God Yet Lives

Noct was laying on the bed while an army of shadow clones, mostly disembodied arms, did all her packing, "I don't think so."

"Okay," Astarte answered flatly before entering the cave and finding a hammock.
I don't want to seem rude, but I don't like the look of these 'hammocks'.

*The next day they get a rude awakening as more heavy-ass feathers are dropped down on them, crushing some of the newly refurbished caves. There is also a large Hollow of some sort swimming through the sand outside the hole, all that can be seen are a few white spikes sticking out of the sand. Senthose calmly walks through the trio's room, straightening the robe over his head.*

S"And that will be the first wave."
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*The next day, Euryale & Noctis were on a plane to their vacation destination which, if memory serves, was the Bahamas.*

"It feels like it's been too long since I was able to wear a bathing suit."

Astarte had been sleeping on the ground underneath the hammock, but had already woken up and drawn her Zanpakuto, "How many of them do you suppose there will be?"

"Which is a shame really," Noctis said, "You look beautiful in one."

--

Mortal gets up and releases as she stretches, "Alright, lets get this over with quickly, I have better things to do with my free time."

Sab woke up with a dainty yawn and a small stretch before releasing as well, "Right, right, I'm awake, teleporting..."

"I know I do."

*She laughs.*

"I'm just kidding, you look gorgeous in yours."
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"Barragan had 6 elite soldiers. Plus I imagine they brought Menos under their control. Astarte, you should take care of the bird."

"I'm glad someone thinks so," Noct said with a bit of flush in her cheeks, "Thank you though, I can't wait to get a bit of a tan, I hate being pale and pasty..."

--

Mortal walked out of the cave to see who was there to fight.

"Okay," Astarte nodded slightly before turning and leaving the cave and using her sonido to place herself in front of the bird. "You are my opponent."

<Ha! The spineless jellyfish isn't willing to fight me himself? Sorry, but you're not really my type.>

*He swings his wings forward, hurling a storm of iron feathers at her.*
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*She steps outside to see a packed crotch in a jock strap in her face. It belongs to a muscular man with thick lips, bushy brown hair, & curled eyelashes.*

<I was hoping for a more beautiful opponent. One I could bear to look at.>
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"Well, I don't want to dissuade you from getting some sun, but I happen to like your skin tone. It's pretty. I think it's what all of those old poems talk about when they mention 'fair skin.'"

Astarte seemed to be torn to shreds by the attack, only to reappear directly above the bird with a charged Cero in her hand.
"You don't have a choice," she said as she fired the Cero.

"You know, I have a bit of a reputation for eating my opponents," Mortal said, standing at her full 6', "You though... you have nothing to worry about. Well, you do, you're going to die, but at least you won't be digested as well."

Sab looked up at the guy, "You're, well, um... okay then."

--

Noct's face tinged pink again, "Thank you, I've never really thought about it that way," She said, "When I was in school they used to make fun of me because of how pale I was."

*The Arrancar blocks with his wings, spiraling towards the earth. He manages to right himself in time to fire a Cero from his mouth at her.*
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<I don't think you'll be saying that after you've seen my Super Duper Ultra Sexy Beautiful Magnificent Sublimely Lovely...Cero.>

*He makes his hands into a heart shape & pushes Mortal back with a Cero. It doesn't do much damage, but whatever is under the ground opens up an enormous mouth full of serrated teeth, aiming to swallow her whole. Senthose finds what looks like hair tied around one of his arms & turns to see an athletic, androgynous man with a long braid & a saber tooth tiger skull on his head. The two teeth fire at him, producing a large explosion of sand.*
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"Kids at school also called me bad names when I started to, well you know, develop. And for my red hair. And my skin, too, come to think of it."

Astarte narrowly avoided the Cero before disappearing. A few moments later, a clone of Astarte appeared to the bird's right and slashed at his neck.

Noct felt kind of bad, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. Though if I went to your school, I'd definitely would have told you how beautiful you are, skin, hair, and, eh, developments."

--

Mortal looks down, "Aliento de fuego." With that, instead of eating Mortal it ate a shit ton of fire. Mortal and Sab appeared behind Charlotte, both of them firing a cero at him.

"No you wouldn't have."

*Noticing Noct's look, she clarified.*

"You would have been too shy. And I wouldn't have said anything to you because I'd be afraid you didn't want to hear it from me."
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*The creature dove back into the sand, with other lines branching off of it. Charlotte pirohetted or however you spell that, narrowly avoiding Ceros & slicing Sab's towards Aroma. Aroma blocks with her own Cero, & is knocked backwards. Before she can get up, the man jumps towards her, aiming to stab at her chest. Nearby, the other Arrancar jumps in the air to avoid a bunch of tentacles.*

Gio Vega<You aren't fooling me, Senthose. I know you only burrowed into the sand to make it look as though you were unharmed. Face it, you can't compete with US anymore, let alone His Majesty Lord Barragan.>
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*The blade pretty much just glanged off of the feathers, which shot from his neck at Astarte from close range.*

The clone was torn to pieces again, and Astarte appeared to be standing about twenty meters away from him with a a blank expression on her face.
It is as I suspected. He is tough, and attacking from close range will be very risky.
"Then I will have to do it again."
Grasping the hilt of her Zanpakuto in one hand and the blade in the other, she drew blood.
"Cry, Amentia."
The Zanpakuto disappeared in an instant and Astarte's body, dress and hair turned pale white. Her arms stretched out to both sides of her body as her hands turned black and bat-like wings burst from her back.
As the transformation finished, Astarte lowered her arms to her sides and locked her blood red eyes onto her opponent's.
Her eyes where now a violent, shocking contrast to the brilliant blue of her previous form.
"Leave now or die!" Astarte hissed, a terrifyingly beautiful smile creeping across her face.

Noctis smiled, "Maybe you're right. I guess we're really lucky how things worked out, that we were able to meet each other the way we did," Noct reached out and held Euryale's hand, "That we were able to be honest with each other. I love you Euryale." She was sure that someone on the flight must have been thinking something about annoyingly talkative lesbians.

--

Sab teleported Mortal in front of the blade, and teleported Aroma the hell out of the way. Mortal extended her arm, and and allowed herself to be stabbed through her hand, when she reached the hilt of his blade she grips his hand and uses scales to lock their arms together. "That was the last mistake you'll ever make," Mortal said, cocking her free arm backwards and stabbing forward with her clawed hand, aiming to put a hole through his chest, and out the back of his shoulder, heart in hand.

Yue is the last to wake but wastes no time jumping into the fray of battle searching for his opponent.

*He grabs her arm.*

<Funny. I was about to say something similar. Albeit with more...grace.>

A"Oh no...Mortal!"

*Several black, thorny tendrils wrap around Mortal, & grow in the area behind them, until Mortal is trapped in darkness. From the outside perspective, they've disappeared into a black thicket. No ray of light nor shred of reitsu leaks out from within. Inside, the man steps back as a large white rose begins to open up above Mortal.*

<This is my most beautiful technique...& also my cruelest. When the last petal opens up on the Rosa Blanca, the white rose, you will meet your end where no one can witness it.>
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<You don't even have a weapon, do you?>

*Gio dashes away from a blast of lightning as Senthose emerges from the sand, lightning-spear in hand.*

<Well...you are a man of many secrets, aren't you?>

*Gio dashes forwards, ducking Senthose's slash & stabbing him in the shoulder.*

<But that's the wrong weapon to fight me with!>

*He kicks Senthose in the back, sending him tumbling across the sand.*

<Its reach makes it awkward to fight at close range. Not that you could counter me at close range either. You're far too slow.>
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*Below Yue, several Hollows burst forthy. They look like elongated ferrets, about 6 feet, with heads like Zabimaru. The first thing they try to do is wrap around his feet & arms.*
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*The bird starts laughing.*

<Now THAT'S the attitude I like to see! Are you pumped!?>
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"I love you too, Noctis."

*Euryale leans forward to kiss her. She can swear she hears someone go, "Awwww."*

"Enchain, Beastia Escarlata!" Yue releases and spins in place sending his energy bindings whipping to bind up the snake ferets before he stops, and detonates the bindings.

"You could say that," Astarte said as she tensed her arms and lightning began to appear on her fingertips.
This is an opponent I will enjoy- somebody I can get to grips with. I will be able to watch his life torn from his body.
On that thought, she unleashed a bombardment of lightning against the bird.
If it had looked into her eyes for a second already, it would see the lightning 3 seconds too late.

*The bird fires a Cero to intercept the lightning.*

<"His feathers are made of metal, so lightning should work"? Please tell me that isn't what you were just thinking!>
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*After that, what's left behind are strips of fur & discarded hollow masks.*

"Interesting. That would suggest those aren't true Hollows, would it not?"

<That's right. Our pet Antlion makes them out of sand. You know. To ensnare his prey.>

*After he says that, the giant set of jaws opens up near Yue. Gio Vega makes a lunge, but is forced to jump back when Senthose's spear suddenly becomes 6, appearing & reappearing around him in distinct locations, with electric energy crackling between them.*

<Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not nice to keep secrets, Senthose?>

Astarte remained in her place and four clones appeared before the bird Arrancar, all of them staring into it's eyes.
"Metal or not, my attacks are six times hotter than the surface of the sun."

Yue's prehensile blades lash out at the thing behind him without his even turning around. For added fun they also explode on contact.

"Wait, so you can't go anywhere while we're in here?" Mortal smiled wickedly, "I take it back, you seem to be full of bad ideas." Mortal released her Segundo Etepa, "In this form, your death is assured, but I'm not just going to cut you down, I would not get anything from that, and I'm supposed to be training." Mortal took her sword and twirled it a few times before sliding into a sheath on her back that was subtly hidden. As she did her back jerked a bit before twelve wings punched through her armor. Mortal peeked back at them, "That's new, two of them are feathered..." Indeed, the top two were feathered, and white, while the rest were webbed and red, "See, I don't use this move because I'm not a fan of my wings," She fluttered them a bit so that she floated, "Sure I'm a bit more mobile, but I just lost my sword, and even if I wanted to punch you to death," She cocked her fist back to show that she'd bump her wings, "See, useless these damn things... But, they have one saving grace, I call it Azazel." The entire time Mortal was talking she had been steadily glowing brighter blue, starting from her feet, and working its way up. "The thing is, it takes forever, and people usually just run away before I can even do anything. But since we're both here, trapped, all I have to do is bet that I can pull this off before that pitiful flower blooms." With that, Mortal takes a defensive stance, though it is decidedly more calm and docile than the poses she usually finds herself in, almost zen.

--

Sab kept trying to teleport in, but just winds up on the other side of of the damn thing, "I can't believe it, that thing is literally tight enough to keep me out."

--

Noctis blushed a bit, and kissed back before resting her head on Euryale's shoulder, everything was right in the world, and she wanted this moment to last forever.