Knocked off balance by the blast of green light, Jiren stumbled back through the wave, instinctively, throwing his arms in front of him to preempt a counter attack. In his attempts to nullify Ben's transformations, he had simply made them more erratic and harder to read. His foe now possessed all the strength of NRG in more compact, faster form. It could prove to be quite the problematic opponent...
Jiren was used to fighting alongside fast foes, from Dypso to the Master of Ultra Instinct. Even as XLRG shot himself from one side of the room to the next, Jiren still found it in him to follow his movements with his eyes, refusing to leave his defensive stance. The radiation blasts were something else entirely, the first strike tearing through the air and scraping across his cheek, the blast and its subsequent tailwind matching his own dodging speed.
Interesting. He appeared to have become a perfectly balanced being, sharing its own ki between its speed and attack centers... Which, without its suit, would most likely leave it vulnerable defensively. All he had to do wave land one perfect strike.
Throwing his arms to the side, Jiren unleashed two more Justice Flashes, the small army of energy strikes flying from his fingertips to either side of the battlefield. As he commanded his arms to join as one, the two walls of light began to close in, the dozens of Ki blasts honing in toward XLRG from either side. With a mental command, he too sent them off to hone in on the damaged Omnitrix
"Power... FLASH!"
It was high time to see if this strange new form could outrun his own light blasts...
As the waves darkened around him, Jiren felt his body twitch. He had been played. Perhaps it was intentional. Perhaps it wasn't. Yet regardless of his foe's intentions, Jiren found himself separated from his only ally by a sea of blackness, his old friends closing in on her while he writhed. He recognized Schala's shifting energies. She had used an all too similar technique back at Nowhere, only this time, he didn't have a Great Ape to endure the attack for him. Swamped in dark magic, all the Ki signatures of the fight above seemed to change, shifting from screams to whispers.
Even the roars of the magic mines seemed to be lost in the void, fading into the abyss with any words he had tried to call out into the water.
There had to be a way out. All he had to do was focus... It was time for his Limit Break.
Crossing his legs and cupping his hands, Jiren returned to his familiar meditation stance, slowing his perceptions and the detonating mines began to block out the last remnants of light. He endured the pain, forcing the suffering into the darkest corners of his minds and drawing his latent ki inwards. He had endured vacuums before. He had to conserve his energy up until the 11th hour... it was the only way.
In a snap, Jiren opened his eyes, commanding the waves just as he had commanded the winds before. It was all about motion; all about Ki. He simply had to commune with the energies around him and force his own essence outwards into the corporeal world. Nature was in his hands... and soon enough, so would the world. Forcing the waves apart with a thought, Jiren's blazing energies pushed the explosions themselves aside, white and red light surging from his body as the last remnants of the blast were plucked from his skin. For a moment, he felt as if something had shifted inside him, the barriers that had contained his strength breaking away as he willed himself to breathe again.
His Limit Break wouldn't last long. He had to use the power it granted him lightly. Leaping from the parted waves in a flash of light, Jiren soared towards Schala again. His eyes screamed with emptiness and numbness, the chilling focus of his Limit Break forcing all unnecessary thoughts from his spirit. "As long as you have strength..." Jiren spoke back to Schala with her own words "It appears as if we'll have to amend that". Unleashing Kiai shout at point blank range, Jiren spat a wave of force towards his foe with the intention of striking her up into the air for a follow-up flaming kick.
Her attack had truly caught him off guard, forcing him to unleash strength he would rather have preserved for some time. Still... they had saved him from a majority of the blasts... and he would simply have to repay her for the damage the first few mines had dealt him with interest
"Stand Down, Jiren!"
A gloved hand unlike his own caught his ankle mid-strike, holding the Warrior of Justice in place. He locked eyes with the Warrior of Freedom. Toppo stared down his old friend, his own Ki rising.
"Don't think I'll hold back for a moment, Hero" The words were venom in his mouth
"You took that child from us. You stole a boy against his will. You are no hero". Purple and black Ki erupted from his hand as it tightened around Jiren's foot, forcing his jaw to lock down in pain.
"And now... Neither am I"
Jiren launched his free foot from the ground in an effort to strike Toppo between the eyes with another attack designed for Schala, only for it to connect... with Toppo's other hand?
"I've grown, old friend. The Power of Destruction. I won't try to control them anymore. Like I said way back when... It's about survival... Not Justice... Maybe Belmond's might grant me the power the DESTROY YOU!!"
Jiren's eyelids peeled back as he was thrown back across the waters towards Marian, skidding across the rooftop. Impossible... he was being pushed... by Toppo?
"That Dark Energy did more damage that you'd like to admit, Jiren... how would you like some more?"
A Hakai blast erupted from his palms, screaming through the air as a dark moon of strength. Stardust trailed behind the blast, lacing the water with specs of light. Jiren, the sudden strike ending his Limit Trace, felt the delayed pain of Schala's strike sinking in, burning deep into his core. The boost of his Breaker suddenly vanished from his system, throwing his body into a sudden spasm, his weight shifting to his hands and knees. Vulnerable, the blazing Hakai erupted, engulfing Jiren in a wave of purple light.
A weak hand forced the dust from his face. Jiren stared down his foes.
"I underestimated you, Toppo. Are you happy now? Are you Proud of yourself?"
"Pride" Toppo crowed
"Pride is irrelevant. This is about survival. Universal Survival"
Jiren laughed as he rose to his feet again, brushing the ash from his bare chest. Jiren's Ki began to rise again as he prepared for his opponent's next offensive rush, his fists raised to his sides and his neck hunched over.
"Tell me then... Toppo... or Belmond... Or whatever you wish to be called. What are you willing to sacrifice for this world?" He cast his eyes over the Schala
"And what about you? If our multiverse had a twin that embodied all I stand for, and it threatened the creation of your own world, would you be willing to watch it die?"
Jiren slowly drifted through the air, hanging like a blazing marionette, ready to do battle again. Even with his sapped strength, Jiren was as deadly as ever; it had focused him, readying him for anything they were ready to throw at him. He had to protect Marian.
"Would you be willing to endure all the pain that I do? Would you turn on those you love? Kill your own brothers for the name of this words? And even if you did, how would you sleep? Call me evil... call me an 'Evil Doer', a Bastard, A Devil... everything I do in virtue's name..."
The water rippled beneath Jiren's feet, droplets rising from its surface and joining with his aura. He began to snarl and growl like a beast, his muscles expanding and contracting with every passing second. Raging filled his cold, black eyes, fire burning within them again. Tenseness consumed him. Lightning Arched from his system. His power rose.
"All!" Bel-opo boomed
"Strike Jiren, now! He's preparing to unleash his Potential... If we can't stop him now... I don't know what hopes we'll have... Remember... Thanks to Schala, we know of his vulnerability to dark magic... while he's stationary, we still have a chance!"
"No... I must make true on my promises... My sacrifices... for the free world...My...World! Let my potential... run free... For Marian! For the Arrow!"
@Ver @Yun Lee @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Crow @Hahli Nuva @Donder172 @York @Cromartous @Marian-Jiren
