Their feet were ankle-deep in a sheet of blood ocean, yellow stars shining against a dull-gray sky overhead.
Somewhere far, into the blurry distance, they could see a gray pillar.
Right over the top of that pillar was a giant, black hole in the sky, a river of blood streaming out, falling into the blood ocean like a bloodfall.
What was this?
Where had they come to?
Why was the bloody liquid under their feet responding to their movements?
Grindelwald and Dumbledore asked these questions to themselves, looking at all the students lying listlessly on the blood sheet as if they were floating.
Whatever happened, had happened just too fast for them to make a sense of it.
Between both of them, there was hardly a magic they hadn't learned or heard of.
But what kind of outrageous magic could shift so many living beings from one place to another?
Suddenly, both supreme wizards also thought of another, but even more terrifying question.
What kind of outrageous magic could replace the world with one of his own?
No matter the nature and number of the questions, none of them could spare another moment for anything else.
High in the air, below the dull-gray sky, the Obscurus was letting out pulses of heat as if it were a black sun.
Suddenly, the sheet of blood ocean began picking up the heat as well.
One after another, students began waking up and started screaming as their bodies got scalded by the liquid.
The real torture was that they had nowhere to go, either. There was no train to climb onto. No trees or boulders. Even the giant, white serpent couldn't be seen anywhere.
As if that wasn't enough, in a matter of moments since they had appeared here, red vapors began rising off the shallow blood ocean.
It wouldn't be long before the entire world began boiling, cooking everyone alive.
Grindelwald and Dumbledore knew the truth about their circumstances as well.
Their only solace was in the falling, black sun, and in knowing that they would be long dead before they could even feel the blood boiling under their feet.
The two old friends looked into each other's eyes and knew this was it.
Soon the Obscurus would fall upon them and burn all and everything to ashes.
If there was a chance for the students to survive this ordeal, then it lay in miracles.
Nothing short of a miracle could contend against the violent, magical might of the Obscurus now.
A Miracle… Grindelwald and Dumbledore thought bitterly, raising their wands.
*
*
-Kekekekeke!- Ayin cackled, her breath hissing and rattling. -You have 30 seconds at best. Keke!-
The Zanpakuto still looked the same.
She was tall, thin, and completely black from head to toe.
Her fingers were long, with sharp, black nails. She had no face, but a plane sheet of blackness.
If there was a color about her other than black, then it was her hair; yellow, reaching to her knees and waving high and mighty without wind.
In front of her stood Black, donning a Yellow Cloak, his feet causing ripples in the sheet of blood ocean with every shift in his posture.
Ayin was right, Black knew.
His buffed Correspondence would have been enough to cast the Reality Marble in the Random World for a few minutes.
However, now that he had brought all the students here, too, he could barely keep it up for 30 seconds.
Kai's grasp over the Limitless Blood Firmament was still not up to par, yet.
He couldn't single out an opponent and bring only him or her here. If it was only Dumbledore and Grindelwald, then he could have brought only them.
But the Obscurus was still high in the sky, making him cast a wide net.
Unfortunately, the students also got caught in that net like stray fish.
Not to mention, Black could feel it in his heart. Something was actively trying to rip the Reality Marble apart from the outside.
Timeline… Black guessed, frowning. With Timeline Detonation, IT shouldn't prevent me from taking such measures. But now IT can't see what's happening to the storyline Characters, too. Even if I were to attack them now, IT wouldn't know. Maybe I don't even have 30 seconds…
Black knew time was of the most essence now.
A bronze helmet and cuirass appeared over him.
The bronze sheen was followed by the two swords - Murasame and Sounga.
A phantom of a black-haired girl appeared in front of him. She gave Black the flattest stare before plunging the blurry, imaginary sword in her hands deep into his heart.
As the dark, cursed ruins spread over him, his black eyes became red.
Those red pupils were surrounded by purple rims, giving him the vilest, demonic appearance.
Things didn't end there, though. Under his feet, within the blood ocean, a giant dragon flew in circles, dancing in twisting motions.
And on top of the Dragonair's Dragon Dance, he buffed himself with Deoxys' Attack Forme, too.
As the blood vapors took over his surroundings, Black let out a rattling breath.
Space hummed and rippled around him. High in the sky, terrifying space tears began appearing one by one as the Timeline forcibly tried to rip apart the Reality Marble to peek inside.
Perhaps, IT didn't want to end the Reality Marble as much as IT wanted to nudge him to hurry it up?
Regardless of the doubt, Black looked up, bringing himself to the Peak. Between him and the sky, the Obscurus became a falling star, burning the very air in its wake.
Black let out a second breath.
Boom!
Heart-palpating red-yellow Reiatsu boomed out of him, becoming a red layer of armor under his Yellow Cloak.
His figure seemed to be burning under materializing Reiatsu, the ends of the red flames taking the shape of dragons.
Black let out the final breath.
Selfless Breathing: First Transformation —
Space cracked under his feet as Black shot himself toward the falling, black sun.
Covered under the dense, Reiatsu flames, his figure blurred as two more heads and four more sword-carrying hands appeared on him.
A red stroke of brush met a black one…
… and the world lost sight under the resulting whiteness.
— Three-Headed Vritra!
Boommmmmmmmmmm!!!
**************
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