into an attack making the three headed dragon attack larger and more durable reinforcing them with slight lighting plating.
Ares's face goes from confident to unsure as he grits his teeth trying to hold back the Three Headed Dragon. "SPLIT!" Grim'Lok screams out as the dragon does exactly that, splitting into three separate ones. "It's time to go for the kill, don't you think." Grim'Lok says with a huge grin on his face. Ex deactivates Incinerate and a deep breath escapes his lungs, still smiling, he nods in agreement. "I'm with you on that one." He says while simultaneously stepping up and clenching his hand into a fist, allowing a cool, misty aura to form around it. Juno started to charge a ball of electricity before mixing it with flames creating a volatile sphere of fire and lighting, "Yeah let's drop this oversized buffoon". Ares shakes his head in disapproval, "How can this be!" Grim'Loks' dragon circled around Ares before coming down with a hard bite on his shoulder, "HOW AM I BEING OVERPOWERED!!". Ex-shin runs through the Combination Kenjustu and palms Ares's abdomen, encasing him and Grim'lok's dragon in a spiky ice prison, "Quit your talking". Juno's shot multiple bolts of lighting into the ice prison electrifying the water molecules within the ice,"yeah shut your mouth your apprentice wasn't even this loud when he died". Ares grins as he hears Juno's words, "This isn't death," He says as the three dragons close in rapidly. "No, this isn't even the end Juno. Until we meet again" He grabs Junos and Ex-Shins Dragon, stopping them in place, "You do talk too much." Grim'Lok says as his dragon crashes down into Ares, engulfing him entirely. The explosion of the dragon simultaneously crashing into Ares and the ground causes the illusion to disperse returning them back to the now destroyed altar room. The statue of Ares stands cracked and ruined. Grim'Lok takes a deep breath as he immediately begins siphoning the chikara in the air into his body. "Phew!" Says Ex with an appreciative look on his face, glad that the fight is over for now. "Anyone need a drink?" he laughs. Grim'Lok slaps Ex-Shin on the back as he walks past him, "As long as you're paying." Juno put his hood on as he started to walk behind Ex and Grim'Lok, "I can't drink I'm underaged", Juno had tried to make a joke, unbeknownst to Juno the shadow of the Ares statue snaked away from it and up Juno's leg.