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Viiiiiideo/Action for Genessia City
How is this...
[You know? Being told he was being banished for a few hundred years, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He really expected to be... dead. Really dead. Painfully dead. Or tortured. And dead.
Some combination of the two.
He supposed, grimly, that the Charred Council had just assumed he'd merely been tricked by Abaddon into allowing the End Times to begin early. That the captain of the Hellgaurd had already fallen before this point and the Well Watcher had just been deceived.
He'd say he wasn't that gullible but...
In any case.
This wasn't... what he had expected to see. This wasn't the wasteland he was so sure he'd be thrown into. No desert crafted from the ashes of the dead, no burning city, no massive cemetery.
It was... it was alive, he could scarcely believe it. He'd almost thought perhaps that the hologram in the cave had just been some forgotten technology, there was no way this could happen and yet-
The phone.
Well he'd be a pretty crummy lover of humans if he didn't know what a cell phone was. He really didn't have to ponder too much on how to use it either. Wings awkwardly shifting and fluffing in confusion and silent, frantic hope, he pulled out the device.
He had to see something. He had to know. Standing outside the caves, he evened his voice, prepared his expectations and...]
... Is there anyone else here?
[You know? Being told he was being banished for a few hundred years, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. He really expected to be... dead. Really dead. Painfully dead. Or tortured. And dead.
Some combination of the two.
He supposed, grimly, that the Charred Council had just assumed he'd merely been tricked by Abaddon into allowing the End Times to begin early. That the captain of the Hellgaurd had already fallen before this point and the Well Watcher had just been deceived.
He'd say he wasn't that gullible but...
In any case.
This wasn't... what he had expected to see. This wasn't the wasteland he was so sure he'd be thrown into. No desert crafted from the ashes of the dead, no burning city, no massive cemetery.
It was... it was alive, he could scarcely believe it. He'd almost thought perhaps that the hologram in the cave had just been some forgotten technology, there was no way this could happen and yet-
The phone.
Well he'd be a pretty crummy lover of humans if he didn't know what a cell phone was. He really didn't have to ponder too much on how to use it either. Wings awkwardly shifting and fluffing in confusion and silent, frantic hope, he pulled out the device.
He had to see something. He had to know. Standing outside the caves, he evened his voice, prepared his expectations and...]
... Is there anyone else here?
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[Ah, there he was. He'd never smoke, but he still found it quite fascinating, if not somewhat relaxing, to watch the blowing of those rings.]
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[ He knows for a fact Ukoku uses the trick regularly, if by simply negating the space he wants to occupy at the time. Existence abhors a vacuum, and all that.
The priest blows another ring up at the sky. Nearby, two strange cats bat at each other. One's technically a demon, and one's just... weird.
And, of course, there's the sutra just sitting as serene as could be on his shoulders. ]
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Then again.
Buddhist.
The cats are only regarded for a moment, it's the sutra that draws his attention, the angel's head tilting just a little.
... There was a lot of holy magic in there. A stupidly large amount of it, actually. Abaddon would be yelling something terrible, seeing a human wearing a relic of that power like a shawl.
It just piqued Azrael's curiosity though. It wasn't exactly the same as his own power but-]
May I ask, what is it that you wear on your shoulders?
[He gestured at the sutra pointedly]
I've only felt things like it within Heaven's archives.
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And any other Sanzo here would probably play dumb or just tell Azael that it's none of his business.
Koumyou, though? Former guardian of two of these things? Have another calm-ass smoke ring.
He knows he's got this. ]
I'm not surprised, since that's where it's from. It's the Seiten Sutra. One of the Founding Scriptures of Heaven and Earth, or the 'Sutras from the Dawn of Time', depending on your translation.
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[An eastern piece of divinity. In the end, on the earth he left, all such things were interwoven. As far as Azrael was concerned there really was no 'right' or 'wrong religion.
He had no reason to believe Koumyou wasn't carrying the real thing on any level]
How did you come into the possession of it? What is it doing outside of heaven?
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[ Duh. Koumyou took a final draw from his pipe, then flipped it over in his hand and flicked the hot ash out of the little bowl, blowing a final smoke ring up into the sky as he did so. All elegance, somehow.
It didn't hold much tobacco in one go, that was all. He tucked it back into one of his long white sleeves. ]
'Long ago, Shakyamuni Tathagata spread forth a sutra across the heavens, from which was born existence and void, light and dark. The earth was created thence, where life and death came to be. Shakyamuni tore apart the sutra into five pieces and entrusted its fate into the hands of the people Below.'
[ Have a cheesy grin after the end of that quote. ]
That's what they say, anyway!
[ And every word is true. ]
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The story wasn't so strange either, it all sound pretty in line with the usual creation stories. Nothing weird here.
Other than the fact that a human is wearing a holy artifact that can destroy a city like a fucking pancho. No really, Abaddon would shit a brick.]
How long have you carried this artifact with you?
[Something like that was a prime target to be stolen, either by other humans or by far more powerful, supernatural beasts. If Koumyou had that sutra for any large length of time, it'd be a good indication that he probably fucking knew how to use it.]
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[ There's something about that smile, and those squinty brown eyes...
A twitch of a thought would have the Sutra decimating the whole city, to be certain. It's not Nothingness like Ukoku's Sutra, but the Sun is still pretty good for wrecking some shit. ]
I used to guard two of them! But now my son has the other one. We try to keep them at least a little separate.
[ Having all five in one room would probably end existence, so. ]
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But then, Azrael had insisted he was in no state of mind to have conversations of a more philosophical nature, didn't he?]
What happens if they are brought together?
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[ Koumyou tucked his hands into his opposite sleeves, as serene as the moon. ]
Waking more than one in the same area? We don't know for sure. I never woke both of mine up to find out.
All five? I suppose we can only assume the end of existence. Or maybe the start of another...
[ Is there much difference between the two? Buddhist. ]
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[He's fascinated of course, but he's in no hurry to either end or restart reality.
This would have to remain in the realm of imagination.]
How many of these sutras reside here?
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What a boring man, that raven is. ]
Three.
[ There's no point in being evasive, the guy can clearly sense the power in them and Genessia's a small world. ]
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At the very least he had no interest in taking them. Why would he? He had power of his own, and he never hungered for more.
Understanding them though...]
... I apologize if it is too bold, or offensive to ask.
May I see you demonstrate its power?
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That's not the sort of thing we usually engage in...
[ But Koumyou's never been a usual Sanzo. Not that there really is such a thing. ]
How much would you want to see?
[ Full range? Not gonna happen. Koumyou quite likes this little world that's given him more time with his son, thanks!
But if he just wants to see it stir a bit in its sleep? Maaaybe. ]
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I am not sure what toll it may take on you, if it does at all. Whatever can be done at its most minor level that demonstrates its main functions.
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[ Dude seemed familiar enough with a lot of things, but it bore asking the question. ]
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[Very much so, in another set of words perhaps, but the idea was ever the same]
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[ Light, fire, essentially the sun times infinity. Creation, to the Muten Sutra's death and destruction. But not life, or existence itself...! Because that was the domain of the Uten Sutra. And not the unknown and the infinite; that was the Kouten Sutra. As for evil, and the yin principle, well... that was currently draped over his son's shoulders somewhere else on this world...
It was all very complicated. As one must expect of the thing that had created existence and nothingness and everything between, torn into five pieces and scattered.
Koumyou didn't chant, didn't even take his hands out of his sleeves. The Sutra on his shoulders suddenly went blindingly bright, and searingly hot, and in an instant there was a seemingly infinite number of tendrils of the sanskrit-strewn scroll drifting through the air. Never quite touching Azrael, or the cats (who booked it, immediately), but everything was so bright.
So bright.
How did that quote go?
"If we are blinded by darkness, we are also blinded by light. When too much light falls on everything, a special terror results." That was the Seiten Sutra, just sort of stirring in its slumber at the whim of its bonded guardian. ]
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He didn't even flinch, but watched in no small amount of fascination as the tendrils drifted through the air.
An amazing display, to be sure, any human would have been blinded, but Azrael's whited out eyes never seemed to look away, sure to memorize every moment of what was happening right now, the exact feeling that he received as the lowest levels of the sutra were activated.
No, he'd never ask for anything more powerful now.
Not if this was its lowest.]
... It is...
[Like being in the White City again, for just a moment]
... Beautiful.
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[ Koumyou wasn't squinting any more than he usually did. And always had, even before becoming 'Koumyou Sanzo'. The Sutra's power flowed through him as surely as it flowed through its own tendrils. One did not easily separate a Sutra from its protector, no indeed.
It was no wonder to anyone who understood how these things worked, that Ken'yuu had been truly lost to the dark when he'd taken up the homyo 'Ukoku Sanzo' and become the Muten Sutra's guardian.
As suddenly as it had stirred, the scripture quieted again. Right back to being nothing more, to normal eyes, than a scrawled-on bit of parchment draped over the priest's bony shoulders. ]
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[Former home.]
Thank you for showing it to me. I appreciate your willingness to demonstrate it.