Ynerax, the Nothing (CVnU Outer Worlds Location)

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"There are planets that exist only as residue in the universe."

No Caption Provided

An Unsolvable Anomaly
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Ynerax never understood the concept of life as other planets did. It existed outside the temporal fabric of many stars and star systems, left adrift by the cataclysm of some great creation event left untold. Its bitter harberings of loneliness perhaps gave it the first necessary steps to create life for itself, as many perceive Ynerax as its own organism.

Yet these could merely be the ramblings of old pirates and smugglers traveling the Outer Worlds.

To go to Ynerax is to search for something, to have a dream visit someone in the night and haunt them until the day they either make the dread pilgrimage or step headlong into a grave. It is to know ultimate desire, and ultimate apprehension.

Its species are long dead. Creatures with incomprehensible anatomies, evolved for the long orbit around a central dead star. Their many-limbed bodies constructed the first civilizations on Ynerax and their multifaceted minds were cognisant of the final disaster that claimed their last. It is a secret they took to their unmarked tombs.

The Coming of a Champion

Ynerax suffered in loneliness and contempt for eons after its only species disappeared without a trace. Its silent cries for companionship were answered in a most peculiar way, however.

No Caption Provided

A hero of Earth came, carrying a curious golden jewel. With it, the being could speak and communicate freely with Ynerax. This hero also found it compatible with re-establishing contact with the species it so sorely missed. Its counterparts were not dead, merely forced into extended hibernation - wherein even their minds were locked away, except to the power of the stone the hero commanded.

He alone kept them both safe and allowed Ynerax to achieve contact once more, so that it would not be lonely. That hero called himself 'Champion'.

Ynerax only ever referred to him as 'friend'.

Geology of the Void

Ynerax has similar dimensions to the planet known as Earth, except it is 77% solid ground with the remaining 23% of its land mass dedicated to frozen nitrogen gas at its polar caps. It is far away from its sun, receiving enough light to illuminate the surface for seventeen hours a day but never accumulating enough heat to breach freezing temperatures.

Its defining characteristics are several hundred city-sized temples dotting its surface. These belonged to the Ynerax species long ago, before something drove them underground and into their millennia-long slumber.

OOC:

  • CVnU rules
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Awesome!

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#3  Edited By Thee_Champion
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It had been years since his last outing to the stars. Light years away from the star of his birth - the Sun - Thee Champion raced through the cosmos like a gale force possessed. On Earth, his ears caught the brutal cries of millions of souls screaming in fear. But in space he found peace and freedom from the tyranny of a hero's spirit. It was a small comfort, but one he would enjoy until his return to mankind. Instead, Ynerax awaited him, a planet that presented itself as anything but. He dove into it's atmosphere, and his cape spread wide like the scarlet wings of an angel come bearing hope. For in Thee Champion's hand lay the Mind Lavaliere shielded by a grip that could bend the spines of planets.

The dark matter prison he'd built to protect the gem was too exposed and too distant from the sharp glare of his eye. A gem of such power would be safest with him. So as he descended the frozen sky, the Mind Lavaliere caught the hollow echo of a civilization long asleep. Sweeping his gaze through the land, he found their cities vaguely human in appearance, and entirely alien in the feeling they evoked. But it hardly mattered. He'd been here before, sailed Ynerax's cold skies, and had returned to share it's people's thoughts with a planet imprisoned by loneliness. How typical of Alexis to come to a planet as anomalous as he, a god willed into existence by the divine chorus of random quantum fluctuations. And here, Thee Champion bettered his control over the Mind Lavaliere, to ready himself should he ever need use it for a hero's duty.

So as the gem glimmered in his fist like a newborn sun, he tethered Ynerax's mind to it's people - and listened.

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#4  Edited By Infinitum

@thee_champion:

Thousands of light-years away...

Various illuminations of his great prize loomed out on the distant horizons of the galaxy. Tarvok could follow their existence, augmented by the power of the gauntlet infused to his arm. Slotted into one of the knuckles sat a brilliant crimson gem, one that he knew no to abuse to the greatest extent of his imagination. A Lavaliere, that of Reality, gazed back at him, daring him to indulge in his most dangerous wishes. Yet for now he conserved himself. When all were gathered and placed inside of the Deus Engine, that mysterious artifact he took from Valkna so long ago, only then would he dare.

He tested the jewel mostly out of curiosity, intrigued by its ability to create from nothing. The life-blood of the universe, the very fabric of creation and destruction, was his to toy with as he pleased. He could wipe out civilizations, claim the other Lavalieres just by willing it, or accomplish his most treasured task of systematic genocide. Yet, those were all wishes too dangerous to grant. The Lavaliere grinning back at him with fangs hidden within its flawless facets promised many things. Tarvok would only commit himself to the simplest of them for the moment.

"A ship," he opened his hand and swept it over thin air.

The hazardous atmosphere parted as he did so, succumbing to the will of the Red. Tarvok didn't see anything at first, but he didn't need to. The Lavaliere seemingly took inspiration from his mind, from his connective synapses linking him to the Deus Engine attached to his arm - and therefore, directly to the very core of Reality. Almost as if revealed from a transparent tapestry, the ship came into view: personalized for Tarvok's biology, and for his continuing mission.

He knew the upper limits of the Reality Lavaliere, realizing all too quickly that he could easily undo himself with as much effort as the stone could erase someone else. The Titan of Valkna climbed inside the vessel he only barely conjured and set coordinates to where he could sense the residual energies of his stone's estranged relative: that of Mind.

The craft hovered for but a brief second, its advanced hyperspace drive guiding it forward, and then entirely disappeared.

Though he could not bend Space with Reality, not without endangering himself more than benefiting, it was entirely possible to conjure something else capable of doing so. He reached Ynerax's foreboding atmosphere from which he teleported down. On its surface was the epicenter of the disturbance Tarvok felt. The subzero temperatures were of little inconvenience.

He could already see someone else on the apparently dead world.

"Am I to assume you are the keeper of my Mind Lavaliere?" the Titan spoke, already augmenting himself with the jewel he possessed.

He changed his Reality into one in which his strength and speed matched that of the man in front of him. As far as shielding himself from the Mind Lavaliere, there was no point. It had enough range to sense him coming from the other side of the universe. He would have to make due with quick, momentarily effective telepathic defenses rather than extended slugfests. Even his own colossal psionic power had its limitations.

And, with the matter of illusions, Tarvok would have to deal with them as they came - no matter how many invaded his mind. This he put as his forefront thought, his strongest and most obvious. Perhaps it would work for however long he needed it to.

"It would be rude of me not to thank you, or to ask you your name first."

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"Am I to assume you are the keeper of my Mind Lavaliere?"

No Caption Provided

Above ground, Thee Champion hovered, his face a mask of steel as much as severity as the words of a power hungry despot reached his ears. Arms held at his sides, and his cape changing with the wind, the Miracle Man said nothing. What credence was there to give to the titan? To his word? But the titan was no gnat, no Icarus soaring too close to the Sun. Thee Champion felt the cosmic thrum of the Reality Lavaliere on his skin, and finally cast his eyes to the titan below. And he did so with the golden glow of the Mind Lavaliere in his gaze. Give me the Reality Lavaliere, a voice commanded, echoed by the psychic omnipotence of the Miracle Man's gem of power. Give me the Reality Lavaliere, it repeated, echoing again and again in the ticks between the nanoseconds Alexis' brain processed all thought.

For each nanosecond swept in and out by time, the hammer of psychic infinity thundered against the titan's mind, commanding him to do as Thee Champion - the Mind Lavaliere - ordered.

GIVE ME THE REALITY LAVALIERE.

Now came a chorus, as though all the lightning that had ever crackled in skies human and alien alike were bolts of the Mind Lavaliere's psychic supremacy come crashing against the titan's mind like an Armageddon. Thee Champion would take no chance, not with these ingots that dealt in cosmic infinity. Were they to fall into the hands of lust and greed, so too would the universe. This, he could not allow.

And he would not.

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Infinitum

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#6  Edited By Infinitum

@thee_champion:

Tarvok often sundered worlds with his psionic might. His extensive study into the realm of the telepathic brought him down this path in the first place, and it was here that he would meet with his most prodigious challenges. No longer was he to contend with mere mortals sending their armies, their heroes, against him. No longer would he face psychics only capable of engaging him in short bursts of activity. These were the battles of godlike beings now, and by fate he was chosen to be one of them. He saw it as his great destiny, to be a part of this last war the universe would face.

And he would not surrender that birthright.

The blows were an ocean against him, catching Tarvok's mind as a pebble cast to the endless tides. He swirled and meandered, rocked back and forth, but he did not erode. He did not disappear. The waters ripped and ate away at larger stones, mountains, hidden beneath the waves. A beast lingered in the depths and it was staring beyond him, eager to do away with him entirely. The Titan weathered the nanoseconds as if they were millennia, absorbing the destruction wrought around him. His Reality was gaining steam in the unremitting storm. He was focused, independent from the apocalypse raging around him.

No Caption Provided

He stayed true to his image of an ideal situation, even as the omnipresent weight of universal dread collapsed in around him. Though he would never be able to avoid the entirety of the Mind Lavaliere's assault, he could endure small parts of it at a time. Soon he would be a colossal spire of bedrock in that endless hurricane.

The Mind Lavaliere had with it an enormous aura of power, seeking to overwhelm him all at once. He could not change that, not without that precious stone itself. But he could alter how he perceived that onslaught - and that kept him from succumbing to the demand to surrender. Almost decreasing the 'surface area' of his presence in the psychic field of battle, down to that of a pebble in an ocean.

He would be tossed. He would be turned. But he would not erode. And he would be able to build himself back up from the chaos. That was his Reality, not altering what the Mind Lavaliere did - but altering what he meant to the golden jewel. For now at least. This was the inevitable cycle of mental battle against the omnipotent: not full-on crusading against their wills, but adapting oneself to endure small parts of it at a time. Even Tarvok would have been overwhelmed entirely if he chose to combat the Mind Lavaliere by using a storm against a storm. That is why he chose to hide in the closest thing to plain sight a psychic could perceive. It wasn't a perfect plan, not by any means.

But each nanosecond the Self-Proclaimed Savior spent demanding of Tarvok, was a nanosecond Tarvok spent fortifying his denial against him. He built himself up from the utter devastation the initial psychic barrage caused, no matter how well he 'evaded', and moved forward - stumbling at first. Air bubbles were forming in his veins, but a simple flicker of scarlet from his gauntlet sent them away harmlessly.

The blood-red stone embedded within his gauntlet, the Deus Engine, was glowing an overpowering crimson. It hungered to be unleashed, but Tarvok decided to only use it in small increments for now. Even in the wake of the tsunami, he couldn't afford to release anything past that.

"Down."

Ynerax shifted and changed, bending to the will of the Reality Tarvok was weaving. His Lavaliere awakened if only for a brief second, increasing his rival's gravitational pull to the planet by an impossibly unbearable degree - though no harm would come to Ynerax itself, more an anvil to the hammer. Should the Mind-Bearer be knocked out of the sky, then the Titan would proceed. Even if he would not be dethroned from the floating pedestal, Tarvok had his plans and plots. Nothing could be hidden from the Mind Lavaliere, but nothing could be adapted away from that of Reality.

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Thee_Champion

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#7  Edited By Thee_Champion

@infinitum:

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The Mind Lavaliere glowed gold and roared a psychic command unrivaled in the cosmic strata. And yet, it failed. The legend built from the back of it's telepathic omnipotence - was false. Or perhaps, so anomalous and powerful was this menace that his mind was governed by laws foreign to this universe. Thee Champion could only wonder as the unseen hand of gravity grabbed hold of his ankle. He fell like an eagle with broken wings, but crashed like a jet spun out of flight. The ground thundered and cracked, dust climbed to the sky as pillars eager to blot out the sun, and try as they might, Thee Champion's steel muscles failed to break the Reality Lavaliere's gravitational tug. He was chained to the ground.

And the sky was no longer his to rule.

Doesn't matter, his mind dismissed. He need not fly. Instead, he - a giant toppled from the heavens - rose to his feet and met eyes with the tyrant before him. Unbeknownst to Alexis, the titan had called forth the Reality Lavaliere's power to match what even Mercury and Hercules envied of him - his speed and strength. But unbeknownst to the titan, Thee Champion's belt was a miracle of science a millennia ahead. A miracle that calculates the potential and unused data in the processor of the universe. A universe that forbids speed greater than light. A universe that chained Alexis to the kindest value it allowed; 99.9% of light. A universe that his belt - a space-time processor - however, could cheat. And cheat it - it did. It calculated data untouched but there, and lifted his processing speed in reality. With the belt, Thee Champion could move faster than the photons bouncing off him to reach the titan's eyes. Faster than light and thus past the speed barrier where time itself slowed to a stop. And against a stone that bent reality, that had ripped out his wings, he'd take no chances. He had to act before any more could be done.

So, Thee Champion moved, with speed so great he raced past frozen time to violate causality and dive into negative time to accomplish what a faster-than-light man could; move before he moved. And thus, race to the titan and remove from his hand the Deus Engine and Reality Lavaliere - before ever even taking a step. It was a violation of causality, to do something before doing it. So should victory be his, there Thee Champion'd stand, with both gems of power in his grasp, and the Deus Engine crushed under his boot.

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#8  Edited By Infinitum

@thee_champion:

Tarvok knew better than to approach the monster with broken wings. Cornered, a beast was still a beast. The wielder of the Mind Lavaliere would have plenty of tricks in store for the Titan. There was a flash of scarlet on Tarvok's gauntlet - he was ready.

Though, perhaps not as ready as he would have liked to be. His sense of danger alerted him only after the fact, something he wasn't prepared for.

He heard many stories of the heroes of Earth, how their miraculous capability to adapt often surpassed all other limitations. With their backs to the wall, the innovations they conceived of rivaled more advanced civilizations - a spark of cosmic ingenuity.

Tarvok couldn't see whether or not the Mind Lavaliere was being used. He couldn't even sense it between the moment his fated enemy crashed to the ground and when he stood over the shattered Deus Engine. Tarvok caught his gaze, looking into the burning hot eyes of his conqueror - the despoiler of tyrants the universe over, himself included.

This, then... must be Thee Champion.

He held up his hands in surrender.

Tarvok didn't lessen his smile, perhaps humbled - or even jealous of his defeat. No sooner did he yield, then there was a blink of crimson from his knuckle. The same one that the Reality Lavaliere rested on before.

In that brief second of intrigue, that infinitely small window of opportunity, he struck. Thee Champion had not altered his speed, or strength, but more importantly Tarvok still had access to his Psionic Magic. Any shred of technology Tarvok could immediately see that gave his enemy such an advantage again, he would try to disable with various coils of energy usually dedicated to erasing planets or contesting the existence of stars. These manifested all in that brief chance he had, wound up tightly into spikes in order to increase their effectiveness by order of magnitude.

Tarvok had laid a trap for Thee Champion, knowing his gauntlet to be a priority target above any other part of his body. A swift decapitation? Perhaps, but too risky with the laws of the jewel. Neither was it in any heroic swagger to do so.

It was a gamble, one that Tarvok took into consideration coming here, but it paid off - now was his only chance to seize both gems at once! Though, his grip was effectively tighter on the jewel he had once possessed.

His first move was to wrestle for control of them with Thee Champion, imparting his will using the Lavalieres as conduits into their continuing struggle. They would only listen to the wielder with the mightiest desire to use them.

Only then did the Titan continue his assault.

Wordlessly he used the speed he manufactured from copying the Reality of Thee Champion's physical stats, pounding forward to the beat of the war drum pulsating in his chest. Blow for blow he could have shattered this planet apart all at once without trying. The sheer scale of power was intoxicating.

Smashing kicks and knees into pressure points, throwing the weight of compounded stars into key organs, Tarvok meant to dissect Thee Champion with surgical precision. This wouldn't come without its consequences however, as the Titan was now in range of his rival's own 'killing blows'.

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The power to rule minds sat in one hand - his right - and the power to bend reality in another - his left. Both Lavalieres, were now his, and Thee Champion couldn't help but surrender to the fear of what the titan - what anyone - could and would do with such power. But where pathologies'd rage in the mind of man, resolve and steel sat firm in Thee Champion's. The air came sweeping in a breeze, and Alexis' cape fluttered with it's whistle. Thee Champion locked eyes with the titan, and caught the white of his grin. Energies psychic and arcane flowed from the titan and roared past the wards Alexis' suit raised to silence enemy magic and psionics - and made dust of his belt. His space-time processor was no more and the danger of the titan's psychic wizardry sat heavy in his mind.

His grip on the gems held, but the psychic storm flung him across a battlefield it tore apart. Bone and muscle cried out in pain, and so too did his mind. Thee Champion had never felt a psychic sting so sharp as to stab him as knives did human flesh.

Enough.

Glancing at the first twitch of the titan's muscle fibers, Alexis countered his charge of will and brawn with a flash of electromagnetic energy; high-intensity gamma ray beams. They tore the air asunder at the speed of light and roared a thermonuclear blast that'd swallow the titan whole as he drew near - one for every step he dared take, to intercept him like jabs thrown at the speed of light. All in a scorching bid to halt the titan's mad rush, even if only for three nanoseconds. And if he earned himself that precious time, Thee Champion'd regain his flight back from the Reality Lavaliere, strip the titan of all psychic wizardry, and take to the skies.

A wounded bird, injured in bone and muscle, bird in flight once again.

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#10  Edited By Infinitum

@thee_champion:

Keep on him.

Damage him.

Tarvok raged forward, a nanosecond ticking by on the wings of his augmented physicality. He had no time to think. No time to understand what was happening, merely do it and be done. All instinct went to powering through the vital separation of time and flesh. Thee Champion created distance, Tarvok's worst enemy now. What's worse is that when the Titan caught sight of his rival's eyes again, they were burning. Something came out of them, pure and hot and catastrophic. An energy not unlike an exploding world, or the death throes of a star. But he understood energies such as this and manipulated them to his benefit before.

The symbol of radioactive decay, an atomic death shroud, never came to pass. Psy-Leeching away the energy as it came, Tarvok hardly lost momentum. In fact, he converted what he took in order to move faster. Not nearly to the extent of Thee Champion's own negative causality, but something close.

Another nanosecond, two now passing in total, and their grapple continued in earnest. Thee Champion had not yet earned his peace, nor supreme command of the jewels. The Titan's eyes had just begun to flicker, the basic shapes of altered light simmering beyond them. With his contest for the Lavalieres in full swing again he would give Thee Champion a further mental rattling as he pulled his head back and sent it forward using that slight boost to speed from the harvested eye-based energy.

He could think clearly once more.

In order to fully clip his rival's wings, Tarvok's mind conjured a prison for him. All in an instant, as the nanoseconds ticked up to three and their duel for the Lavalieres continued, the psionic cell would manifest around Thee Champion. It would sever his escape by the wrists of his hands and force him into an extremely painful, torturous kneeling position from all directions through the sheer weight of Tarvok's overwhelming telekinetic sorcery.

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#11  Edited By Thee_Champion

@infinitum:

The heat rose like a wave, setting alight a thermonuclear blaze to a planet once frozen. And yet, the heat passed as it was swallowed whole by a titan made ravenous by power. With his might and speed pooled, the titan thundered forward to crash his skull into Thee Champion's. Perhaps therein lay the titan's mistake. He'd mimicked the strength and speed that the Miracle Man used to better Mercury and Hercules - but not his durability. The durability needed for one's bones to not shatter under the stresses of planetary weight, the durability needed by the organs to fight the tyranny of inertia and not liquefy through the pores when the body races near light. And the durability the titan's skull and brain'd need to not explode on impact with Miracle Man's skull. The durability it didn't and never had.

Still the impact quaked like the crust of a maddened star, and again Thee Champion barreled through the air in a glimmering cone of red. The blood trickling from his nose sparked like fireworks, and the shattered cartilage crumpled like paper. The pain swarmed hot through his face, and Alexis answered his agony with a growl. How mortifying, for a god to echo an animal's cry. He spun like a gale, and landed. His cape calmed but the titan - had he not perished - charged, faster than before, his eyes more smoldering pits than organs of sight. It was an omen, decreed by fate as a telekinetic grip dug into his joints and demanded that he bend his knees. They buckled, and his grip on both stones loosened. And as the weight of weakness of fell heavy on his brow, his gaze glimpsed at what loomed ahead; victory for a madman, and danger for his family, his daughters.

No.

No Caption Provided

So he dug deep. Not into the spirit or strength of character of heroes - but the astonishing technologies of his battlesuit. The quantum-mechanical thrum that drew energy from the foam where quantum fluctuations sing and virtual particles pop in and out of reality. And it energized him, magnified his power as his grip turned to titanium and his knees refused to bow. And he could call upon the Mind Lavaliere once more. To smite the titan's mind with an almighty psychic hammer for every thought he dared think. Yet the titan, a herald of greed and a prisoner of lust, sought to grapple. Here, Thee Champion'd deny him. For when the titan stretched his arms, Alexis'd pivot, the continents'd shift and crack, and an elbow scram to his exposed skull like an extinction event. Again and again, the elbows'd come, threatening to shatter his skull like a dead world before speeding hooks raced over the top.

He'd offer him no space to do anything but that which grapplers often did at the glimpse of elbows and hooks; duck under. Yet he would find neither safety nor solace, but an uppercut fueled by the hopes and spirit of his daughters, a father's undying will to protect them, and the might of a quaking star - to blast him out the planet and the star system beyond. And had doing so earned him a nanosecond, he'd channel the gem of reality - and strip the titan of his psionics and speed. His only act of mercy? Allowing him the strength he'd yet to learn the titan stole from him. If successful, Thee Champion'd climb the Ynerax's sky - and leave.

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Tarvok's eyes narrowed through his own blood. A sheet of it swallowed his eyesight, but did not pierce further into his skull or brain. He could see Thee Champion within the prison his mind staged for him.

The Titan could sense something within his rival, the endless power within him starting to fade if only for an instant. His grip weakened, and Tarvok's advanced. He could catch a glimpse of the power that awaited him, the Mind and Reality Lavalieres shimmering just beyond the prisons of flesh Thee Champion contained them within. The Titan barely even grazed their surfaces...

And then their isolation cells of flesh turned into multi-riveted steel - no, cages of material far in excess of their previous capacity for violence and strength! Tarvok's own hands were shredded by the sudden burst of activity, ripped down to the bone, and he could not pull away. Why would he try to? Because of the pain? Because he thought he had the stones within his grasp already?

He could not process any of it in that bleak instant of defeat, wherein the Mind Lavaliere flared to life once again and assailed his living consciousness with the full weight of what-was, something he could no longer find a way beyond. The universe collapsed around him, strangling his every thought down back inside of his head, constricting the pathways out and twisting the points where he thought he was safe - but no thought managed to get near those exits, or managed to exist around those points of origin. His brain worked against him, turned by the cosmic lifelines of the hand who wielded the omnipotent Lavalieres.

The Titan wailed in anguish, his path to godhood shaken and his resolve turned to ash. The very instant the Mind Lavaliere had a way inside, beyond the defensive capabilities of the Reality stone, it attacked without mercy, spurned on by the bonds Thee Champion created. Family? Friends? Tarvok did not know. He could not know, not now. Not when the omnipresent psychic overload churned every capillary in his head and wrenched everything inside to oblivion. His screams dulled into abrasive silence. He did not die, but the mercies of Thee Champion were neither tender nor swift.

Physical blows ran in tandem with the psychic onslaught, ramming into his open forehead wound with all the subtlety of a continent-sized asteroid. One, after another, after another. Tarvok managed a half-guard, still reeling from the enormity of the mental storm he survived - or was allowed to endure, more than likely - but this worked straight into his rival's plans. Tarvok was barely conscious as-was, and his attempts to defend himself were instinctual rather than practiced. His analytical mind had not awakened again until the uppercut came.

His teeth clacked together mercilessly. Ynerax itself shuddered from the sound of bone on enamel, and Tarvok disappeared head-over-heels into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and then: beyond.

At first he didn't try to return. He knew he had been soundly defeated, though the toll he inflicted on Thee Champion was perhaps more interesting in the long run. For the moment he rested on the knowledge that the Lavalieres were at least safe somewhere, with someone who could understand the extent of their power more fully than possibly even the Titan. He reached for Ynerax, but found that his mind was still swimming in the widening gap between himself and his psionics. His psychic might was leaving him. He could not go anywhere, not like this. Merely wait for the gentle flow of Ynerax's gravitational field to pull him closer again.

He sighed inwardly, and rested.

"My name is Tarvok Enurum. May we meet again, Champion."

He smiled, knowing his message would come to the Earth-made hero regardless of distance.