Fog of Zuikkinna Part 3

Fog of Zuikkinna
By Jed Gofourth



Part 3

  Unknown to the wayward travellers something was stirring in the fog.  Something that was slowly waking up and gathering power.  If anyone had bothered to look they would have seen the line of infected blood from Minatsuki's whip evaporate into the ground.  The nanites from Rex's initial impact had also disappeared leaving the footprint craters sterile.  Each time the travellers used a power or ability the entity became more aware of its surroundings and more powerful.  With the addition of the blood the entity gained the ability to think and plan.  A pocket formed far beneath the ground filled with the green mist that permeated the world.  At the center of the pocket a silver and red ball pulsed and writhed, growing slowly but steadily.  It had not consciously gathered the travellers to it but their combined presence in its domain were giving it form.  
  "Okay everyone, I'm not sure what will happen when I do this so you might want to give me some space."  Kisuke said as he pulled a walking stick from his sleeve.  Pulling on the handle he revealed a blade that he pointed towards a patch of empty air.  "Awaken Benehime!" he called to the blade, which transformed in his hand.  Twisting it like he would a key.  "Unlock!" he commanded the empty air and there was a crack of thunder as the air shrieked from the blade like a howl of pain.  For a second a gate seemed to appear but it faded away almost as soon as it became visible.  "Well that was more than I expected." the former shinigami laughed as he shook ice from the end of his blade.  As he placed it back into its sheath it morphed back into its original configuration.  
"I see what you did wrong." an unexpected voice stated in a near monotone.  Kapelteta had been so quiet earlier that when she spoke everyone turned to look at her as if she had suddenly appeared even though she had been standing there the whole time.  She walked over to where the gate had been and scratched a few symbols into the ground with her finger. "Try it now." she said as she brushed a wisp of red hair out of her top-most set of eyes.
Kisuke examined the symbols, tapping his chin with his finger.  "I've never seen symbols like this.  Where did you learn them?"  
"I'm a congenital sorcery addict.  Sorcery is literally in my blood."  she responded, stepping back to watch.  "I would recommend using the command exist instead of unlock."
Kisuke nodded before awakening his zanpakto Benehime, placing it in the imaginary keyhole as he had done earlier.  "Exist!" he commanded as he turned his blade.  Red and green sigils burned from the ground, wrapping around the sword like twin serpents.  He grimaced in pain as the energy coiled around his arm.  A gate started to form, taking shape in the fog.  The gate appeared to be made of bone with red and green veins pulsing on its surface.  A black veined white crust started to form on Kisuke's sword hand as he continued trying to get the gate to open.  The crust had reached his elbow when the gate began to grind open.  As the gate swung open the ground itself rumbled and buckled in places.  A cemetery could be seen on the other side of the gate.  "Well that should hold for a few minutes." he gasped, sheathing his sword.  With some effort he tore the bony crust from his arm and it fizzled and evaporated upon striking the ground.  "Well lets get moving.  This thing won't stay open forever."  
  The entity felt the raw power of the opening gate and fed from the fusion of sorcery and spirit energy given off by the straining zanpakto.  The egg that had formed from the blood began to hatch.  Zuikkinna opened her eyes as the travellers made their exodus from her domain.  She formed a portion of her essence to follow through the gate, connecting her to the new world by the thinnest of filaments as the gate closed once again on her featureless world.  She wasn't about to let such a useful source escape completely.  "This place is boring now." was her first statement.  Her first words in a blank slate of a world.