Ava EQ #13 - Piercing the Heavens

Piercing the Heavens

Medium Quest

Requirements: Must have completed Above the Clouds.

Reward: 2,000 Zeni

You aren’t the only one to set your eyes on the heavenly cloud. And who wouldn’t? Even if its properties are unknown by most mortals, it was created by the gods. Some other worldly creatures are already there, creating some kind of machine to process the giant cloud. Stop them.
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Ava had made it through the dark cloud with relative ease, passing the cold and lightning with the help of her marital arts skills and ingenuity. Sure, she had lost a big chunk of her ki in making that ball but it turned out to be a good move. She hadn’t been hit with one lightning strike due to that ball.

But now she was in bigger trouble. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who had arrived at the Nimbusian Plain.

The place was somewhat strange to say the least. They were high up in the clouds, this she knew. But the clouds up here where more like ground. Solid feeling but candy floss looking, white and fluffy, looking more like the spun sugar treat human loved so much than actual ground.

It was the weirdest thing. Ahead of her, were monsters, terrifying, and huge, heavy set and muscular, weapon wielding monsters of all types, ogres, dragons, elves, trolls, wolf-like human hybrids, humans even. Everything she had never hoped to see but had heard of in human fairy tails. This was the part where she closed her eyes and everything went away and she was warm in her bed back on the ground.

She shut her eyes and began whispering to herself.
“Not werewolves… please not werewolves…” she whispered to herself, hoping it was enough to bring the silver lining into this fairytale nightmare.

She slowly opened her eyes to the inevitable. It was real, and she would have to fight all these monsters to get Nimbus safely out of here.

Paying closer attention, she singled out two groups of fighters. Five winged humans with razor sharp words and blood dripping off the tips of their white wings defending Nimbus, which was surely hidden deep within this strange candyfloss land, the other hideous creatures fighting to get past them.

She looked to her right and saw that there was some kind of machine strapped to a large flying dinosaur’s back. Black clouds were rolling out of the back, melding with the cloud she had just burst through. The thing was making the cloud and threatening Nimbus’ purity and safety.

She had to make one of two choices. She could join the fight with the winged earthlings defending Nimbus, but they might not believe her if she all of a sudden began fighting with them. They might see her as a bigger threat and turn on her.

Or she could destroy the machine and stop the cloud. That would be the easiest way to protect Nimbus now, and besides, they would have to destroy it eventually.

She made her decision. She had to destroy the machine first. She flew over to the dinosaur, which seemed to not know what was going on; he was just being fed in his huge feeding bag and flying behind some monster with a leash.

She gathered some ki from the pool and held up the fingers on her left hand like a blade, and then with a slashing movement, she cut through the leash holding the dinosaur. The monster was too busy fighting to notice as it began to fly off. She aimed a few well positioned ki balls at the machine that was chugging along on the back of the dinosaur. She had to destroy the machine, but not kill the dinosaur. She let off a few ki balls and manipulated them midair as not to hit the dinosaur.

She watched as the balls hit their mark and blew the machine up, sending scrap metal and smoke flying. The dinosaur sped up and flew off disappearing into the cloud, frightened from the blast on its back.

That’s when things got interesting. Ava noticed a lack of clanging metal swords and clubs and a hushed atmosphere behind her. She also had a distinct feeling of being watched. She turned her head slowly and saw that everyone was looking at her. She smiled widely and waved at them. One noticed her tail, wrapped around her waist.

“Hey, it’s a Saiyan…” one said.

Clearly he was too stupid to know the difference between a male and female, by calling her an ‘it’.

The attackers all looked at each other and as if they had all had the same brainstorm, they rushed at her, swinging their swords and spiked clubs at her. She jumped back, avoiding the strikes and seeing a few of the attacker’s weapons hitting each other.

She didn’t know what they had just decided but now, all of a sudden, the ones protecting Nimbus were fighting her too, along side the other monsters.

Without breaking or even stopping to see what damage they had done, they rushed at her again. She realised that she was out numbered, but she also realised that most of these creatures were pretty dumb. Except the ones who were defending Nimbus, they looked pretty smart. She had to convince them that as she was the good guy and not trying to steal Nimbus.

But for now, making fun of the bad guys would suffice. She flew around and around them, speeding up as she went. She watched as they went after her, getting confused and tangeld up with each other. She stopped suddenly and looked at her handy work. All the bad guys were tangeld up and stuck like that. She smiled and put her hands on her hips.

She then turned her attention to the five good guys who were flying behind her. She flew up to where they were standing and she landed on the fluffy cloud in front of them. She saw that they were holding out their swords to her.

“State your name.” one said to her.

“A…Ava.” She stuttered, hearing the monotone voice of what could only be described as a heavenly beast and protector. Male and female in one.

They turned to one another and then they looked at her.
“Your real name.” he asked her again.

She sighed. She hadn’t said her Saiyan name in quiet some time.

“Kusha…” she whispered.

“Kusha, daughter of the Saiyans Zephyr and Aran….” She said, looking at them.

They nodded.

“Betrothed of the Saiyan Kaval, adopted daughter and guardian of Namek.” They said in unison to her.

She nodded. That summed her up, in just a few words. How did they know her without her even saying anything but her name?

They turned to within each other and began speaking amongst themselves.
She could hear them as they whispered their thoughts in the impromptu meeting.

Or was it a judgement?

“She was the one who had bloodlust of late.” One said.

“The one that Earth Guardian Master Kami warned us about.” Another said.

They looked over their shoulders at her as she stood kicking the cloud, interested in seeing the punishment it could take. She looked up and saw them looking at her as they deliberated. She smiled widely and waved at them.

They sighed.

“She seems to have gotten over the bloodlust.” One said.

“Yes, her eyes are no longer red.” Another said.

“She shows very little anger anymore and seems to be in control of her powers now.” one said.

“Um, guys…” she called to them.

They turned and looked at her.

“Kami sent me. To help Nimbus.” Ava said, shyly to them.

They said nothing to her, but went back to their little meeting. She just nodded and looked around awkwardly.

“She died. I sensed that she has passed through King Yemma’s Gate.” One said.

“I do too.” Another shared the same feeling.

They looked at her again.

She nodded to them in agreement, admitting to the fact that she had died.

“And I went to Hell.” She told them and their eyes widened suddenly.

“H… Hell?” One asked her.

She nodded.

“Hell.” She said.

“Then you are evil!” he shouted at her, holding the sword to her neck.

“Perhaps, but if you can assure me that Nimbus is safe in your hands, I will leave.” She said, a sweat dropping running down her face.

They looked at each other and the one who was holding the sword to her neck, removed it.

“You have no desire to steal Nimbus?” he asked her.

“No, I wish only to save him… her… it.” she sighed.

They looked at each other, unsure of her argument. So they decided to test her.

“You must pass five tests.” They all said in unison.

“Fine.” She said, folding her arms over her chest.

“We will choose one monster each from the many that have attacked us and instil them with magical powers. You must defend Nimbus against them.” one said, pointing his sword at the writhing group of monsters behind her.

“Sure, whatever.” She said, nonchalantly.

The first angel picked a monster. A huge grey skinned ogre was drawn from the throng of monsters and floated up to them. The angel held out his hand and placed it on the ogre’s chest, sending golden streaks shooting through his flesh as the power flowed into him. The angel removed his hand and the monster began to squeal and shout in pain and agony as he began to transform in front of them.

His height and sized doubled, making him an even bigger hulking monster. His eyes began to glow red as the power overcame him. Razor sharp bone spikes shot out through his skin from his spine, leaving little streams of blood running down his back, down his legs and dripping off him feet. He stopped shouting suddenly and then the angel smiled. He had complete control over him.

The monster turned to Ava and moved into a fighting position. Ava smiled and took her stance, ready to fight. The monster launched at her fist, showing her one critical weakness in his technique. He didn’t think things through before attacking. She side stepped him as he reached her. She flew up slightly and turned her body, feet facing his back. She rushed down at him, plunging her feet into his back, placing them carefully in between the spikes. Next, she flew back and pummelled him with fast paced and well placed punches. She pushed the monster down into the candyfloss ground and pounded him in deeper, seeing his head disappear into the clouds. She stopped and flew back up, looking at the angel. He nodded. The fight was over and she had passed one test. He held out his hand and pulled the magic out of the ogre. She watched as it phased back into the horrible thing it was.

The next angel picked a goblin. She smiled maybe they were learning from each other. Overwhelming size didn’t work for the last one, so maybe smallness and nimbleness would help with this one. They were purposely trying to make her fail. She wouldn’t.

The goblin floated over to him and the angel placed his hand on his chest. The little goblin lit up with magic. Ava watched as his skin turned to golden scales and his muscles became bigger and more powerful. His eyes glowed green and his tongue slit down the middle, giving him a snakelike tongue. She watched as his teeth sharpened and became white glistening fangs. The angel removed his hand and the monster turned to her.

Unlike the other monster, this one waited for her to make the first move, so she did. She launched at it, aiming a swift kick at it diminutive golden scaled head. She would end this quickly, she thought. The kick landed on the side of the monster’s head, but instead of the goblin recoiling and being thrown back, her leg was launched back away from the head. She felt her leg throbbing as she stood on it again. Those golden scales must be some kind of energy reflecting or absorbing material, she thought. There had to be a soft spot somewhere on his body where the scales had not covered.

As the monster lifted his head back to laugh at her, she saw it. A soft spot under his chin. She smiled and launched herself at it quickly using her speed burst to get there before the monster put up his defences again. She thrust her hand into the soft spot, and grabbed his air pipe firmly in her grasp. He gasped for air and clawed at her arm, ripping up and skin and flesh, leaving blood rivers up and down her arm as it slowly died. She looked at the angel who nodded. She threw the monster at his feet and watched as the angel took his powers back.

She looked at her arm. It was going to be a little harder than she thought due to the wounds. The blood was dripping off her fingertips and landing on the soft, snowy ground.

She watched as the next angel chose his monster. He chose a troll. He was tall and purple skinned with two huge warthog like tusks protruding from his bottom jaw. He had another two tusks, presumably from another troll that he had killed, pierced through his nose. He was wearing talismans and feathers around his neck and an earring of metal beads and feathers hanging from one ear lobe.

She watched as the angel put his hand to his chest. The golden energy flowed into him, making him scream out. Presumably he knew what was happening to him, seeing as he was one of the creatures that had some kind of understanding of magic. She watched as two large bones shot through his skin at his shoulder blades and continued to grow, spiting out more bones as it went. She watched as a skin like membrane dropped down from the bones, forming wings. She watched as he grew a large, long muscular tail through his tail bone.

He breathed in deeply and looked at her with yellow glowing eyes and smiled. He rushed at her, swinging his club that had nails protruding from the bulbous end. She jumped back, avoiding the hit and again as it came back from the other direction. She knew that flying up wouldn’t let her get away from him, but to beat him, she would have to destroy his wings. She held her hands out in front of her, forming ki balls that end of each finger tip. She blasted them off towards him, aiming for his wings, before making more balls and setting them loose.

The angels watched on as her hands become like ki dispensing machine guns, blasting ki balls towards the troll at great speed and accuracy. She looked over at the angel and he nodded. She dropped her hands and the troll fell to his feet, his wings perforated and smoking with many holes in them.

The next angel chose a dragon. It floated closer to him and he placed his hand on the green dragon’s wide scaly chest. Gold light pulsed through the dragon’s veins, crawling deeper and deeper with every heart beat. Ava could literally see the magic beating in his veins until it reached his head. She was then expecting some kind of transformation, giving her some time to catch her breath, but to her surprise, there was no transformation with this monster.

It flew right at her as she gasped, trying to catch her breath and stem the bleeding in her arm. It stopped in front of her and raised itself up, pulling its massive scale covered wings back. With great force, it flapped its wings at her, creating a maelstrom in the air that sucked her back and tossed her around like a rag doll. She hit another cloud that felt, to her newly aching bones, to be comprised of the same stuff the candyfloss land cloud thing was. It looked like cotton wool, but broke bones like steel.

She slid down the side of the cloud, displacing normal clouds as she went and landed at the bottom in a puff of white clouds. She lay there in the clouds, buying herself time. The last time she had faced a dragon, she used her Kamehameha on it. The same thing would work here, in theory.

This dragon was much more powerful, being imbued with the power of angels themselves. She smiled. Luckily she had taken her Kamehameha to the next level. She would have to take the dragon by surprise in order to get a direct hit. She pulled her legs up under her and raised herself up onto her knees, crouching behind the clouds. She heard the dragon come looking for her.

Roaring and ripping at the steel clouds with its razor sharp claws, sending the painful screeching sounds screaming through the air. She caught a glimpse of it and got ready for her attack. She gathered up her ki from her internal pool, pulling the ki toward her palms. It lit up with white light and she began the chant.

“KA…ME…” she said, standing up, getting the attention of the dragon. It roared at her, exposing its ruby red mouth to her.
She drew her hands back to her side and smiled. This was going to be so easy.

“HA…ME…” she said, and the ball in her hand explode in size and tripled.

“HA!” she shouted, thrusting her palms forward and letting off a huge blast towards the dragon’s open mouth.

It hit him and she saw blood and spit and venom flying in all directions. She watched as some of the clear liquid landed on her arm. She didn’t know at this stage or not whether it was venom or spit. She would have to see what was going to happen. She watched as the dragon was blown off his feet and backwards into the sky, disappearing into the clouds. She dropped her hands and looked at the angel, who nodded in approval to her.

“Master Roshi’s Super Kamehameha technique. Well done.” The last angel said to her. She looked at her arm and saw the clear liquid working its way into her arm. She just hoped that it was spit and not venom.

“I’m ready, pick the last monster.” She said to the last angel.

He nodded and pulled one last monster from the throng, nodding to the other to send the rest away. They nodded back and the monster all disappeared into the clouds, their roars and rumbling disappearing into the distance. Ava watched as the last monster floated up to the angel and her blood ran cold.

Having fought the dragons, trolls, ogres and goblins in the past few minutes, she wasn’t shocked to see that the last angel would pick the only monster that hadn’t been picked yet. A werewolf.

During her time on earth, she had learned of some of the human’s myths and legends. The one that scared her the most was definitely a werewolf. Having the raw power, speed and instinct of a wolf, but the intelligence of man, scared her beyond belief. Her only comfort was the fact that if it was full moon, and she was attacked by a werewolf, she could use the Oozaru transformation to save herself, and pick her teeth with a very unlucky werewolf.

But this was different. This werewolf was in full transformation without a full moon anywhere to be seen. She couldn’t rely on her animal form to save her now.

“Please, please pick something else…” she begged the angel.

He looked at her, holding his hand just over the werewolf’s chest. It snapped at his head, just out of reach of his claws.

“Scared of children of the moon?” he asked her. She turned her head away, not willing to admit to him that she was deathly afraid of werewolves.
“Then this should be interesting.” He said, touching the chest to the werewolf.

The light burst through the grey fur and started to change the colour. She watched as it phased from grey to black to translucent and then back to black. The angel set him down and he turned to Ava, his eyes glowing white. His snout rippled up into a snarl and a terrifying growl pieced the air. Her blood ran cold and she felt her legs and muscles freeze up as it strode over to her slowly. Her legs gave way under her and she collapsed, looking into the face of the werewolf as it towered over her. She felt tears running down her face but she was sure she wasn’t crying.

Surely this was the end, and not knowing if she had redeemed herself yet scared her more than the wolf.

The wound on her arm combined with blood loss and the dragon venom that was now coursing through her veins, began to take their effect on her. She could no longer feel her legs or tail and it hung loosely behind her.

She couldn’t fight anymore.

“I can’t fight anymore…” she whispered to the angel, looking down at the ground.
She didn’t know if he would grant her mercy or let the werewolf tear her to shreds.

“Tell me one thing…” she asked, looking up at them from between the werewolf’s legs.

“Have I redeemed myself, or will I go to Hell?” she asked.

They shook their heads.

“You are not pure of heart yet.” One said.

“You will go to hell.” Another said to her.

She frowned, scrunching up her face and began to cry harder.

“After everything… Chiller will have me anyway…” she cried harder, leaning forward into the foetal position and crying into the cloud.

The werewolf kicked out at her, hitting her in the stomach and sending her flying back. She figured it would have fun with her first. She looked up and saw him leaning over her, opening his mouth. He gripped her shoulder in his teeth. She felt the fangs piercing her skin, drawing blood. She cried out in pain as it flung her across the clouds. She rolled to a stop in front of the angels and looked up to see the werewolf advancing on her. She lay her head down in the clouds and prepared herself for what awaited her in hell.

As she prepared herself for the killing blow from the werewolf, she felt nothing but cool air. She looked up and saw that the angel was pulling the power back out of the werewolf. The other angels then made sure that he was away from her and she was safe. One picked her up onto her feet and smiled at her.

“You pass. You are free to proceed.” He said, stepping aside.

She looked around at the other angels and they all nodded in agreement and stepped aside. She began to walk towards the gate they had been protecting. The gate that protected Nimbus.

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END
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Quest Status – completed
WC - 3797