limiterrings | (no subject)

[Their actions continue to confuse and frustrate him. The spear remains stabbed into his other, but he neither pulls it out, or pushes further in. They're already doing the job of hurting themselves without him doing anything besides hold the spear steady. The eyes on his weapon looking toward them. Pathetic.] How do you intend to defeat me like this?

[Stop it. Why are you doing this to yourself? A small voice among the storm of self loathing and hate. He blocks it from his mind, just as his other pushes him to take another hit meant for him. His helmet hiding the moment of surprise in his eyes. Do they not think he can handle this? Is he being insulted? He growls as he pulls his spear back, just as they strike with the jackal's own weapon. There's a clink as it breaks through his helmet's armor and into his right eye. The spear is fully removed from his other as he staggers backwards from the strike, his other hand pressed against his face. The pain is nothing, but what he sees when that attack struck gives him pause. A jumble of memories mixed together, home, here, theirs. Pulling. Tearing. What is even real?

Growling between gritted teeth, he manages to remove the piece of the spear, tossing it aside as it disappates. The last image that flashes before him, being on the moon....with another hedgehog.

Who was that? A different one? Himself?]

...Pointless. [There are yellow sparks around his injured eye. Flesh and organs mending on their own beneath the spilled blood. A healed crimson eye, glaring down at his other in the next moment.] Back off. [He takes flight, intending to return to the hunt and leaving his othere where he lays. They will live, he can deal with their wounds later.]

[ he cannot use his own chaos energy because the other will feed, amplify and use them back. it's pointless when he's limited to his own body and taking advantage of what infinite has. he's able to warp reality to some extent, and if that can be used to fight against the younger hedgehog then so be it. as long as he can be damaged, that's fine, all shadow has to do is keep going.

shadow doesn't even respond to the words said to him, he finds himself focused on the issue at hand. keeping his prey alive, handling the issue, then killing his prey — it's a linear path, but when he moves, his body aches and pain courses through. wounds won't heal possibly because of who damaged him, but the other that came from infinite slowly tries to close itself albeit slowly.

he jumps up, air shoes activating to follow after the other, it's not as fast but enough to keep him afloat. there's nothing he has that can damage him, so he curls, using his own body as a weapon to dash right into the other while he's flying in order to knock him off course into one of the nearby walls. as long as the other hunts down infinite, shadow will be close behind. it's that unwavering determination that won't let him give up no matter the challenge, he won't allow himself to fall because of a couple of wounds that'll heal soon enough (or not at all). blood stains black fur, it sticks together and gives it a more thicker, matted appearance.

infinite takes this as his advantage, limping until using the phantom ruby to float away from the impact of the two shadows. it's quite amusing really, watching them fight head to head, and knowing that one isn't even using their full power to keep up with a monster such as the younger one.

"ha ha ha! shadow, is this all you're capable of!?"

is it to mock him or encourage him? he sounds almost amused and disappointed at the sight of the older one. there's a small part of him impressed that the younger one is unable to get rid of the other one. it might be because shadow has always been persistent in a way that it's rare to see him give up, so the other one must be the same.

that's why he makes another glitched sword, throwing it in the direction of both shadow's hoping to strike two birds with one stone. ]

[When one is more reluctant to fight against the other, you get this result. He has only struck back when his other made any attempts to stop him. With their persistence though, it's getting harder to keep to that.

And it looks like he'll need to deal with them again. He doesn't understand how, he doesn't know why, he just knew the other would never quit. Fighting until their last breath. So he can never keep his guard down as long as he can sense their presence. He turns, swinging his spear into the incoming spindash to knock him away, either that or stop their forward momentum. His other hand opens towards sword that was coming at them. A dark portal opens, swallowing it.

He blips out of existence, leaving his other to strike at nothing. He reappears above Inifinite staring down at him, a chaos spear formed in his hand.] Disappear. [Like a master preparing to exact punishment on their underling, a portal opens in front of Infinite, firing the sword back at them. His chaos spear being sent down at the same time.]

[ that sword could have been useful, something shadow regrets not aiming for as his reflected spindash sends him into a wall nearby. he pulls himself together, shaking his body as he looks over to where that version of him has fled to now. the phantom ruby pulsates, their surroundings starting to glitch due to overuse, and shadow takes this as a quick way to close the distance. the wall near him fades in and out, he's quick to slip inside thinking it'll take him right to where the weapons are being targeted towards infinite.

however, it doesn't. it leads shadow to appearing behind his other, and knowing that he cannot use chaos energy against him makes this angle useless.

or does it?

he seems pretty focused on infinite so shadow curls in for another spindash, this time aiming right at the center of the younger version's back, right between the wings to push him forward right into the direction of infinite and the aimed weapons. if lucky, he hopes to skewer his double with either the glitched sword or his own spear in the impact. ]

...I told you it's pointless! [He is the perfect soldier. He's always at the ready for anything. He has to be. Failure was never an option. He has to learn and adjust on the fly, avoid making the same mistakes. It all has to come naturally to him. And as long as the Black Arm's blood flows inside his other, he will always have knowledge of their presence.

Sparks fly in his free hand as he turns to meet them head-on, punching right into their spindash with incredible force behind it.]

[ the punch connects, shadow's thrown back into the walls behind leaving a huge impact as debris falls onto him. it's his interruption that's given infinite time to hide behind the various glitches nearby, shifting from one place to another but remains hidden. infinite knows that this isn't good with shadow down and the other out and about, but he remembers what the other hedgehog used that did affect the other.

hm.

in this world, the younger hedgehog will see the random glitches in the sky, along the walls and the ground. infinite is somewhere behind them, but he doesn't seem willing to come out just yet.

his voice echoes from above to throw off his whereabouts so that the younger hedgehog cannot find him.

"are you ready? to go home?"

by those words, is that saying that shadow might be dead? ]

[...It's faint, but he feels them, still holding on. Something aches in his heart, but he ignores it. A window of opportunity has been presented to him and he can't waste it. He's lost sight of his prey, but he'll find them again. Nothing escapes once they've been marked.

His ear flicks at their voice, the eyes on his weapon glancing upwards.

He has no home. Those words mean nothing to him.

He looks at all the buildings and obstacles obscuring his vision. His other's presence still feels far from here, he can unleash more of his power. Raising his free hand, a small ball of chaos energy forms in his palm, darkness at it's core. He sends it at a cluster of random buildings. A controlled black hole expands from it, sucking everything around into it. He fires another, then another. Destroy it all. It's what he's good at. Sooner or later, the rat will either be consumed by the empty darkness, or be flushed out of hiding.]

[ the debris doesn't move, rock and concrete covering the hedgehog completely as their surroundings are swallowed by the black holes. the intake of wind that whistling in infinite's ears know that it's too close, and with each reconstruction of their surroundings to rebuild a building that was taken by the younger hedgehog's attacks to promptly hide behind.

again, a voice follows after once another building falls.

"you hunger for me, is that it? the way you search when you don't know what i'll do to you."

the younger one isn't meant to have a future, he's supposed to kill him before that fated moment comes. yet, there's some difficulties— as another building crumbles and is swallowed whole, a few large pieces do fall towards the ground, causing dirt to kick up making it hard to see on the field. however, some do fall around where the older hedgehog is, more pieces crushing down on top of already broken down debris.

"if you kill me, you'll be trapped! remember?"

he hasn't came out of hiding spot until he appears right on top of the rubble that shadow is buried underneath. ]

[What the jackal can do to him is of little concern. He isn't afraid, he is an undying soldier. These little head games are just annoying distractions. He has to focus on finding a means to get in the strike to end this.

So far, this rat has played keep away, only showing their hand when an opportunity presents itself to them. The jewel on their chest, the source of their power of illusions. Approaching them proved minor success, even if most of them were interrupted by his other. If he can just disable it somehow...ah. He has a way.

The jackal shows himself, his hand aimed at sending another black hole in their direction. But he pauses, sensing his other beneath them. Tch. Of course they would. Not waiting a moment longer, the orb of energy is crushed in his hand as he proceeds through a dark portal behind him. Did that moment of pause cause a shift in his plans? Doesn't matter, he can only push forward.

Silence. Waiting. Letting his prey get antsy by the lack of knowing where he is, where he will appear again. What he will do. He has all the time.]

[ infinite stands right on the rubble, eyes glancing around unsure of where the younger hedgehog could have disappeared to. that's the problem about this place, someone that has nothing is difficult to control.

that hesitance doesn't go ignored, actually it's welcomed when that gives infinite more time to think about what it is he needs to do. his eyes glance around the area searching for where the other may appear. infinite moves one foot, the rubble underneath him shifts —

...

there's a small pool of blood that spreads out from one of the broken pieces of concrete.

ah.

is that it? infinite smiles, could it be? that dying thing underneath.

"he's weaker, you're stronger. i understand now." ]

[Their attention is elswhere. A mistake on their part. Portals will suddenly appear all around the jackal, black tentacle-like appendages coming out of every one, all trying to grab hold of them and eventually pull the rat into one of the portals, into his dimension. A place where no one will bother them, his powers at his strongest.

It's dark, a sense of forboding and something oppressive about this domain. Light flashes from a constant storm brewing in this dimension, revealing fragments of various objects and landmarks. Some familliar, some alien. The world twisting ones sense as broken pieces of streets and buildings combine together with a lack of coherency, making paths that go above and below. Strange vehicles that looked to be weapons, and corpses, human, animal and alien sprawled out across the landscape. The domain full of death seems to go on endlessly, with no visible exits.

Eyes, the sense of someone, or something watching the jackal all around them.]

[ this doesn't scare him.

no, rather he's amused by what he's seeing. an entire new world where his phantom ruby is unable to change because nothing makes sense, like all horrors, anything can happen here and illusions probably don't break through what changes and loses all meaning on its own.

infinite takes a step back, something squishy underfoot that feels like he could fall through if he isn't careful.

his tail sways, he is not afraid but he has to keep himself composed or he'll regret.

"what happened to wanting to go home, young one?" he has a feeling that this individual feels that knowing the truth means he has no place. "i told you i could fix everything, are you afraid of that?" ]

[Lies. The ground shakes as spears of chaos energy burst beneath them. He targets the wounds that were inflicted on them before. Keep them in one spot.] Perish [An unsettling voice speaks out within the void that seem to be coming from all direction. Above them, something comes lunging towards them with a familiar spear, larger to suit it's current holder.

A dark creature slightly larger than a human descends. It had two sets of wings, built to be an agile fighter by it's slim build and elongated limbs that end in long crimson claws. It's feet lacked proper digits, pointed at the end as if built to glide over surfaces. Gold rings, at it's wrist and ankle reveal who this creature actually is. The center indents glowing pitch black. Dark tentacles protrude down from the waist, giving it the impression of a tailcoat. Hiding beneath, a long deadly tail that ended like a jagged end of a spear.

Red eyes, two sets of them sit on the sides of their head, with a fifth distinct yellowish orange eye glaring at it's center. It had crimson horns where ears would normally be for the dark hedgehog. Their "quills" seemingly able to move on their own like appendages as they flow with the current movement.

On his body, beneath a white crest and where one would expect to find a stomach, was a gaping hole. Pitch black, an endless void in of itself. It's own black hole built into this creature of the Black Arms.

Tl;dr Here's my embarrasingly quick sketch that I will never finish and I suck a descriptors.]

[ infinite steps back, he steps back again, his body isn't frozen in shock, no... it's the need to move away, to make distance, to survive. his eyes widen behind the mask, the sight of something so distant from what should be the truth catches his breath in his throat. whether he's awed or afraid, it's hard to say. what can be said with even his words caught in his throat —

...

infinite has lost control a long time ago.

spears shoot from the ground, impaling his legs in place so that he's unable to move. he screams from the depths of his inside, the body weeping from the pain as the energy surges through him cause unimaginable pain. it hurts, ithurtsithurtsithurts. tears pool underneath, they stain the inside of the masks' visor with wet drips, and his eyes have turned bloodshot.

he places a hand over the ruby to force its power, but nothing happens, it's usage dull and unwilling to work in this environment. no matter how many times it pulsates to try, he can feel the energy from it leaving quickly and quickly, until the overwhelming energy of their surroundings squeezes the jewel.

a bright light, a small crack wedges inside, and then with a loud shatter is where the phantom ruby falls. rather than hitting the unfamiliar ground in this void of nothingness and creation of a horrific beast. the phantom ruby disappears. still a gem of unspeakable power, it's as though it fled realizing its power cannot be properly utilized.

or maybe it's because infinite has shown fear.

where, where did it go? his hands raise to his chest in search, the holder empty. no, this can't happen to him, he's the prophet.

...

underneath the rubble, shadow can hear nothing, as though the battle above has left somewhere else. he notices broken shards fall between the cracks within the darkness, some lit, others dull. they barely glow, shadow hardly wants to move, but he's familiar with the power that emanates from them. he clicks his tongue, the taste of blood in his mouth and rather than ignore the offering he picks up one shard.

he swallows it.

another piece, he swallows that too.

another, and another, and another — they drag against his tongue, cut against his throat. the pieces of the phantom ruby is an entirely different power from what he's usually working with, but between this and a chaos emerald that's barely holding onto anything.

he has to.

blood spurts from his body when he moves, he devours as though he has an endless hunger. ]

[That's right. All will eventually learn fear and obey in the presence of the commander. The spear, finally hits it's mark. Like an angel of death, Shadow looms over the dying mortal form of the jackal, blood staining his hand. You've avoided death for far too long. The chaos spears disappates around them. Slowly, he lifts his spear up along with their skewered body. Letting them feel the pain, struggle, suffer. They have no one to blame but themselves, for unleashing the monster before them.

He notes a certain ruby was missing on them. Perhaps finally spent. They were leveled to the swirling void of his stomach. For a moment, one would assume that is how they would meet their end, but no. Shadow grabs them in one hand, pulling them off his spear. It wasn't gentle, but slow and painful. He brings them further other up, eyes meeting. He can see the fear in them. What would normally upset the child, now brings satisfaction to the monster. Let it be the last thing they see and know, what happens when they've messed with something that one should have left well alone.] Thank you for providing me nourishment. You did help in the end.

[His head slowly lifts, revealing the maws of the beast. Like a serpent it opens wide, nearly his whole head was a mouth. Tendrils coming out to help restrain the jackal and accept the meal whole. Bones crunch and crack, Shadow unrelenting, as he devours the jackal. All the while, he felt a strange disturbance from his other outside his domain. It's been bothering him in the back of his mind, but choosing not to concern himself until the task was completed in here.]

[ the jackal knows the stories about when a deity eats the body and soul, how the soul suffers forever from the last experience of pain they came into contact with. will it be the spears, or the crunching, or how the bones snap underneath pressure. it hurts, it will prolong for years on end, it'll be endless, this is a sort of hell that the jackal is unable to free itself from. let him die, let him die, he wants to die, but why does it hurt, why does pain persist past the body?

he's unable to do anything as the monster devours, the world becomes dark, but the pain continues. should someone suffer like this? is this what he wanted?

...

it's pure instinct at this point, forcing himself to keep the jewels down knowing that his body is too weak for them. maybe the ruby registers foreign body, the lack of fear, only an hidden, intense hatred, and a need to keep going. desperation, survival, hatred... all sorts of feelings. knowing that the gem was even here means that...

did his other actually do the job? take care of the person who... shadow...

the ruby expands, sharp points digging into his insides, but he understands the feeling is that his body is trying to adjust to what he's eaten. he can't even move, but he know why, especially when his body sometimes feels it's no longer his. sometimes it feels as though it's breaking apart underneath his fur, but then a strong pain registers. his body feels as though there are some gaps, like his arm isn't connected to his elbow, or his wrist as completely vanished, but he can feel his fingers.

what light filters between the cracks allows him to see a little, as though his wrist has faded away, became see through... but he can feel it. ]

[A dark portal appears once more nearby. The sound of clanking armor as Shadow reappears once more from the void. His helmet wasn't repaired, still showing one of his crimson eyes. There was a distant look in his eye, bloodstains on his lips, blood at the end of his spear. It was done, he succeeded, but he felt no joy. A numbness spread through his body, the creeping realization of what he had done. It's familiar, he's done it before. It disgusts him now. He wanted to throw it all back up.

His grip tightens on the pole of his spear, trying to keep it togther. Just a little longer. Wait a little longer. It'll be over soon. He won't have to think about any of it, or carry this pain anymore.

He stands in front of the debris with blood leaking out from it. His brows furrow. He could still sense that strange feeling from his other. What have they done? His eyes see red glistening on the floor, small bits of the ruby that had shattered. ] . . . [He puts the end of his spear beneath a piece of debris, slowly peeling back the layers.]

[ with each piece of rock pilled back, it won't take long for him to uncover just a pool of blood that what left in place. there are a few pieces of the ruby with no energy left, but they tremble in a way that the source is nearby.

he might see it out the corner of his eye, the world glitching out of focus as though blurred in an area where where a broken piece of building leans, underneath a layer of darkness settles. it's like a complete shadow that phases in and out of the world, white outlines along the quills that static like white noise as the body tries to exist in the world.

two hands lift up to his head, holding at quills to compose himself. he can hear all sorts of things in his head, the way conversations overlap on different frequencies, other topics fade in and out as though it's building new scenarios in his head. it blocks out the real world, creating a somewhat fake world in his own head. as much as it hurts, shadow doesn't move from where he stands.

when he coughs, dry and raspy, blood splatters onto the ground until that begins to glitch itself and disappears out of the world. ]

[Nothing. Concern growing within him. He stands there for a moment, looking around.

...Why is the illusion still up?

He spots it, something, someone struggling to stay in this plane of existence. He teleports to the spot, staring, trying to process what he was looking at. Like watching one of those jackal's failed illusions. The pieces of the ruby he saw around that pool of blood...]

What have you done? [Why? Why couldn't they just sit still?! He sounded pissed, hiding the worry and growing panic as he continues to watch his other struggle to keep their form. The pole of his staff hits the ground as he raises his other hand. The world around them shakes, a feeling of vertigo as it's pulled and twisted, reality shattering. Dark ominous clouds covers the area, objects and landmarks that weren't there before, appearing. The environment no longer looks as it was, returning to that evil domain.

Shadow assumes the appearance of that monster once more, kneeling before his other. Would this domain neutralize the ruby's influence enough for them to hold form? Heal. They need to be healed. A hand reaches, sparking slightly. Will he touch something physical?]

[ what has he done? there's no one to answer that question. coming near him offers the younger hedgehog a sound of white noise, static blurring together, and it blocks out the noise of everything else. conversations overlapped, previous ones, phrases like "who are you" become no more than garbled noises rushed together and said backwards. even music, there's the sound of familiar music that the other would know so well that buzzes from the lifeform unable to hold itself together.

as the new world covers the old, the angel is met with an entity that manages to keep a form within the zone he's brought them in. any emotions that he feels are vacant from the static before him, just words that emit from the creature and nothing else.

the form is still that of a hedgehog, when the other touches at the waves, the body does tremble but the form is physical. perhaps thanks to the domain, or the dna that his other carries. the gashes at his shoulder remain, but it's like the area are pixelated in terms of trying to recreate what should be there. it never does, but from the look of things, it doesn't seem to hurt. no matter how grotesque the creature is before the makeshift illusion, the same hand raises from it, gloves formed to be claws reach out to grab the hand that reaches out to it.

shadow holds, reverberations coursing through the palm of of the illusion like a heartbeat. the illusion pulls the creature closer, bringing it's hand to the fluff of its chest that seems to fade in and out. pulsing. ]

[His mind was trying to complete the gaps in the sea of gargle mess emitting from the other. Because they were not new sounds or words. Like the other was revisiting memories that had become twisted. It doesn't deter him, driving him further to help the other. If they're hearing this too, they must being going through it.

The moment they both touch though, his mind is slammed with new sensations. His wings flutter slightly, eyes widening as a wave of images and more voices hit him, getting louder, flooding him. Place he's been, places he hasn't, places getting jumbled together and creating other realities. He's back on earth with Maria, skating with her while the world burns around them. The arena with that bio lizard-like thing, but it had become this abomination made of GUN agents. The ARK covered in some black substance, the scientists walking around with that larvel creature on their heads. And Maria, her face obscured by one as well, reaching towards him, but that hand turns into claws, Doom's hand-

He drops his spear, pressing the hand against his head. He wanted these horrid images to stop invading his mind, but that would mean letting go of the other. He's felt this before, when his other threw that blade at him. Was that their plan? He could do nothing as the other suddenly grabs his that was on their shoulder. He could only watch, as they pull him in, putting his hand over their small chest.]

[ that's it, that's it. shhh, shhh. it's like a ringing in the other's ears from the mix of noises that emit from the older hedgehog. he may not be entirely here, but in essence, these mixture of things with them touching stem from somewhere. there's a source, it's not like any of these things seen are lies... instead, they're just fragmented and placed together to create something. the phantom ruby has suffered a big hit to its power, it's working with and against the new owner, but whether this is... good or bad, hard to tell. the hand of the hedgehog's flick in and out, disappears for a moment before re-appearing in place. it's something that the other can feel too when the weight of his hand is no longer there, as though it's faded out of existence.

another gentle pull, the hedgehog ushers for the other to come closer. his hand not being enough, it's this gentle touch despite the numbing sensation that'll come if the older hedgehog holds onto one specific area for far too long. those broken memories that force themselves together stitch into an amalgamation of rights and wrongs.

what's worked inside of him comes out wrong in actions.

how the older individual moves to wrap his arms around the other's upper body, pulling his head close to his chest. he can hear a heart beating, the sound of someone screaming between each thump inside of his chest. then there's the sound of something shattering, it must be the crystal breaking down and reforming to find its new, perfect shape. ]

▓▒▓▓...

[ whatever it was, it sounds gentle, maybe some kindness that he has learned from maria, or maybe a mixture of something he shouldn't know. it's too gentle, too kind, reassuring...

stay with me.
stay with me. ]

[He wanted to push them down, the pain to stop. Parts of the distorted space he created, flicker in and out of existence. In the whirlwind of chaos and imagery in his mind, something telling him to get away. Abandon this endeavor before it's too late.

His other remains gentle in their touch and movement though. They were trying to tell him something through all this, pulling him closer. His larger form easily encompassing the other. Stay...? A strong feeling, trying to push through, keep him there. Their heartbeat, other sounds that should not accompany one's heartbeat. Unsettling, worrying.

I'm here.

His tail moves behind him, the tip raising slowly, pointed towards the other. The subconsious still sensing a threat while the main conscious is occupied.]

[ one hand comes to the back of the creature's head, comforting him here as well. was the older hedgehog expecting this, no, he doesn't expect anything anymore rather it allows things to go as it should. ]

▓▒▓▓ ▓▒▓ ▓▒▓▓▓▒▓▓▓▒▓▓▓▒▓▓...

[ the words never come out quite right, but the other should be able to feel what's being asked of him.

stay with me.
we're going to stay together.
it's alright. it's alright.

the looming threat behind isn't part of the older hedgehog's attention. rather, the hedgehog comes closer to the ground, pulling the angel along with it. the younger one should know that the true owner of this body would never, but with the phantom ruby broken, and everything blurred together.

the being only acts like it believe it should. slowly it acclimates with the owner, the older hedgehog leaning into the other, nuzzling into the side of the creature's head. there's the soft sound of a purr which is occasionally interrupted by a crackling sound, and then a frequency change.

... ]

▒▓▓▒▓▒▓▓▒▓

[ forever and ever. ]

[It's all right. He won't be alone anymore...? His center eye, it starts to look around, watching the scene unfold before it. Shadow, tempted by their comforting gestures, their words like a sweet necture. Reaching deep into what he desires. Acceptance.

The affection, them nuzzling against his head. Never had he recieved anything like it before. He wanted more. He leans into it, cooing when the other started purring. Is this what's it like? How things should have been for him?

But it's all wrong. This is incorrect. The center eye stares down at the other. This is...not how it should be. But...why does it matter anymore? He can be happy, because the alterntive is...the red eyes narrow.

It's all a lie.

Like a spear, the tail that had risen from behind struck into the other. Stabbing them through the chest.]

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limiterrings - 2025-04-01 23:00 (UTC) - Expand