Life in Decay

Youka had come out to a location secluded from the rest of the village. It was hidden away allowing him time to himself while Akuoy looked over the village ensuring nothing happened while he was away. The reason he had come here was to see if he could speak with the foul being inside him once more. He had braved the things it was able to do to his body, even if it was beginning to become too much to bare, he hoped speaking to it would somehow alleviate it's pressure even though all he could feel was anger and pain from the being.

Standing by one of the waterfalls he would take a seated position by the side of the pool of water. Focusing on his inner side he would push back all of the stress of the days activities and keep digging to where this being was being held. The further he dug the more the hatred was more apparent, he could feel it lashing out from the void attempting to strangle his presence, pushing him back out of his own mind and into the real world again.

At this point in the real world a brief flux of the bijuu's chakra would escape his body pushing outwards and completely erasing the foliage around him killing everything beneath him. A small veil appeared over his body just for a moment in a darker color of purple rather than the normal red veil that appeared on regular bijuu. The moment it appeared was the same moment it dispersed again leaving his body. As it left Youka's skin was eroding all over eating away at the skin, tissue, and the nerves underneath that.

The bijuu was trying it's best to take this time to kill it's host and escape this body back into the reincarnation cycle. While Youka was inside his own mind attempting to find it he couldn't come back to his body in time to heal himself of the damage that was happening to him. The only thing saving him was his high health fighting back the poison and his abilities to lower some of the damage was done to him. Blood was slowly starting to seep from various orifices of Youka as the decay was rupturing some of his internal organs. His eyes were leaking blood and both ears  had a stream constantly rolling down his cheeks dripping to the ground. Slight spasms started happening over his body as he sat indian style near the water fall the decaying chakra still oozing from his body around him.

Turning back into the confines of his mind, the decent into the madness was at it's apex. He couldn't turn back now even if he wanted to, the beast had barred the way out and was only making it harder to go further down. Finally reaching the beasts own lair Youka couldn't help but notice that everything looked twisted in some way or the other.

What he saw was only describable as a forest of sorts. One of eternal decay and death is what one simply looking at it would be able to see. Nothing here had any other purpose but to die and rot away into nothingness. However to Youka's trained eyes the deeper he walked the more he could see the vibrancy and life in the forest. Sure everything wilted away and decayed to nothing but in the process of death new life was raised up from it's seeds and pollen. The forest was in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, showing that truly you couldn't ever have one without the other. While decay was inherently something we shunned it was a necessary part of growth that everything had to accept. The deeper he walked the more pungent the aroma became however till he was almost choking on the fumes that seemed to be coming from a cauldron behind a giant locked gate of sorts with seals across the entire thing.

Walking towards the gate to inspect it more closely he could have sworn he could feel the presence of eyes on him. However he quickly brushed it off as nothing once he felt the immense chakra coming from the cauldron. It was somehow dark in nature however causing Youka to withdraw a step back ensuring that if he did breath a whiff of whatever it was didn't claim his life. As he did step back a slight gurgled chuckle could be heard from deep within the cage, it sounded almost as if he was being mocked which only served to stir his ire for whatever it was inside of him. He could feel his own anger coming to a boil only for a swift release of wind to flow from the cauldron behind the cage to catch his senses as he inhaled it just briefly.

His entire body completely went numb forcing him to drop to the ground, the feeling of his lungs decaying with each breath he took was not something he ever imagined himself feeling. The pain that he was being subjected to was beyond compare  as each breath became more staggered and shorter than the last causing the once thought immortal to not only panic for once in his life but feel the grasp of mortality wrap around him. It was at this time that the laugh would echo again before words were added to it.

"How are you enjoying my gift to your body foolish one. I assume the constant decay of your skin down to the bone is a most exhilarating feeling. I will admit I had thought you would die the moment I released it within your body, but you didn't, which I do find highly amusing how resilient you are. I've been working on something a little more potent to release on your body, but it seems you've come to me to end your life tonight."

Youka's breathing became much more taxed at this point to the point of him clawing at his throat for relief. It was strange indeed feeling life flee his body so rapidly. Even if it was in his mind he could swear that it was also flowing into him from the real world as well killing his body slowly, forcing him to give up his own life that he strove to maintain. The bijuu amused by his hosts suffering would allow the male to speak briefly stopping the decay from spreading through out the males body.

"Speak."

Gasping for air once the force was released on him he would fall to his knees taking in gulps of air. His mind was reeling as the oxygen made it's way back to his brain allowing clear concise words and thoughts to be spoken. The fraility of his own life quickly coming into play as he finally realized the power this beast had over him while in this domain.

"Why are you doing this to me, what do you gain by killing me slowly? You do understand that we share the same body now right, if I die you too will be sent away with me. There is no after death for you if you kill this body you stu-"

With a snap of the bijuu's sharpened claws the effect of his control came back over Youka's body causing the pain to once more come back to his body as his left lung began to decay all over again forcing the labored breathing to intensify breaking any form of lucidity he was trying to reform.

"Do you truly think that I care about those small details, I welcome death. In death I am reborn stronger than the last time. Just like a tree that has been cut down, it grows back stronger and more durable after each pruning. Decay is immortal, it is ever growing and changing. There is nothing worthy of it, yet it gives it's blessing to all. That is what I do, freeing myself of the confines you have put me in by sealing me here will allow me to once again spread my various pox's once more to test the true grit of this world. So do not perceive to think you can threaten me with your empty words that hold no power here. I've delved into your mind, I've seen what you are and what you think you are capable of."

Pausing for a moment to release Youka from the grip of despair and decay once more the Bijuu would move closer to the cage allowing his body to be seen for the first time to Youka as it's gleaming yellow eyes looked down on him with a sneer on it's face.

"Tell me, do you feel powerful now, are you in control of your own life? Don't worry about answering that, the answer is no. I control your life, I am powerful, you are just a disease and I am your cure. However I am a true pox that has no cure, learn your place just as you have time and time again."

Staring up at the beings body for the first time Youka couldn't help but be in awe and also a sense of dread was also washing over his body as the eyes glared through his mental image causing his body to go cold, or maybe that was just him dying slowly. The being was dark grey in color towering over anything available to be sen in this realm. It had three tentacle like things that looked like they used to be tails somehow disfigured and torn to a more chaotic nature. They hung over his shoulders waving from side to side as his snake like body underneath wrapped around the cauldron as it glowed a bright greenish yellow as fumes continued to flow from it.  Standing slowly to his feet Youka would lean against one of the rotting tree's looking up once more at the being.

"This does leave me in a very awkward place then, if you don't care what happens to me, and I don't want to die I don't know how we can come to an agreement to work out our differences."

Youka would ponder for what seemed like an eternity on something that would appease this beast that wouldn't end with his life being lost to him on this night. Every idea he had led him right back to his lungs being decayed as he was powerless to change it. Once he thought he had a idea his mind would wane and he would forget it's crucial details due to his mentality being drained from continued abuse. That was when it hit him and he knew exactly what it was that he could offer just to save his own life for a bit longer till he could understand this beast just a little better. Through a rasped voice labored and riddled with holes now he would whisper to the being his bargain.

"I offer you my body to test everything you can come up with. Sure you can let me die and release whatever you want on a population, but having a body that can constantly heal and diffuse anything you can give it seems like a challenge to me. To be fair I don't think you can come up with anything that can kill me, this whatever it is that you've started in my body to decay my skin, sure it's painful but I can heal right past it as if it never happened. Is that the best you can do, if so then I've had the cure for you for a very long time now, and your worst doesn't scare me. I think you would have to accept this challenge honestly so you can see for yourself if you can truly make the most effective decaying brews, or if it was just a boast to carry on a fake title you don't deserve."

Finishing his statement Youka once more would fall to the ground flat on his stomach as he looked up at the cage to see if the beast was even acknowledging what was being said to it. He couldn't even begin to try to read it, it had no emotion, just a blank stare that held many mysteries and yet gave no answers. It would slither away back into the recesses of it's cage out of Youka vision.

This was it, this was his end, Youka would die here in this rot garden too just like everything around him. There would be no more story for him, it ended here, what a drag. A stir could be heard within the cage as the bijuu moved deeper and deeper, it did stop to utter a few words and release Youka from the first of its many test to come.

"Interesting, very interesting, very well, I accept your challenge with your life on the line. I will come up with varying new things to try on your body till it finally gives out on you and you collapse in a pile of bones and putrid flesh. You will bare my mark on your flesh as a subordinate should. Your name no longer holds any sway here, it shall be changed to something that means and embodies death and decay. From this point on your name is Mortarion and you shall be a herald of much worse things to come. Now, begone from my realm, I have much to do."

As the words slipped from the beasts mouth a burning sensation appeared on Youka's right breast just above the nipple. It was a very weird mark holding three circles with depictions of things he could not understand in them. Before he could speak another word his mental state was pushed from the realm and into the real world once more. He found that his body had been ravaged just like his mind had, he was no longer in a seated indian position, instead he was laying across the ground his body worn from abuse and everything around him including his pools of blood had now turned and decayed into nothingness, the ground beneath him caving around him as it cracked and turned to dust flying away in the wind.

"That...was too close............."

Exit
TWC 2411
All towards finally mastering the third and final tail of v1 form