Ley lines, the breaking of which, had ripped huge, ragged holes in the spiritual veil that covered the Eclipse Valley. It was clear sailing, however, rather than a triumph it was a step into an open mouth. The air was dense and rich with the odour of ozone and something sickly sweet, as rotting nectar. Bizarre, luminescent vegetation was beating to the beat of a falling heart, and long, winding lines of shadow were thrown down.
They were fast, silent--Naruto, Sasuke, Gohan, Sakura, and Raizo,--a spearpoint into the very heart of the realm of the enemy. Patrols, guards were nonexistent. It was only an enormous, cathedral-like cave that was opening to them with its ceiling lost to darkness.
Cell Akatsura floating in the middle, calmly suspended above an enormous and aching ball of condensed Prana--the Genesis Core--was hanging there.
He had sunk into meditation, and with his graceful figure stood motionless. The ouroboros of black around his back was coiled around the helix of his DNA and it had that warm-evil glow. The atmosphere in which he breathed was lisping with the strength of the broken ley lines, which were now violently held stationary by his great energy. He was the cool eye of the tempest which they had caused.
He is not even bothering to notice us, Naruto told himself, his Golden Spiral aura flaring in self-protection.
He is above all that trifle, Sasuke replied, his Ultra Sharingan Instinct searching the cave. In his view he regards us as a variable already taken into consideration.
Then we should alter the formula, Raizo growled and crackled his knuckles.
Just as though on cue, the voice of Cell Akatsura filled the room, but he never moved his lips. It was a sound well given, flowing and harmonious. "The specimens have arrived. The last catalogue may commence.
He didn't rise. He didn't open his eyes. Rather, beginning to emerge, out of the swirling mists of Prana around the Genesis Core, persons came into being. They were Eclipse Beings, but such as they had never met with before. These were not even formless scouts. They were distorted, perfect imitations.
One had a red-orange mane, and had nine flickering tails of twisted power--a burnt parody of Saiya Kurama, with empty eyes full of spit-dipped rage. The other was of the skins of Kurotsuki Shin, the armour of bone, constantly shifting, and dripping with a tar-like material. A third was floating on the liquid, silent majesty of Janebasame, but of blood its ice.
The most scary one was the one that was opposite Sasuke. It put on his face, his armour, and its eyes were as black as dead Sharingan. It was nothing more than a shell of its own, a puppet made out of harvested DNA and stolen method.
An orchestral tune of desperation, made out of self-motives.
Fight your own battles you coward! Naruto screamed, and threw himself at the Kurama-copy.
The fight had been entered into and it was a nightmare. their enemies were aware of every motion of theirs, of their every impulse. Kurama-copy counterattacked Naruto with Feral Prana Roar. The bone-warrior had made a maze of spears and strings which just offset the violent charge of Raizo. The ice-shadow as passed through the Spirit Blade of Gohan blows, and the Sasuke-puppe has just avoided all the blows of the original with a puppet face, in vacant mockery.
They had been battled against their own strong part, their own past. Sakura danced in the middle of the battles, her Healing Palm Drive and ShieldCapsules being the only things that made the sad heroine not face a brutal death. But even her technology was under study, the Eclipse Beings getting accustomed to her obstructions, more rapidly than she could insert them.
It was a standoff to wear them down. To study them. To perfect their own copies.
And then, it happened.
the twin suns of Shinra were high up in the artificial sky of the cavern, and as they started to move, they slid into a glittering, horrible equilibrium with a third dark heavenly body which had made its appearance out of the emptiness. A trinity of complete power was created and a ray of unadulterated black light was thrown down and struck the Genesis Core.
Cell Akatsura's eyes opened.
They were no longer serene. they were as alive as the light of a billion stars, the prismatic rings in them turning with the purpose of the Universe. He gradually reduced his feet to earth, his meditation over.
His physical voice was a beautiful, chilling melody, of which he said: The alignment begins. He did not see them as enemies, but as the parts. Thank God you have made your last donation. Your data is flawless."
Out of the bottom of his spine the Absorption Tail Seal was unaware. It was not one of the actual members, but a bio-organic sigil comprised of light and will. It struck the Core of Genesis.
It was a cataclysmic impact if immediate.
The whole Eclipse Valley turned into a whirlpool. The air even melted into syrup, and then into lead. The golden aura around Naruto flicked like a hurricane candle. The liquid energy was siphoned out, and the flicker of the Majin Blue of the spiked sword of Sasuke. Raizo screamed because the Prana which had sustained his Inner Gates had been torn vilely out of his cells. And the armor of Sakura was ringing out with emergency warnings, and her Synthetic Prana Core was overloading, attempting to fight the drag.
Gohan fell, his models of Chrono Theorem disintegrating in his head. "He's not... just draining us... He is stealing it all... the very liveliness of the valley...
They dropped on their knees and their strength, their will, their life energy itself was ripped out of them and directed into the radiant center and thence to the receptive shape of Cell Akatsura. His body started glowing with an excruciating, flawless light.
He was no longer just a being. He was becoming a principle. A god.
And they in his life were his first sacrament.
End of Act II: Alliances and Betrayals