Too Dry | Carrla

I turned my gaze upwards, towards the sky. God, why did I love this so much? This mayhem? What was the driving force behind my homicidal urges, my desire to indulge in naught but mindless slaughter? No being simply strived off of a compulsion for no reason. There was always a reason for something; instinct, desire, obligation, but my fragmented memory hardly enabled me to pinpoint what influenced my baseless desires. Every now and then, a pang of regret festered within my gut. I wondered, delving deep into my mind, what was my reason?

I remember...

Did I truly remember, or was I finally going insane?

There were appendages all around me. The stench of blood, tears, sweat and the beginnings of rot were invading my nostrils. When I inhaled, soaking up every ounce of the justified sin, the pungent aroma bloating my immediate vicinity, I could barely decipher my contrition as it was overlapped by my euphoria. It was so long ago, sentience was in my possession, humanity was engraved into my very being. At that time, I resided within a dingy alley in the lonely depths of night. The fresh corpse around me was incapable of being recognized; not even their immediate kin would be capable of it, not even with the most intense scrutiny. The remainder of their existence was haphazardly scattered organs, a torso, and several limbs. I had deposited the head somewhere else.

Even then, I was looking upward.

"Have I done well?"

I laughed lightly, slowly rubbing my hands together, lathering the slick red fluids between my palms and fingers.

"I don't mind this duty, it's an honor, to say the least. I fully accept my role; a utensil, a witness, a vessel, the antigen to cleanse Creation of its failures," I collected some of the blood onto my tongue; it reminded me of rust. "Entrust this to me, for I love all of these creations the most, regardless of their faults, it's my duty, I must liberate of them of their estrangement from You. Alabado sea el Señor, the world will be reborn from the wake of mayhem."
--
"Yes,"

Returning to reality, things weren't so different. The giant worm before us was slaughtering those under my command, and bodies were going which way and which. I felt around for its reiatsu, and it essentially appeared to be a good enough catch to give us an actually challenging fight, even with collaborative efforts to take it down. Even though this could very well destroy more than several homes in this district of my Kingdom, for whatever reason, I seemed to be even more ecstatic than usual, and it was showing on my features as my lips were maintained in a serene smile.

"Achieving the impossible is what forces us into refining our skills. Now, you must follow my lead, Trael, but feel free to act on your own accord when you've developed a feel for this."

As I spoke, the monstrous entity was already beginning to carve a path towards us at startling speeds. Its form did not permit Sonido, but at this rate it was easily rivaling it in terms of sheer speed. It was of a stature and width to easily rip both of us apart with its vicious maw, lined with umpteen rows of jagged teeth, and complete with a translucent tongue. Former thoughts progressively seeping into my mind, I could not help but remark that this was indeed a much more blatant failure than the rest. It showed it outwardly, while most subjects merely contained such ugliness within them, but possessed no contrition for their putrid ways. They merely needed to be freed from such cemented beliefs and tendencies, and killing them was the only method.

So that's what we'd do.

I passed a glance towards Trael. There was supposed to be two Witnesses, right?

As it continued to move towards us, I immediately employed Sonido to vanish from sight, appearing above it. It was then my fist came crashing down on top of its snout, precisely between its black beady eyes. The momentum and forced managed to put an end to its forward momentum, momentarily crushing it into the ground just like a worm. Debris flew which way and which like bullets as a quake rinsed through the ground in a massive radius. Standing atop it, I appeared to be relaxed.

At least until the blow appeared to be virtually ineffective and the creature started lurking, crawling, sliding, whatever, with increased bravado really fast in Trael's direction.

"Heh. This isn't one I can elaborate too much on. You have to recite a certain chant, and you have to dig deep to figure out what that is, and you have to dig deep to call out the rest of your power. This – this isn't an expertise thing, this is instinctual!"

The rumbling itself was a sufficient giveaway, but she was further able to localize its conspicuous presence beneath her by means of pinpointing its reiatsu, unless it was making an effort to conceal it. By no means did Carrla specialize in Sonido, but she possessed an aptitude with it to have a mastery over the basics. Impressive as the beast's speed was, she could scantily elude its would-be decisive strikes. Raw speed was just raw speed; Sonido was an entirely different art, in her honest opinion.

"And you'll need to use your weapon for it–eh?!"

She shoddily managed to avoid the beast as it exploded forth from the depths of the underworld once again. High speed movement lead her rearwards, skidding on thankfully her own two feet. To replenish a sense of balance she clawed at the ground with her left hand, to bring herself to a stop. She managed to evade the boulders, and smaller bits of debris were dealt with accordingly by her Hierro, but now her vision was heavily impaired; and ultimately the worst part was she couldn't see where Trael was, and that elicited concern.

"–Gah!"

When she turned her attention down to her right hand, she realized she was missing about half of it. Shock reduced her initial reaction, but now she needed to chew and gnaw on the soft flesh of her bottom lip to not let out any further demeaning cries of agony. The gravity of the situation became all the more apparent once the true absurd stature of the hulking beast was revealed. She steered her attention up at it with her lone eye, which was laden with anguish.

I could probably kill it if I didn't insist on using my bare hands only, but... Trael needs an example to improve. I will allow this, reluctant as I may be...

"... Fine. Watch closely, Trael..."

A pained motion, but fruitful nonetheless, she lifted her Zanpakuto from its respective sheath on her side. It felt like an eternity since she set her hand onto that ungodly device. The unnerving screech of metal reverberated throughout the area. Crimson energy began to emanate from her, wind and debris kicking up and literally whirling the sandstorm out of existence from the sheer force of her reiatsu alone. Sanguine energy was seeping out from her, bombarding the terrain, and lesser beings were starting to succumb completely to the harsh pressure exerted by her reiatsu. The wind moved with such a velocity the sound it produced was so high pitched and shrill it could disturb the very eardrums of those approximate.

"Crush..."

With the flick of her wrist, she held the blade out before her, pointed towards her foe. Even as her blood dripped to the ground, leaving it slick with red, she couldn't reduce the delighted grin surfacing upon her features.

"CIERVO VOLANTE!!  "

(Ciervo Volante; Spanish language name for " Lucanus cervus," or in English, "Stag Beetle,")

A sudden rush of blood red energy razed the environment around her. Should the beast have been near her, its flesh would have been seared and it would be sent crashing back against the ground for a long distance.

Her form, in the clearing, was progressively revealed. The Beetle Queen was revealed in all of her atrocious glory. A hulking mass of exoskeleton and natural weaponry, alabaster with a trim of crimson, foreboding eyes; a seven foot five, six hundred eighty pound goliath of pure unbridled destruction. A rightful incarnate of death, wordless, imposing, exhaling a bloodlust that was palpable. There was no bloodlust quite as sick, eccentric, palpable, and wrong as hers.

The beast was charging up a Cero before its face as it recuperated, directed towards her, but would also threaten to harm Trael due to its sheer size and power. When it unleashed the cataclysmic column of red, Carrla merely remained put, and most notably, that part of her hand returned. She rose her titanic arms in an X formation before her body. The beam, by no means a Gran Rey Cero – simply a normal one, collided with her guarded being, and in the near aftermath, the plumes of dust and hail of stone diminishing, she was revealed to be unscathed.

Now it was their turn.

Arching back, she let out a boisterous scream, which sounded insectoid and shrill in nature, and caused the terrain to tremble.

There was something imposing about something refraining from budging from its spot as a skyscraper-sized being launched itself in their direction full force. Any man would have surely soiled his pants and faced his immediate doom before inevitably expiring at the maw of the hulking creature.

This Espada merely remained in place, waiting for the being to come in contact with her.

Carrla’s arms elevated from their crossed formation before her densely armoured breast and caught the entity by its mouth as it crashed into her. In lieu of sustaining damage or being pushed back even an inch, the ground behind her splintered and rip-taloned under the collaborative weight and force of the two monstrous beings. The immeasurable strength boasted by the humanoid beetle was demonstrated as she kept its mouth open with her own two bare hands. The strength of her hierro was displayed as the umpteen rows of teeth didn’t appear to be scathing her.

The Espada lifted her foot from the ground, and stomped on its bottom row of fangs, planting its jaw against the ground. The other hand remained in place to keep the roof of its mouth above her; she was using her entire form to keep its mouth open and at bay. With her now liberated left hand she reached out and grabbed the creature’s translucent tongue. The slickness of the saliva provided it with no relief or lubrication to slip its tongue away as she sunk her razor-sharp claws into the tongue itself. The entire area was rinsed with a hideous cry of pain.

She rotated her arm in smooth motions, jumbling the tongue and tying it around her arm. And then with a massive tug utilizing all of her absurd physical strength…

She ripped it out of is mouth entirely.

The thick, elastic structure was likely larger than most houses, which she threw behind her, crushing several stray hollow in the process. It gained newfound strength in its abrupt frenzy as it thrashed about wildly, and she had to Sonido out of its mouth to avoid actually sustaining damage. The creature was enraged, and it this time it looked like it was going after any prey it could, and that prey it started to dart to as it was beginning to swiftly lose blood was Trael.

But, its strength would progressively be sapped away, so perhaps that was the reason why Carrla allowed it to do so. Weakened yet angry, it would be a formidable opponent for the Fraccion.