Meetings between gods. (Orgoth)

The sky was dark and overcast, the wind ripping through the leaves of the trees in kurakara town. Up in the sky, A garganta ripped open, and a chariot pulled by black horses roared out of it, tearing across the sky towards the earth. It landed in the open ground overlooking the city and a large man with a thick wooly cloak stepped off it. Arngrim grunted as he touch human soil.

The Cero King looked down towards the city, where the remnants of soul society hid away planning who knows what. Arngrim knew the vizards also resided here, but he wasn't worried. If both leaders showed up, it just made his plan easier. However he was only here to see this new captain commander. He'd met the former gotei leader before.. Needless to say he hadn't been impressed. He did hope this new one was more.

Arngrim took a deep breath and let out all of his spiritual energy at once. The immense power could not be mistaken. The captain commander should know straight away who was calling him. Arngrim Kept it up for a good 30 seconds, then let his power settle back down. And then he waited for the shitstorm.

There was a pale, dark-haired young girl sitting in an office in Karakura Town, in the designated temporary HQ of the remnants of the Gotei 13. This girl was Grainné Xios, the Captain-Commander of the Gotei. She was looking sullenly at a stack of reports from scouts that she had patrolling various areas of the living world. There were reports of the usual small skirmishes with hollow, but nothing major had turned up since the Chicago Incident. But something was brewing, Grainné could feel it. Maybe it was the sour-looking sky, with thick clouds covering every inch of it. Grainné's paintings today reflected the restlessness in her heart. Diath had assured her earlier in the day that it was nothing and she was just worrying too much. Maybe her elder sister was right.

It wasn't to be as straightforward as that however. Grainné had just risen to her feet to go and get some tea, when she felt it. A monstrous power had revealed itself in all of its monstrous monstrosity, just outside the town. Grainné knew, it could only be one being. Arngrim Wolfcloak was here, and he was looking for attention. Grainné knew she had little time before he lost patience and started leveling things, so she grabbed her zanpakuto blade and shot out through the back wall of the office.

Arngrim was waiting for her, just beyond the outskirts of the town. Grainné was not sure why he was here, but whatever the reason, she would not let him harm innocents. "Arngrim." Grainné swiftly took in the appearance of the imposing arrancar. "I do not know why you are here, but you will go no further. You do not intimidate me, and I will do everything in my power to protect this town." She grasped her sword tighter, and awaited his response.

Arngrim spotted the... girl... Before she arrived, though she didn't take long getting there. She adressed him by his name and told him she wasn't afraid, and that she wouldn't allow him to destroy the city. Arngrim frowned. "I'm sorry, I dont think we've met.. Where is the captain commander, little girl." He asked. When she told him she was the captain commander, he laughed heartily.

"You? Your the captain commander. Ha, well the gotei's either fallen so low they put a little girl in charge, or you must be one hell of a monster. I was expecting a man, dont be offended to much." Arngrim said. He chuckled some more then stopped. "I'm not here to kill you or your people, eh name?" He asked. When she answered, he continued. "Ah.. I'm not her to kill you Grainné... I mearly wished to meet the new leader of the gotei and see what your made of. I'm not like the sinner king, I prefere straight up confrontation to sneaking around in the dark, plotting. I want to meet my enemies and get to know them before we try to kill each other."

He looked around. "I'm surprised.. No sign of anyone else.. Where is the Endless leader? Is she to busy to greet a guest? What about your subordinates? Cowering in their hiding spots I guess." Arngrim shrugged. "I challenge you to a freindly contest of battle, Grainné Xios. By my honor I will play no tricks, or attempt to end your life even if the opertunity presents itself. Before we begin, share a drink and see my word held fast." He grabbed a jug of wine and two chalices from the chariot and tossed one to Grainné. He filled her's first, then his own. He drank first to show it wasn't poisoned, but if she refused to drink he would shrug, taking it as an insult.

Grainné was a little bit embarrassed when Arngrim started chuckling about her status as Captain Commander, but she didn't let it show. The last thing she needed was to show any obvious signs of weakness. He certainly talked a big game, but Grainné knew all too well from reading his files the power that this man possessed. However, the fact that Arngrim was here to challenge the Captain Commander and not level Karakura Town was reassuring. The big arrancar was dangerous, but he seemed to possess a sense of honor that Grainné respected.

When Arngrim announced that he was simply challenging her to a straight-up fight, Grainné steeled herself, knowing that this was going to be the hardest fight of her life. He proposed the shared drink to prove his honor, and Grainné caught the chalice and watched as Arngrim filled the two and drank his. Grainné drank her's too, knowing that she could heal any poison that she incurred. However, Arngrim had drank his first, and indeed, his file suggested that poisoning was not his style.

Grainné returned the chalice to its owner. "Very well, I accept your challenge Arngrim. However, I must ask that we move further away from Karakura Town." She brushed her hair behind her ear. "I know you are not familiar with my abilities, but I do know the power that you wield and I do not wish to accidentally catch the town in the crossfire." Grainné took a deep breath, and awaited Arngrim's response.

Arngrim shrugged. "Very well." He said turning and moving towards his chariot. "Either hop on and point, or lead the way." Arngrim said as he prepared to move off. He whipped the reins and the chariot took off going at great speed.

He hopped off when Grainné stopped or told him to stop and put a little distance between. "Go into shikai now if you wish, I'd rather start this fight on even ground with you." He said. After that he drew his weapons, a longsword and war axe.

Arngrim was interested to see her Shikai. This fight wasn't just a game to him really, It was always useful to know what your opponant could do. It made things easier when you decided to try take that person out, though for now he had no intention of trying to kill the captain commander. Arngrim waited, and let her start things off.

Grainné thought of an ideal place for the fight. She got into Arngrim's chariot, with an eye on energy conservation. It would not be prudent to waste energy shunpo-ing when she was about to fight the Espada leader. Grainné took notice of just how big Arngrim was when she was sitting next to him. He's going to make for an extremely tough opponent," she thought, "I might not survive this.". She was a little surprised when she heard Neroamee respond, berating Grainné for her thoughts. "Don't think like that. Just remember the destruction this man has caused. Defeating him today would show him that there is somebody to rival his power." Amee got more and more passionate as she spoke, "We will defeat him, together." Grainné agreed. With Amee and herself fighting together, anything was possible.

They soon arrived at an acceptable location for the fight, a desolate wasteland with no signs of life. Grainné disembarked from the chariot and the two combatants put a bit of distance between each other she did as she was asked, moving into Shikai form. Her sword changed into the lovely blue creation that she loved. Arngrim was letting her make the first move, so she considered her move carefully. Gripping her sword tightly, she used shunpo to approach Arngrim rapidly, forming her air shield as she advanced. She led with a shield bash across the head, then continued with a horizontal slash across the body, finishing by bringing the sword back across at neck height and brought the shield back along with it, back into a defensive position.

Arngrim was again surprised by her speed, but he was no rookie. He seen the shield bash and blocked with his axe. He didn't catch the horizontal slice and it cut through his clothing but just scrapped across his skin harmlessly. Lucky for him the captain commander only possessed amazing speed, and not the strength needed to cut him.

Arngrim blocked the neck strike regardless, she failed to cut him earlier but he didn't want to find out she used a special ability last second, and loose his head. Arngrim smiled. "All done? MY turn!" Arngrim stamped his heel into the ground so hard the earth around it exploded up towards the captain commander. Nothing big, just lots of dirt and stones really. While she was distracted he stepped forward and bullrushed towards her.

If she dodged that he'd spin towards her lashing out with his axe, aiming to get her in the ribs with it. If the bullrush hit or he ended up missing with the axe, Arngrim opened his mouth and let out a roar, with was followed by a blast of energy and fire. It was as strong as a cero but 3 times faster, made specifically to hit fast moving targets.

Grainné had a feeling it would not be as simple as scoring a hit to win. She noted that while she did score a hit, no damage was actually done to Arngrim's body. When Arngrim stomped on the ground she shielded herself with her air shield from the debris, backing away the whole time. Then when Arngrim came ploughing through the dust at her, Grainné dodged to the right. But if it wasn't for her bird-like reflexes, she would have been slaughtered by Arngrim's follow-up attack. The axe came in and Grainné got her air shield up just in time to block the impact, however the force of the attack sent her sliding backwards quite some distance.

Grainné recovered just in time to see Arngrim's roar attack hurtling towards her extremely fast. Thinking quickly, she shouted "Reflect Bounder, go!", forming a shield of energy around her which reflected back the attack, dissipating in the process. If Arngrim either dodged or simply stood his ground, Grainné aimed at his new position and shouted "Hado 89, Masenko, ha!". Raising her hands into the air, she then brought them down and aimed them at the desired spot. A large yellow beam erupted from her hands towards her target.

Arngrim was surprised to see her send his attack back. Arngrin side stepped it and bit his lip, spitting the blood on his sword. As he prepared to fire his gran Rey, he seen Grainné move and prepare an attack of her own. He laughed as he raised his blade and a swirling ball of red energy formed, twisting and buldging with unstable power. He unleashed the gran rey as Grainné fired her own.

The attacks collodied in between them and the ressulting explosion was beyond insane. Angrim was actually thrown backwards by the blast, and sent skidding across the earth. He stabbed his sword into the ground to slow himself and stood up straight. He dusted off his shoulder and used Sonido to moved towards Grainné, hoping to catch her undefended and put an end to the fight, though he wasn't going to kill her.

He was slow though, and closing the distance took a bit. So he started firing off bala like a mounted machine gun on a tank. She was fast but could she dodge them all? He wonded. when he reached her he hacked with the axe, another rising blow aimed for the ribs, and stabbed his sword towards her opposite shoulder. He aimed a kick low to trip her and if she fell, he'd attempt to stomp on her ribs.

Grainné had just gotten off her signature kido when it was countered by Arngrim, causing a massive explosion that blew her off her feet and left a massive crater in the ground. Good thing we had moved away from the town, she thought, that blast would've messed things up good and proper. The dust cleared just as Grainné righted herself in mid-air using her uncanny air abilities.

Good thing too, as Arngrim came charging in, with impressive velocity for such a big man. The the bala started raining in, and Grainné knew she was in the thick of it. Using speed and lightning reflexes, she began to simultaneously dodge and deflect bala as best she could. Several of the attacks barely caught her singeing bits of her clothing and occasionally damaging flesh. When Arngrim finally arrived at her, he opened with a rising attack at her ribs, which she avoided by using a combination of deflecting (she did not have the strength to block a direct blow) and side-stepping. Grainné then rolled into a dodge from the sword thrust by leaning back, Neo-like, to avoid it. She continued her dodge to avoid his trip by flowing seamlessly from the Neo dodge into a backflip, using her speed to increase the distance between them to about 10 meters.

Grainné decided to up the ante, and see what power Arngrim really possessed in the process. "Bankai, Amee-Zaibatsu!" she shouted, initiating her Bankai transformation. Her sword disappeared and a large pair of wings sprouted from her back. Her fingers and toes were replaced with razor-sharp talons that packed much more of a punch than her sword. Then she took aim at the big arrancar and shouted, "Air Blade, go!" Grainné slashed the air three times, sending three powerful slashes made of air, each with the power of a cero at Arngrim, one at waist height, and the others formed an X towards his chest.

Arngrim laughed as she released her Bankai, giving him a clear conscience to enter his ressurection. He didn't do it straight away though, as she'd attacked rapidly after releasing. Arngrim charged cero and shot it into the first attack, blowing the airblade up. The second one he side stepped. The third he let smash home to see what she could do. The force sent him sliding back, and as the dust cleared he looked down to find a large cut across his chest. His hierro had been breached, blood trickled down his clothing as he looked back up.

He knew this would give her hope, hope that he could be cut. And hope would be her downfall. Blood dripped on his sword. Arngrim crossed his weapons and the blood ran down his sword onto his axe, as the drips splashed on the blade, he spoke. "Set the world aflame and darken its sky, Ardientos Neblinas." red grey smoke surged up and twisted around him as his form grew to 10 feet, more than 500lbs of muscle and bone. His face was covered by a mask of white with two slits, he had long horns that curved out and back in. He wore patches of armor and cloth, and had two rings of skulls hanging around his waist. His wound was gone upon release.

A cloak of red grey smoke shrouded his back, with smokey limbs moving around randomly. Anrgim held a massive sword 6 foot long, larger than a man sized greatsword. He held up a hand and a wall of smoke appeared, and a ball beside him. He shot the ball straight at Grainné. Even if it hit, nothing would happen and it would harmlessly passby, but she might not see it come back. As it did arngrim stabbed through the wall of smoke, and the blade emerged from the ball to stab her in the back. With the other arm he fired one of his overpowered cero to distract her.

Grainné's confidence grew when she saw that she had scored a hit and drawn blood. She got ready for her next attack, but stopped dead. Arngrim began his transformation to Resurreccion, growing vastly in both power and sheer size. He was now at least double Grainné's height, and heavily armored. Speed maybe my only hope here,she thought, oh crap. His sword alone was bigger than Grainné, and he became enveloped in smoke. Grainné's eyes widened and she began to tremble.

Grainné saw a wall of smoke form in front of Arngrim, and a small ball of smoke emerged from it and began travelling towards her. At the same time, a ridiculously powerful-looking cero attack flew at her from Arngrim. She saw it and dodged it, her attention on the ball broken for just a moment. As soon as she re-acquired it, she found herself dodging a blade that had emerged from the ball. Grainné backed off from both the ball and the Arngrim. As she backed off she backhanded the smoke ball with her wind shield as hard as she could.

She took a quick survey of the situation. Deciding to test his new defenses, she shouted "Hado 91, Senjū Kōten Taihō!" Seven spears of light appeared around Grainné and as she pointed to Arngrim, they all pelted towards him at high speeds. If they hit something solid, such as the ground of the enemy, the explosion would be exceedingly massive and devastating.

Arngrim redirected the smoke ball as Grainné backed away. He circled it around her and launched a cero into the smoke wall so the cero shot out at grainné's rear right side. That was about the same time she launched hado 91. Arngrim used sonido to move aside but still go caught by the blast which sent him flying.

Arngrim rolled out of the blast and back onto his feet, smoke steaming off him. As it cleared it became clear that he was relativey unharmed, his hierro slightly blackened in places but he'd recieved no cuts. Arngrim looked at grainné and grinned, then his sword burst into flames. Arngrim charged full speed towards Grainné firing more bala with his off hand into the smoke wall. at th same time he moved the ball around at high speeds around grainné so that bala came at her from multiple directions.

As Arngrim closed the distance fully he first launched a wave of fire at Grainné then opened up a barrage of slashes with his sword.

Grainné was focused totally on her attack, and as a result she was rather late to react to smoke ball moving around to her right side. Her attack had just detonated when she sensed an energy signature behind her and she spun-flipped barely out of the way to avoid it. She re-aligned to see the hem of her skirt singeing off. Swishing her hair, she performed a massive backflip to put the smoke ball between her and Arngrim.

"Toukai, Amee-culos Shunoros!" Grainné decided to up the stakes, trying to show that she is willing to stand her ground, whatever the cost. She reverted back to her original appearance; with the exception of her hair, which was now golden, and her bottom half was sheathed in flames.

The smoke ball suddenly started bombarding her with bala. Grainné quickly put up her new Reflect Bounder, protecting her from the bala assault. She then re-acquired Arngrim who had begun to rush her, and spoke the words, "This is the end! By the flames that fuel me, the flames of justice, and the beauty that exists in this world! I shall bring some color to this field of battle! I shall strike you down! MAAAASENKOOOOO, HA!" She raised her hands above her head, and once the incantation was complete, her hands came back down and her palms aimed at the incoming Arrancar Lord released a giant beam of energy. This blast does the equivalent of 2 cero oscuras damage and has a blast radius of roughly 100 yards.

Arngrim found himself in a minor prediciment as his opponant prepared an attack. "Segunda etapa" He said as she spoke the incantation and went into his ressurection. He got smaller and he was covered in thick plates of armor. He now had an axe. Arngrim used smoke phase to move back from Grainné and as she fired an attack he countered with a gran rey.

The balls of energy met in the middle. His was no way strong enough to have them cancel each other out, but it  did set her attack off before it hit him. The explosion left him lying on his back in a crater. He was having trouble remembering exactly how this had occured. Arngrim started to rise, noting the damage to his armor, burnt and charred in places. And despite his hierro, he hurt. 

"Well, i'll give the lass this much, she knows how to blow something to hell." he said as he started walking towards her location. It was likely she'd been caught, but he was about to find out.

The last thing Grainné saw was Arngrim hitting Resurreccion Segunda. Then there was an almighty explosion, as the Cero King detonated her attack prematurely. The explosion was truly spectacular. Grainné was sent flying and hit a cliff-face hard. She awoke to find herself lodged in the wall, her form framed by an outline of rock. She slowly extracted herself from the cliff and picked up her sword. She was pretty much spent. She bent over and put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath, using a combination of her knees and the cliff to hold herself up.

Then Grainné caught sight of him. Arngrim was advancing on her. He looked fairly damaged but his incredible durability meant that he weathered the storm far better. She raised her sword, but her vision was blurring from a combination of fatigue and possible head injuries.

Arngrim found her a little away from where she'd been. She looked greatly weakened by the fight. He could kill her right now. He didn't slow his pace as he continued to advance on her, smoke billowing off of him. He stopped about ten feet from her and raised his axe. It would be hard to see his intentions as his face was masked.

And then he suddenly began to laugh as he let the head of his axe hit the ground. He sealed his segunda and sheathed his weapons. "Well, that was something else lass." he said. Arngrim raised a hand an the  horses of his chariot wondered over. Arngrim pulled a pair of cups and uncorked a jar of water. He filled both cups, put the jar back and offered one to Grainné.

"I enjoyed that, young commander. You fight llke a raging berserker. I've never seen someone risk themselves so much in a battle." he said. he drank his water and offered Grainné some more. "Now that the fun is out of the way, I've got one last thing to discuss before i take my leave and let you rest."

Grainné feared the worst. Arngrim advanced on her, weapon ready. She was suffering from moderate damage and heavy fatigue, so she knew that she was at his mercy. She closed her eyes as Arngrim raised his axe, and waited, holding her breath. Then, she felt his axe hit the ground in front of her, and he began to laugh. Grainné opened her eyes and saw Arngrim return to his normal form, weapons stowed away. She exhaled slowly. Arngrim called his chariot over and offered her a drink again. For some reason she trusted him and she took the drink and drank deeply. She didn't know whether to take his observation, comparing Grainné to a berzerker, as a compliment. But she smiled anyway.

Grainné accepted more water, and was curious about the Arracar King's request. She nodded, and listened intently.

Arngrim nodded and started to speak. "I have no illusions about what I am. I love war. Its in my nature, as a human and an arrancar, war and fighting have been the only things I've known. And I do not regret the things I've done. As you must know, I set that vizard on soul society. It was not to destroy you however. It was a distraction, to keep you off my back while i turned my attention to the human world. It seems my distraction worked a little to well and destroyed your home. Oh,  i don't care about that, your continued distraction has been a benefit. However, Its come to my attention that I may have caused more trouble than I expected." He said. 

Arngrim didn't look one bit remorseful as he spoke. infact he had a smile on his face through the entire thing. "I remember the days of Aizen's rule. It is a shameful time in arrancar history, atleast from my perspective. If Aizen gets free, he will not stop with destroying the shinigami. I have things in this world i cherish too. My throne, and my bloodline. If Aizen gets free they will be at risk. So I want you to send for me. It might be unsavory for you to work along side Arrancar, but I dont think he is someone you or i can beat alone. Make no mistake though, Grainné. We are enemies, I know that, and you should never forget it. This will not end war between us. Though I will make sure you have time to rebuild your home safely."

Gráinne dusted herself off and looked Arngrim in the eyes. She knew that Arngrim was responsible for letting Rena loose on the Soul Society. She also expected the lack of remorse or regret from the Arrancar king. Guilt was not his style. That did not stop her blood boiling as she heard him address the struggles of the Shinigami so casually and dismissively. She wondered if he was simply trying to anger her into another fight, and if so he was getting there. If looks could kill, the Arrancar would be deep-sixed right now.

However, Arngrim did at least acknowledge that his scheme had far more serious consequences than he had hoped for. He also conceded that, if Aizen were to be released - which is certain to happen should their plan fail - then it's not just the Shinigami and the living world that would be under threat. "While I detest the notion of enlisting your help, you do have a point. Very well. I will send for yo, should Aizen be freed. In the mean time, you are also correct in that we are still enemies, And as such, I would recommend that you do not interfere with our attempt to reclaim our lands, until I call for you. Your Espada are few in number currently. An attempt to sabotage us... would be unwise."

"That maybe so, but i still have a few things your unaware of. Regardless, you have my word. I will not attempt to disrupt your attempts at taking your home back, in any way. This I regard as a matter of honor, and without honor, i'm just a rabid beast." He said with a wicked grin. "Good luck in your battle, commander." Arngrim said. He turned and jumped onto his chariot, and ripped open a garganta. "A word of advice, do not go easy on your enemy. The maggots were locked away for a reason, they are not to be trusted. Not every enemy we face in life has honor. Those enemies are without a doubt, the most dangerous." With that Arngrim whipped the reigns and the chariot burst into motion, vanishing into the garganta. Moments later it snapped shut.