*bzt* "Co... I don't like this."

*bt* "Yup. That was some display. But it's not out of bounds. Probably a super like Saladar though, the energy is weird like his. Heh, may have an actual ghost on our hands."

*bbztt* "Oh fuck. Please tell me you're joking. Every time I hear that theory it just gets worse and worse."

*bt* "You'd prefer the alternative?"

*zzzt* "There is no 'alternative' Bethany."

*bt* "S-sorry."

*zzzt* "Huh... It's fine Beth just keep your head in the game and your tech on the point. And stop picking on Nie, we need everyone ready."

*bbztt* "I wasn't psyched out, just... worried."

*zzzt* "Then worry about your approach. Your team is getting passed all of that once the dust settles. When Tlaci makes his move on Saladar."

*bzt* "Please... let him get there..."

Tension was an ire sneering and glaring. A hold on the air by every grip in belated preparation. Impatience and derisive scowls turning from on high. From the titans who shadowed over without rising an inch. Sucking away the sun's warmth without blocking it at all.

Frames bulking nearly as they stood, a horrid expedience only reached because all the power collected together had to do something. Too much for their mundane bodies to hold raw without suffusing and co-opting them to that old threatening image. The only state left before they finally go over and are collapsed in on themselves. Like Para with Resent. But that was too far off, too beyond them. Their patron was piecemeal pentameter failing to hold a tune, and there was no enough metal here to ignite a new star. And yet still they loomed with that tainted superiority. With strength and speed and mass ready to burst. All glares and smiles toothy and covetous want for everything. All of them...

More than due for a toppling.

But Seth's pockets dragged, his pack an anchor wanting to be dropped. His own winnings, his own bet against their claims. They still had to be tallied, marked down and known. So that his place was assured in the brawl to-

"See!! Your champions rise!!"

'Why can't you just shut up and-'

"See the power that Rage bestows upon his faithful!! His ardent!! His sayers of his truth!!"

'I swear to a real god, I'll-'

"See…!! What power truly costs!!"

Seth never skipped a laden down step, but his pace was too slow for even this oncoming clash. The metal heavy and his being feeling the strain of just hating every minute of this. The fighters left standing breaking loose of their awaiting tension, circling up hard and dissuading to any but their peers. As their altar of placed bets was scooped up by disregarding attendants.

'Wait!! I still need to-'

"The storm that surrounds it!! The quake of its arrival!! The fury of its culmination!! And the calamity of its wake!! All that is ignored by those who claim it birthright!!"

Seth tried to kick a gear but only found more burden. Could only add weighty sway to his every plod as that tension returned near enough to the claim. Grips audible, footing grinding, masked looks only a lumen rating off burning as bright as their guiding star. And all but one looking covetous to their fellow gladiators. All… but that contemptable cast iron mask. As he refuted even this ritualistic tenor to bore down on the one he saw as lesser. Right down on Seth.

"Let them feel your surge!!!"

New additions bunched his mass and clanged as he turned.

"Let them rattle in fear!!!"

Sewing themselves even deeper with every breaking degree.

"Let them topple down from the high tower's they hide in!!"

As their gangrenously eyed snarl jerked up into a smile at his prey coming to him.

"And let this final battle bear his truth to the world!! And burn it to the ashes it dared send him to!!!"

As he reared high to beat Seth flat.

"NOW FIGHT FOR IT ALL!!!!"

And received only his just rebuke for ignoring those more his speed!

A fist smashed the side of his head with force enough to rip the air, and ring this start with that cast iron bell of his own making! The circle collapsing and all hell breaking loose! Barrage and cannon fire the only equivalent!

Strikes that could turn flesh to pulp and splatter. Bones to splinter and dust. Booms and clangs as knuckle and knee traded blows. Masks crumpling yet managing to stay, skulls ringing more smoothie than grey matter. Bodies intertwining and tearing each other apart for all the good it did. Blood and sweat in new misting glisten. Vaporizing as hits kept tearing the air at its seams. And the whole arena quaking beneath this show of more robust force.

And sizzling it all away to sand.

The cast iron bastard struck back pure and simple, his assailant wearing the other half of the jaw and neck armor. His fist hitting clean their cheek and rippling that sand to add grit to the breaking atmosphere. Two bulks of muscle and metal collided past them, masks spalling their glacis to friction addled sparks. But each refusing to recoil, even as their legs bulged near to bursting.

Fists hit plates, elbows retaliated against jaws, knees buckled sternums, and shoulders checked the validity of Newtonian laws. A blur swerving between the largest contenders with trained precision. Slamming strikes into joints and joins wherever possible. Bared chest and poorly holding edge marking his intent to stay till his time arrived, yet only making him brighter for his inability to match the titans he challenged. Or something more substantial, as his attempts at toppling them bore fruit and falling bodies writhing in pain they couldn't ignore. Reducing numbers as best he could till the arena was silent. However long that took.

Yet he too ignored, like the rest, the one he should be focused on staying their course. Between those arena shaking beats, those colliding envies and prides. Between the blood and bone blistering to the surface, only to be reeled back and fused closed. Between the hollow crunch and metallic ring. Steps were still taken in even unstoppable turn. The true lord of place making his way unperturbed by its excesses. Because Seth was going to make his bet damnit.

Like waves cresting and crashing against each other, he stayed his course in the storm prophesized. Letting them break, letting their wakes halve and topple. Letting them bare their teeth and claw at each other's claims to his legacy. Watching on as his target inched ever farther out of reach, between mountainous shoulders and those poorly mimicked snouts. Till even he had to slither amidst it all with no care for this contest anymore. Each step an echo and each bound a gulf unfathomable to them all.

Overdrive suppressed but perception taking all away. Turning roiling sea to predictable eddy. As he swirled around bodies near twice him in size, crashing and smashing together for all they wanted out of his name. Blood ripped and sizzled as a plate was torn at. Retaliations ringing as that theft was rebuked like a haunted calliope cracking in half. Breath left lungs between swaying sidesteps, bloodied foam and seethe scratching at its assailant and finding teeth to add to the shower. An errant fist skimmed passed Seth's cheek as his step swerved in force. The tempo was increasing, some catching up with his dance. But none could challenge his place on this sand.

He hated it, boiled in it, reviled the very constant that had made itself known. But still he was the god they sought out. The one to bring them the light of their founding. So he would be the lord of this field till this weight was relieved from his back.

Sand scathed and rippled, blasted and glistened. Metal gonged and cracked and tore at its hosts. Fists fell about in vain attempt. Whole bodies lunging to crush the weakness seen in their stolen power's might. A kick from ahead sailed mere inches from the mask over his face, follow through pressing the attack in agonizing slowness somewhere behind. Only to be intercepted by cast iron ire wanting it all for himself. A whipping arm bashing them aside, armor meeting flesh in squelching menace. Stomping charge highlighting their want so ever clear, but was refused in its absolution by a twist and a step aside.

Their foot screeching passed the bulltrue with a stolen sole, as it dug right to the arena's pan. Momentum redirecting into the light of those locked ahead eyes. Wide arms half armored, snarl just as wide at the finality he though unavoidable. Muscles stripping themselves as he blasted forward with all the want in the world to smash Seth like an unruly piñata. But he'd already proven this battlefield was no place for tunnel vision.

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Tanned arms striped in titanium and Ark metal closed around the cast iron's neck, their own inertia whipping them tight and carrying his head off kilter and off his charge. As knees were buckled and points were pressed. Sending his crashing under someone else's control. Under the League's inside man wrestling him to the ground like an out of control bull.

All obstacles gone, all fighters in the barely kicked up dust of his swaying done-with-this-shit path. Only the unprepared left to his sight. The altar's attendants catching the same glare at their charge with less mitigation. Withering as steps unstoppable continued toward them too burdened to hold grandeur. The stage beyond and the wrinkled bastard atop it disregarded as onlookers to this needed pageantry. This display of refusal to contend till all of his worth was known pure.

Till that judging look down was wiped away.

He had seen his breakdown, his fire being beaten and his will plucked at. Seen what his surge had done, but knew no gravity for its context. Only that Seth's unworthy intent was still persisting in the face of constant faux pas, and drawing nearer its truth to be set down. That altar stopped in its tracks for him to blare it.

For all to see!

As he whipped his taken flannel jack wide, pockets upending into metal cavalcade! Each servo, each sliver, each scrap of his discarded and defiled cocoon! Each pure black shard of Ark metal, each hollowed out joint, even the whole damn plates stuffed in and propped tight! All of it was scooped and snatched as if it couldn't get away from his body faster!

Hands full and then some, bits and bulks spilling from between his fingers as he slammed them down in fistfuls onto that cold waiting stone. All the while his glare failed to hold to anything as he whipped from one burden to the other.

His jacket empty as it was torn away, disguise unnecessary and the freedom all too wanted. As that overweight pack was finally brought to the forefront it demanded. And its struggling contents clanged to the notice of all who dared claim him weak! As its zipper ripped open to the bouquet of metallic obsession all those envious eyes had wanted from him!

More handfuls grabbed with no care for edges or points, for taint or charge, for conduction or old intent still staining their luster! Just pure need to get them where they all could see his truth! As the pile upon that altar rose higher and higher.

Plate after plate after splinter after housing. Titanium and copper molten together. Aluminum and Ark metal shining their own gleams in the sun. Thigh and foot, missing collar and upper back, gauntlet and fingers and toes and rib bones. All of it all that he had reclaimed from those idiotic gangsters playing with power they couldn't even touch! All of it stacked together as a mound and at last seen for all that it was now!

As the last piece was wanting of its freedom even more.

That used up rucksack tossed aside as fodder. The hand seeing it away holding tight to the air, with all sound lost and all eyes on it.

The fighting dying in the display, broken by the all-in call Seth had just made against their own wagers. Fighters eyeing awe and hungry at what had just been put down.

The stands stopped by the sheer weight brought to bear by one who wore none of it, was burdened only by weight of material and not the grace it radiated. All waiting to see it all put to task. See more of their god risen back to them. But would see known!

The stage, that dried up excuse for a manipulative hypocrite, feeling the gravity of what he had wanted. Seeing a truth to his path, but missing one final piece.

As all saw clear he had but one last weight to put atop it. As that hand swung over and clasped itself to the true visage they wanted. That they copied. That they misused and claimed inspiration. Head hung low to let it slide free from his head, arcing its release of so much true connection. As brown hair alteration suited none of the exhilaration exuding off of his sympathetic freedom. Those arcs raking through and whiting it back to his permanent scar.

That hand stretching back out to ring in the next bell of his return upon the cacophony presented for them to see and feel. As the pile was capped with that, his true discarded visage. As his hand pulled away with no intent of taking anything back up and hiding away what he could do. Because too much emotion had come free with this relinquishment.

A bright shining smirk rising up to greet the attendants left to bare this display danger close. As he spoke at last to his self-appointed congregation, and let them know one more regret at their misappropriation. As his own eyes glowed with the true power they envied.

"Now… Let me get the rest."

Frozen eye, frozen intents, frozen melee shattering! As a streak of white and plain clothes shot through them! Sand glassing in sudden onset friction and back blast! As a bulky armored body was singled out and stamped into the far fucking wall!! A wreath of blue surge catching between plates, ravaging taint with panacea of pure unadulterated done with your shit!

Seth was unleashed of his moderation, his need to hold back for them. Their end was here, and it was lightning!

Wall rippled into twisting aerials as the bloated backboard was crushed into it! As his claim disgorged in degaussing design! As the ripping missile that was their true god burst back in! And planted a threaded running shoe right into the side of another awe struck mockery!

Their corrupted form crashing and digging into the sand, straight down to the metal and then some! As entire assemblies parasitizing into their flesh came off like the mesosphere was calling! With all the same flare and impact of what skipped its due! The stadium whole quaking beneath, even as Seth let them come to a sure stop. By bounding right off their head and relocking toward the well thawed fray. That was feeling, too late, the regret in taking on this blasphemy.

One tried to step back up, to counter, to try with all their mistaken might to be right. Swollen muscle lurching around tightly bound girdle and chest plates, yet only seeing the step taken for all its glistening refraction. And all the force imparted into their shins! Arm bar sweeping their angle to complete horizontal, before defeating all that rip-roaring momentum by adding weight and whiplash. Both hands taking a leg and turning every bit of that step into shot put rebuttal. Spinning the first to dare fight back around and around until there was no doubt to the intended conclusion. Since it was written all over Seth's face. In maniacal grin seared across it!

A human firework of cartwheeling bodies exploded as grips released and targets felt knew for themselves. Armor dancing alongside as it sloughed wholesale. Adding chunks to the rain falling around, and stripping away superiority one roided up bulk at a time. Yet still unable to dissuade the truly lost to their own supply. A fist like a battering ram came for that unrestrained grin, more snapping of fear and awe as dogma took more focus. And failed to hold up to the challenge before it. That fist meeting opposite and derailing catastrophic, bones accordion in blood splinter halo. And armor degaussing to deny them so easy a recovery.

A heel whipped round and sent them to contemplate ballistic, because more champions came to defend their pride as his chosen. Only to be denied first hand! Sand glassed by the sheer speed, metal buckled in the aftershocks. Bodies flew as ragdolls to a titan, accoutrement raining down as force over powered corruption. Hits buckled bones and armor alike, false visages shattering or disassembling in complete condemnation. Jaws turned axes to whirl about on, guts crumpled to sandbags unable to keep the first hit. Teeth showering as enamel pentameter, shoulders caved in ax headed vitriol. All until but two were left to know the fury of this truer god than what they fell for.

Well, one of them anyway.

Cast iron and bare chested infiltrator, neither able to find opening or recourse to break from what they now shared in. The cracking air and quaking arena beating against them before either could act in defiance. Till that grin hit them from across the blasted scape with heaps of armor scooped up in his arms. Every plate, every scrap, every sliver of melted metal. All had to be tallied up after all. So all of it was going to be!

Boom after boom hit that duo as pile after pile crashed unto that alter. Stunned faced tracked and failed, could only watch as its burden rose higher. Tumbled down like boulders and teetered with every return trip. The attendants fleeing haphazard to just escape the splash zone. If not the overpressure hitting every spectator. Till none was left but that which gleamed still with taint. And finally drew that ire to bear.

The cast iron braggart suddenly crumpled in buffeting gut shot, halos of condensate shattering off their back. Before swirling in the wake of the ax kick striking him down to the barren metal beneath. Hands tore down as carrion birds from hell, tore armor away in bloody disregard. Splitting purpled flesh in the sheer violence till only that full arm remained. And remained no longer. Bones twisted to sputter as it was rent off whole and whipped away with the rest already where they belong. In the pile of Seth's making unable to be contained. Leaving only that which needed to be shattered.

Shoulder rounded on and kicked up to level. Pained finding-out stage overflowing from that stupid molded mass on his head! The one locked on to with the full burn of that unleashed menace. And smashed to the spalling firing pin of this hallowed howitzer! Blasting this bastard all the way to wall in a glowing wash of shorn apart travesty of metallurgy! So that all left to collect was just that which graced the League's fighter in hiding. Still thinking of trying to stay his place.

Trained movements swamped in that cancerous envy, a perception up to snuff by far from enough. He tried to hook a fist straight through Seth's side, blind spots and steps as deft as Para and Aegis tried to drill in. An unflappable urge to let him strike home and know the regret blared subjective like the rising of a new sun. But he'd go and tattle on him if he let that through. So instead their fist found only air, thin sand found scathing turnabout, and the new hotness found the old overwhelm. As that burn found him the only way he would ever bear witness!

Their shoulder lurched and snapped his stance taught, hands flashing up and tore ribs from his chest. That streak of white whipping about without mercy, as chains and binds and fusing lines were broken in sparking discontent he was too slow to stop. Till a final stunned look, only able to perceive all the pain of that sudden loss, was shot away by a foot denying the last of this infiltrator's stay on his ground. Hurling him passed the completed hoard into the stage's vicinity. Tumbling and heaving under added duress to keep him down. Because this fight was over. Their god now demanded it.

As he rose up from the last of his decrees bearing nothing but the joy of breaking this carnival of bullshit down. But understanding that this was not over by a longshot. That infiltrator, that Tlaci apparently, was just the one to get up close and personal. Ready for when the big show hit. If not be its star. Still one immediate team member out there, Meme something, but she sounded like support rather than up close and personal. Their time table and presence though said plenty, firm confirmation that not all those stunned faces looking down from the stands were here for his words and his blessings. There was still too much of his suit out of play though. So… why not force the end game to come a bit earlier.

His steps were titanic but still just his own. His claim total but only for so long. Seth leaning down and taking that overflowing altar by the sides, tossing back in what had fallen and hoisting it mighty up from its palanquin. Till all nine hundred or so pounds were over his shoulder and the strength displayed truly undeniable. Even as it walked without lurch, toward that awe addled stage.

Honor guard phalanxes pitiful, their own claimed plate shields little more than batteries for their waste of space. That aged leader reeling as the fruits of his ritual advanced on him nearly to his height. A disregard of what little protection he had left in the show. All the way till that altar stomped quakes into the wood by sheer proximity. Forced him back as it refused to relent. Till it slammed down to that high place of authority with just its weight to blame.

As Seth let him have everything.

"You want... to see that light again?"

His voice was unchallenged, the stands utterly frozen and those left below too stopped in their tracks.

"You want this... to be your final reclamation?"

Seth kept a step back from the shadow of his offering, his relinquishing of power for one grand purpose.

"We'll I'd say it's time to prove it."

His eyes finally turned up to that shriveled up blasphemer with only the firm challenge he'd just laid out before him.

"I'd say it's time we put it all back together."

"It's time… to bring him back."

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