Lambs to the slaughter [Inverse Sou/Inami Asthavon]

”Thanks but no thanks missy”

The words reached inami’s body at the same time the sound waves impacted its surface. Passing beneath her skin to disturb the insides of her body. Shattering bones, rupturing organs. Infact to those who could be considered human this attack was a near fatal one. Yet, as the pain blossomed in her like an angry hornets nest, causing her body to momentairly spasm in a rare showing of absolutely unimaginable pain.

Yes, that's right, PAIN. After all inami was a being who was able to regenerate nearly anything, but that didn’t mean that the concept of pain was foreign to her. Actually at this point she had a pain going through her that was kindled to the point that if it was even the most seasoned of captains they might find themselves screaming beneath its ravaging effects. Yet Momentarily stunned she might have been, her body was surrounded with enough barriers in this moment that sou even if he exerted his power at it’s complete maximum it’d be able to negate that attack in its entirety a single time. This was an effect of her demon barrier being actively reinforced by zao ka, the demonic barrier became visible, a startling shade of black which cackled menacingly in the air.

Inami slowly looked down now, her hand held own to watch the blackened blood that bubbled up from her lips. Now, it wasn’t to say that her body was in a state of being wrecked completely, that’d be inaccurate. In actuality the wounds described upon her body had been fixed, but the left over blood that was vomited from her mouth was the sign that the attack had actually taken place. Her body seemed to release a series of crunching sounds as bones re aligned themselves, as fractures mended.

As the blood fell from her mouth, it was ignited and the queen of demons seemed to say nothing for a moment. Instead she looked up and watched as the nightmare spoke to her. As he ridiculed her, and told her her statements were false. A very small part of her paid attention to him, while the rest of her watched the blood that previously oozed from her mouth onto her hand prior to vomiting dripped between her fingers. Staining her unblemished skin which normally was the purest of whites a startling shade of black.

The pain caused her to twitch some, nerve endings only now some ten seconds after the rest of the injury had been mended had begun refiring, the pain signals that had been cut off by shattered nerve connections finally had begun to hit the brain. Even as all this pain flooded her mind however, the queens response was to slowly take her bloodied hand and held it out to face the nightmares face, blood dripping down her wrist, slowly moving to pool at her elbow where it dripped towards the ground.

”..It’s the color of sludge. . isn’t it?”

Soft laughter emanated from behind those cherry colored lips, dark and sinister it built up. It started as a whisper, and then a soft snicker, building into a cackle and finally turning into a raucous wail. It was a witches laugh if one ever had to put a name to the ungodly noise that was released from her throat.

So as the pressure and the hostility bore down upon her like an oceanic weight that sought to reduce, defy and otherwise ruin her, the queens state of mind was such that her energy directly smashed down upon sou-yuuki’s. It caused the ground beneath them to be directly incinerated as if a deity had decided to wipe the slate clean. It wasn’t an instance of the earth shattering, or suddenly everything was crushed to dust. Instead it was one second everything was mostly okay, and in the next everything was gone, the earth beneath them in the surrounding mile and a half having been reduced to a smoldering hole in the ground, the queens calamitous energy bearing down on sou-yuuki’s own.

State of mind? The queen hadn’t need for such a thing as a state of calm, or a state of collected composure. No, fuck that! To hell with such a mundane chain to define her~ No, she embraced it, the dissonance within her, the pandemonium, the chaos, the primordial state that resounded within her soul! She was dysnomia! She was the diety of lawlessness. Why would she give a rats ass about the state of her own mind? All she needed to do was be the one who wiped the slate clean, to erase to rebuild to reset the world order to it’s natural state, to release it from the grip of the laws imposed upon it. The heathens that defiled the natural order.

So yes! Her energy directly shredded the adverse affects that bore down upon her, Yet she still hadn’t attacked but rather she responded in a merry tone.

”..You are delight, you truly are~ Has anyone told you that?”

She snickered as she seemed to care less about the fact that the nightmare had blatantly attacked and tried to cause damage to her. She then bat her eyelashes at him as she held a finger to her lips, as if she was being shy. Fidgeting a bit for some added effect before saying in a gentle tone.

”..But don’t do that again, i’ll truly get even next time kaaaaaay?~”

"Tsk."

Inverse Sou clicked his tongue as the pressure that bore down on Inami had suddenly shrunk in radius as if it no longer had intended to crush her and gathered around him, forming a dense layer of pressure in response to Inami's sudden explosive of energy towards him, only to dissipate into nothing and bears no scratch on him. What happened? He simply condensed the pressure he used on Inami into a thick and compact layer of protective barrier around him and proceeds to either repel or shred any energies that bears any hostility against him. Even if it could potentially break through his barrier, the density of his barrier wouldn't take too much time before the energy smashed against him would dissipate into thin air without coming close to his skin.

He sighed a bit and looked her dead in the eye.

"Get even and what?"

The aura around him and the quality of pressure had changed -- he was pissed. Since he retained the memories of the original Sou Yuuki, it meant that he had also gained the battle experiences during the original's journey. The Inverse Sou wasn't afraid to translate all of that experience to his presence as the pressure that bore down on Inami earlier ago had suddenly spiked in quality. It wasn't erratic, wild or an explosive killing intent but became so dense to the point that the air had a change in color - a viscous mixture of black and red. At this point, its purpose wasn't meant to overpower, intimidate or crush Inami with killing intent but to send a message that only screamed: So what?

He wasn't going to be intimidated by her, he thought. His eyes were fearless, not even shaking or alerted by why she did moments ago. It wasn't arrogance or cockiness but he was confident that if they were to go at it seriously, she wouldn't leave without a scratch even with those stubborn regenerative powers.

"Tell me this: what do you hope to gain from this? After all, I have absolutely nothing to lose."

He asked, as he silently stood there with a hand in his pocket.